Bruce County will receive over $2.4 million in funding from upper levels of government this year to help address housing affordability and homelessness.
In a report to council this week, Director of Human Services Ian Hanney said their annual allocation from the Homelessness Prevention Program remained consistent at $1.53 million.
Bruce County says those funds are used for community outreach, emergency shelter solutions, housing assistance, supportive housing, and program administration.
There was a slight increase in funding from the Canada Ontario Community Housing Investment (COCHI) Plan at over $715,000 and the Ontario Priority Housing Investment (OPHI) Plan at $207,000. However Hanney noted the combined funding from those two avenues will shrink by around $69,000 next year.
The County will direct those funds toward repairs, housing support services and rent supplements.
Warden Luke Charbonneau said they'd like to see the province open up more funding opportunities for tackling homelessness in rural Ontario.
"Those upper levels need to come forward with more resources, whatever those resources look like," he said. "We don't have a HART (Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment) Hub in Bruce County, a lot of these things we don't have and don't seem to be slated to get. Our funding is frozen year-over-year and as we saw at a recent meeting, nights of shelter that we've been providing, there's been massive increases in demand for the program and no related increase in support for us to provide the services that our population needs."
In addition to those funds, the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit will provide $152,000 to help an estimated 20 households achieve stable, long-term housing.
