The city of Brantford, Ont., is getting a little more than $1.9 million in provincial funding to expand and improve its emergency shelter system during the coronavirus pandemic.
Brantford-Brant MPP Will Bouma made the announcement via Zoom on Tuesday morning, saying that the funding is the full amount that was requested by the city and the county of Brant.
The money will go toward keeping a temporary isolation shelter open until next spring, as well as upgrading emergency shelters and ensuring they’re equipped to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
That includes capital upgrades to existing facilities like Nova Vita, the Youth Resource Centre, and the Salvation Army Booth Centre.
It will also cover the cost of food security partnerships with local agencies like the Brantford food bank and the Salvation Army, and help prevent COVID-19-related evictions through the Brantford Housing Stability Fund.
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Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis said the funding will improve how both the city and the county are able to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading to people who don’t have a place to self-isolate.
“The public health protocols and guidelines regarding social distancing, quarantine, and even hand hygiene … it’s very difficult for individuals who don’t have a home to be able to do that.”
He said they’ve been successful so far in preventing COVID-19 outbreaks from occurring among homeless residents and within the emergency shelter system.
Susan Evenden, director of social assistance and homelessness for both the city of Brantford and Brant county, said that’s due in part to the first round of social services relief funding they received from the province, which included establishing an isolation centre.
“One of the main objectives of that was to ensure that the emergency shelters for adults were able to stay at 75 per cent occupancy or below,” said Evenden.
“We also funded those shelter operators to increase their PPE, to make sure that they’ve had access to any supplies that they needed in order to be in compliance.”
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The latest shelter occupancy numbers from the city of Brantford show that there are 66 people in shelters at this time.
Between May and September, the number of people using shelters each month increased from 49 to 73, respectively.
A point-in-time survey from 2018 estimated that a minimum of 186 people in Brantford and Brant County are experiencing homelessness on any given night.
That includes people who may not be in the shelter system and may be couch surfing, sleeping in public spaces, or living in a vehicle or other location.
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Evenden said this latest round of funding from the province will allow them to keep as many people as possible off the streets during the coldest nights of the year while also ensuring they’re not at risk of being exposed to COVID-19.
“From the perspective of ensuring that individuals have the option to access shelter and feel comfortable accessing that shelter, we certainly utilized the funding and we will utilize the next round of funding going forward to make sure that people know that all of the safety precautions are in place for them.”