Year-round funding for Newmarket homeless shelter rejected by York council

Newmarketoday.ca
December 17, 2021

York regional council today rejected a bid by Newmarket’s mayor to get year-round funding for the Inn From the Cold homeless shelter.

Newmarket Mayor John Taylor moved Dec. 16 to allocate an additional $983,093 in the 2022 budget annually to the Newmarket-based homeless shelter provider, which would have led to an additional 0.08 per cent regional tax increase.

Instead, council moved by an 11-8 vote to defer the motion for staff to report on next year, keeping it out of the 2022 budget.

Taylor said it is an issue he has pressed for several years and that the homeless need more services year-round instead of only during winter.

“The growing issue around people living on the street, or people experiencing homelessness and COVID, and mental health, I think this is an investment we need to make,” he said.

Inn From the Cold is preparing to expand its facilities with new transitional housing development in partnership with the municipality. The non-profit provides several services, including a seasonal shelter that opens in November, but that shelter is only available during the winter.

Council members argued the request needed to be introduced sooner during the budgeting process. Taylor raised the proposal during a committee of the whole budget session Dec. 2.

“By voting against it, it would indicate we don’t support the idea, and that could not be further from the truth,” Vaughan Regional Councillor Gino Rosati said. “This is not the time to do it.”

“It’s not an issue of whether you support the groups,” Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua said. “It’s whether or not we’re going to follow the process and be professional.”

Taylor expressed frustration and said he had also tried to raise the idea with regional staff earlier in the year.

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, who moved to defer, said it was unusual that the council had not heard directly from Inn From the Cold on the matter.

“We need to understand how we approach the funding,” he said. “Bring us back a report next year, and I think we are owed that.”

But with the resolution carried, Taylor said there is some good in it.

“What I’ve heard (is) this has been deferred but referred to the next budget process,” he said. “It will get full consideration. I’ll take that as a positive, I guess.”