Housing and Homelessness

I have spent the last several days digging deeply into Ontario's housing, homelessness, ODSP and Ontario Works systems because once again, City Council will be voting Monday on a winter shelter strategy.

The options being presented are:

That is not a housing strategy. That is reactive crisis management.

Every single year, we debate emergency shelter spaces. Every year, we debate overflow capacity. Every year, we fund temporary measures. And every year, homelessness continues to rise anyway.

Peterborough's own report says homelessness increased 16% last year. Shelters are overwhelmed. Seniors are becoming homeless. Families are barely hanging on.

At some point, we need to stop repeating the exact same responses and expecting different outcomes.

Yes, municipalities are carrying downloaded responsibilities from provincial and federal governments. That is true. But local leadership still has a responsibility here.

Strong municipal leadership means stepping back, looking at the systems as a whole, identifying what is working, identifying what is missing, and finding ways to fill those gaps creatively and strategically instead of simply saying 'housing is provincial'.

Because many of the systems we already have are actually contributing to instability.

Ontario already has portable housing benefit programs where funding follows the person instead of the housing unit. Other municipalities, including Toronto and Hamilton, are actively using these models within the private rental market.

Peterborough also has rent supplement and housing allowance programs, yet we still largely operate through centralized waitlists while apartments and even full homes sit empty across the city.

Meanwhile, many supports are capped, referral-based, inaccessible, or no longer accepting applications once funding runs out.

So why are we not decentralizing affordable housing supports more aggressively?

Why are we not partnering more directy with:

Why are retirement home beds sitting empty while seniors cycle through hospitals, shelters and homelessness?

Why are we not creating municipal rent guarantee programs to incentivize landlords to participate?

And why are Ontario Works and ODSP policies still penalizing people for pooling resources and stabilizing together during a housing crisis?

Current rules around household income and spousal definitions can reduce benefits when people move in together. That creates systems where people feel pressured to hide relationships, avoid shared housing, or fear losing supports if family members move in to help.

During a housing and affordability crisis, that makes absolutely no sense.

We should be encouraging

Not punishing people for trying to survive together.

This crisis is not just about homelessness. It is about healthcare.

Education.

Mental health.

Poverty.

Public safety.

And community stability.

So if municipalities are serious about strategic housing plans, then the conversation cannot stop at "how many winter shelter beds should we fund and for how long?"

We need to ask:

What barriers are pushing people into crisis?

What policies are making things worse?

What existing servicess could be expanded or bridged together? And what would prevention actually look like?

Because managing homelessness after people fall apart is socially devastating and economically unsustainable.

Find the gaps.

Remove the barriers.

Create systems that keep people housed, stable and connected before they ever reach crisis.

And to everyone running in the next municipal election:

Please stop speaking in vague generalities.

Tell us specifically:

What policies would you change?

What partnerships would you pursue?

What barriers would you remove?

What housing models would you support?

How would your leadership actually reduce homelessness in Peterborough?

Because a new council alone will not fix this.

What we need are elected leaders willing to think bigger, push other levels of government to step up, act creatively, and come forward with real plans for one of the biggest crises Peterborough has faced in decades.