Budget to fund and re-orient federal homelessness strategy; new focus on housing

OTTAWA – The Canadian Press has learned that the federal budget will renew funding for homelessness, and likely set it in a new direction.

Current funding for the Homelessness Partnering Strategy is $134.8 million a year, but it is set to expire in 2014 — causing much angst to those who deliver the program since the population is so vulnerable.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is set to extend that funding beyond 2014, but also likely to set the funding on a new path: an emphasis on “housing first.”

It’s a relatively new approach to helping homeless people that has saved governments money and had strong results for precarious populations.

Governments focus on housing the homeless first and foremost — no questions asked — and then bombard the residents with all the social support they need to maintain their household.