Ontario pledges $100M to combat homelessness

Funding announced by Housing Minister Chris Ballard slated for housing supports, addiction services, skills training with large portion aimed at helping indigenous people.

Thestar.com
March 9, 2017
By Emily Mathieu

Gary Mattinas can’t go home, but for now he is content to focus on his health and work towards building a better life at Na-Me-Res.

“I want to stay in Toronto. I have got no choice,” said Mattinas, originally from outside Hearst, Ont. “I need to stay in a city where there is dialysis for me.”

Na-Me-Res is a multi-service agency for First Nations, Inuit and Metis men and Mattinas, 29, is one of 25 men living in a transitional housing building it operates on Vaughan Rd.

It means he has a clean, safe place to live and can get access to counselling and job training programs and help for kidney issues that require dialysis three days a week.

The types of programs Mattinas is using will soon get a significant boost, through $100 million in annual funding the province committed to on Thursday for supportive housing programs, starting in 2019.

The money is meant for counselling, addiction and mental health services and life skills programs and is open to all agencies involved in helping people find and keep housing across the province.

Mattinas has been coming to Na-Me-Res on and off for more than six years.

“They never said no to me when I came through the door. They provided me with a bed, clean sheets and, best of all, food,” said Mattinas. “They do all these programs, programs that help me a lot,” including training to help him find work, he said.

Ontario agencies will soon receive details about the new selection and application process for the new funding as well as how to apply for another $100 million already in place. The plan is to start rolling out that existing funding in the coming months and over the next two years.

One-fifth of the $100 million annual commitment announced Thursday will be for indigenous people and the province is also providing $20 million in new funding just for indigenous services, to be rolled out over the next two years. The province said they are partnering and consulting with agencies involved in providing indigenous housing supports to ensure the money is delivered in the best and most appropriate way.

“The goal is to have indigenous organizations, housing organizations that really understand the needs of their communities and can provide accommodation ... in a physical environment and a cultural environment and a spiritual environment, that meets the needs of their indigenous clients,” said Ontario Housing Minister Chris Ballard.

Mattinas, a member of the Constance Lake First Nation, first came to Toronto in 2010. “I came here to change my life, to change the ways, what I was doing. I was hoping to get a house, get a place, get a job, get sober, clean,” he said.

Finding work in construction was easy and so was finding drugs and alcohol, he said. He learned about Na-Me-Res shortly after he arrived and the agency has always been there for him, through all the ups and downs, he said.

Life in Toronto was not what he hoped and his addictions resulted in him being sent to jail. It was the birth of his first nephew, while he was behind bars that pushed him to seek a different life. He got his Grade 12 diploma and after his release, he bought a ticket to come to Toronto, and Na-Me-Res.

“Back home was a place where I didn’t want to be, I quickly found I was getting back in my old ways,” he said.

The bright and airy building where he now lives is set up with bachelor type units. Meals are provided and there is communal outdoor and indoor space.

Just down the street is Na-Me-Res’s 71-bed emergency shelter. Both facilities are full, as are the 22 units of affordable housing the agency runs for its clients, in Parkdale.

Na-Me-Res executive director Steve Teekens said any money set aside for Toronto services must be administered by indigenous agencies within the city.

“Indigenous people are over-represented among homeless populations in every major city in this country,” and people in Toronto have unique needs, he said.

“For our native people who have negative experiences with residential schools or the child welfare system, they didn’t really have the opportunity to learn life skills that would help them keep a place, or financial literacy to manage their finances well.”

At Na-Me-Res, Mattinas plans to work towards a job, perhaps as a counsellor. He wants to fly home to see his two tiny nephews, but money is an issue. So is finding a local facility to provide dialysis.

He knows staying in Toronto will be a challenge.

“There are some places that are out there that are nice. If you are rich, if you’ve got money then you could find a good place,” but if you rely on disability payments or social support you have no chance, said Mattinas.

“No chance at all.”