LETTER (S-CAP): To the members of Council re the discussion of the question of CHPI funding for 2014

October 21, 2013.

Dear Mayor, City Councillors and Members of the Community Services Committee:

The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) learned only on Friday that the Community Services Committee would discuss the question of CHPI funding for 2014 tonight (Oct. 21st). The report is prepared by Gail Spencer, and is titled “Request for Decision Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI) Program.” Even though we had been informed that we would be kept up to date on the results of the so-called ‘consultation’ with social agencies on criteria for CHPI funding, and had requested updates from City staff on a number of occasions, this is the first we had heard of this report and recommendation. We strongly urge members of the Community Services Committee to postpone this item on the agenda until the matter can also be addressed at the City Finance and Administration Committee which decided at its meeting on Sept. 17th to include the matter of CHPI funding in the City budget deliberations through moving it into Appendix A and until the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) is given the opportunity to address you on this matter. We urge you to postpone this discussion, or to vote against this recommendation if it goes forward, for the following reasons: 

1). While it is useful that the City is going to send another letter to the Liberal provincial government asking for the restoration of the vital Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) this, in and of itself, will not bring about this restoration. More promising in this regard are community based struggles across the province demanding this including here in Sudbury. But so far we have seen no indication that the Liberal government will restore the CSUMB. In this situation the recommendation from City Staff that there be no more City funding allocated to CHPI funding means that there will be major cuts in what is available to people in 2014. The results of the sham City ‘consultation” with some social agencies is being used to develop criteria for how to cut back on these funds. At times the report deceives you by referring to this as a “community consultation” or a “community partner consultation,” when it was only a process of ‘consultation’ with some social agencies, many of whom are dependent on City funding. And the survey sent to some social agencies was clearly designed to develop criteria for cutting back on funding for people living in poverty. Those most directly affected – people living in poverty – were never consulted! The only group that made its perspective known to the City that includes people living in poverty as members – The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) – made it very clear that the only position that will meet people’s needs was to maintain CSUMB policies and rates for CHPI funding and this position is not even mentioned in the City staff report. There has been no community consultation on this question since the people most affected – people living in poverty themselves – were never consulted. No decision should be taken on this until people living in poverty are actually consulted. S-CAP is demanding the right to speak to you on this important matter.

2). Given the current abdication of the Liberal provincial government in meeting the community start-up needs of people living in poverty it is now the responsibility of the City of Sudbury to provide the needed supports for people living in poverty. This is the social responsibility of the City. If the City does not maintain the principle that CHPI funding must include the same policies and rates as the former CSUMB funding it means it is not only not meeting the needs of people living in poverty it is also participating in producing a patchwork of different programs across the province which mean what you get depends on where you live. The universality of this program is destroyed. Should people in Sudbury get less than in other places across the province?

3). The criteria that is proposed in the report and recommendation in no way maintain the policies and rates of CSUMB for CHPI funding. Two areas of funding – ‘emergency shelter funding’ and ‘homelessness prevention’ (which are both crucial and need to be expanded)  are elevated above others and a criteria for not funding people’s other community start up needs are clearly laid out. The CSUMB was a broader mandatory program that allowed people living in poverty to prevent becoming homeless, to flee violent and abusive circumstances, to move to improve their situations and to purchase what was needed to set up their homes. This recommendation destroys the principle that CSUMB rates and policies must be maintained for CHPI funding. When CHPI funding runs out in 2014 these criteria will be used to make sure that people’s needs are not being met and that only some needs get met. This could even mean that a woman and children who are fleeing a violent and abusive situation could be turned down for CHPI funding if the funding has run out. This situation is unacceptable!

4). If this recommendation is passed it makes a mockery of the City’s consultation process on its budgetary decisions. Last June 18, S-CAP made a deputation to the City Budget hearings for 2014 pointing out why CSUMB policies and rates were needed for CHPI funding. At the meeting of the Finance and Administration Committee on Sept. 17th it was decided to move the question of CHPI funding into Appendix A which means that more City funding for CHPI funding is to be discussed. This discussion has not taken place and this recommendation to the Community Services Committee would prevent this discussion from taking place and would violate the decision made by the Finance and Administration Committee on Sept. 17th. 

There are major problems with what is being recommended by City Staff to the Community Services Committee and this will hurt people living in poverty in Sudbury.

The needs and concerns of people living in poverty in Sudbury must be taken into account.

Yours sincerely,

 

Gary Kinsman, for the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty. 

 

Recommendation

WHEREAS the City of Greater Sudbury receives funding from the

Provincial government under the Community Homelessness Prevention

Initiative (CHPI) to provide support for persons who are homeless or at risk

of homelessness, and;

WHEREAS a community partner consultation was held to identify priorities

for use of the CHPI funding;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of Greater Sudbury

endorse the priorities for CHPI funding as determined through the

community partner consultation in accordance with the funding guidelines,

and;

THAT the City of Greater Sudbury direct staff to allocate funding received

from Municipal, Provincial and Federal Governments based on the priorities

determined and develop programs that meet the program guidelines and

requirements, and;

THAT the City of Greater Sudbury resubmit the resolution #CC2012-394

passed on December 11, 2012 to Provincial Government requesting that

the Ontario Provincial Government maintain the 2012 level of funding for

homelessness programs and benefits and retain the Community Start Up

and Maintenance Benefit with these changes reflected in the new CHPI funding allocation.