March 30, 2021, at 4:00 PM

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1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

Councillor J. Helmer discloses a pecuniary interest in Item 4.5 of the 6th Report of the Community and Protective Services Committee, having to do with the Capital and Operational Needs of Municipal Golf Courses in London, by indicating that his father is employed by the National Golf Course Owners Association.

2.   Consent

2.1   1st Report of the Childcare Advisory Committee

2021-02-22 CCAC Report

Moved by A. Kayabaga

Seconded by S. Lewis

That it BE NOTED that the 1st Report of the Childcare Advisory Committee, from the meeting held on February 22, 2021, was received.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

2.2   1st Report of the Community Safety and Crime Prevention Advisory Committee

2021-02-25 CSCP Report

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by A. Kayabaga

That it BE NOTED that the 1st Report of the Community Safety and Crime Prevention Advisory Committee, from its meeting held on February 25, 2021, was received.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

2.3   Homeless Prevention COVID-19 Response April to June Extension - Single Source Procurement (#SS21-15)

2021-03-30 SR Homeless Prevention COVID 19 Response April to June Extension

Moved by A. Kayabaga

Seconded by S. Lewis

That, on the recommendation of the Acting Managing Director of Housing, Social Services and Dearness Home, with the concurrence of the Director, Financial Services, that the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated March 30, 2021 related to the Homeless Prevention COVID-19 Response April to June Extension Single Source Procurement SS21-15:

a)     single source procurements BE APPROVED, with existing agreements, with various hotels and motels within the City of London at a total estimated cost of $685,000 (excluding HST) for a period between April 15, 2021 to June 30, 2021, with two (2) one (1) month options to extend, subject to funding, in accordance with section 14.4d) of the Procurement of Goods and Services Policy;

b)     single source procurements with Impact London, Canadian Mental Health Association Elgin-Middlesex, Atlohsa Family Healing Services, and Mission Services of London BE APPROVED for isolation space, monitoring space and social distancing space staffing support with a total estimated cost of $550,000 for a period between April 15, 2021 to June 30, 2021, with two (2) one (1) month options to extend, subject to funding, in accordance with section 14.4e) of the Procurement of Goods and Services Policy;

c)     single source procurement BE APPROVED for The Salvation Army to provide meals to various hotels and motels within the City of London with a total estimated cost of $82,500 for the period between April 15, 2021 to June 30, 2021, with two (2) one (1) month options to extend, subject to funding, in accordance with section 14.4 e) of the Procurement of Goods and Service Policy; and,

d)     the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to take all necessary steps to allocate funding to extend the Homeless Prevention COVID-19 Response by continuing to fund the operation of the isolation Space, monitoring Space and social distancing space, and continuing staffing support by Impact London, Canadian Mental Health Association Elgin-Middlesex, Atlohsa Family Healing Services, and Mission Services of London until June 30, 2021. (2021-S08/S14)

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

2.4   Proposed Implementation of the Giwetashkad Indigenous Homelessness Strategic Plan

2021-03-30 SR Proposed Implementation of the Giwetashkad Indigenous Homelessness Strategic Plan - Part 1

2021-03-30 SR Proposed Implementation of the Giwetashkad Indigenous Homelessness Strategic Plan - Part 2

Moved by A. Kayabaga

Seconded by S. Lewis

That, on the recommendation of the Acting Managing Director, Housing, Social Services and Dearness Home, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated March 30, 2021, related to the Proposed Implementation of the Giwetashkad Indigenous Homelessness Strategic Plan:

a)     the proposed Giwetashkad Indigenous Homelessness Strategic Plan, as appended to the above-noted staff report, BE ENDORSED and BE APPROVED for implementation, in principle;

b)     the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary to seek sources of funding from federal and provincial funding Partners to support the implementation of the Giwetashkad Indigenous Homelessness Strategic Plan, including supporting the City of London in accessing new funding by becoming a designated Indigenous Community Entity for Indigenous homelessness under the Reaching Home federal funding program;

c)     the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary to return to the appropriate standing committee with a financial plan for any available municipal funding to support the Giwetashkad Indigenous Homelessness Strategic Plan; and,

d)     the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary to fulfill the submitted business case, including supporting Atlohsa Family Healing Services in acquiring an appropriate location for an Indigenous Housing Hub, with the advice and support of Realty Services. (2021-S14)

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

2.5   Single Source SS21-12 - Architect to act as Prime Consultant for Dearness Home Auditorium Expansion

2021-03-30 SR SS21-12 - Architect - Deaness Home Auditorium Expansion

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by E. Holder

That, on the recommendation of the Acting Managing Director, Housing, Social Services and Dearness Home, and the Managing Director, Corporate Services and City Treasurer, Chief Financial Officer, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated March 30, 2021 related to Single Source SS21-12 for an Architect to Act as Prime Consultant for the Dearness Home Auditorium Expansion:

a)     the fee proposal submitted by MMMC Architects, 127 Brant Ave. Brantford, ON, N3T 3H5, for the provision of Consulting Services for the Dearness Home Auditorium Expansion in the amount of $211,000 (excluding HST), in accordance with Section 14.4 (d) of the Procurement of Goods and Services Policy BE ACCEPTED;

b)     the financing for this project BE APPROVED as set out in the Sources of Financing Report, as appended to the above-noted staff report;

c)     the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary in connection with this project;

d)    the approvals given, herein, BE CONDITIONAL upon the Corporation entering into a formal contract with the consultant for the work; and,

e)    the Mayor and the City Clerk BE AUTHORIZED to execute any contract, statement of work or other documents, if required, to give effect to these recommendations. (2021-S02)

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

2.6   Application to UNESCO for London to be Designated a “UNESCO City of Music”

2021-03-30 SR Application to UNESCO for London to be a UNESCO City of Music

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by S. Hillier

That, on the recommendation of the Managing Director, Parks and Recreation, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated March 30, 2021 related to an Application to UNESCO for London to be designated a “UNESCO City of Music”:

a)     the above-noted initiative BE APPROVED;

b)     the Mayor BE DIRECTED to provide the required letter of formal introduction and support of the application, on behalf of the Municipal Council; and,

c)     the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to undertake the application process with respect to this matter. (2021-R08/M18)

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

2.7   Film Update - Moving Forward

2021-03-30 SR Film Update - Moving Forward

Moved by S. Hillier

Seconded by E. Holder

That, on the recommendation of the Managing Director, Parks and Recreation, the proposed by-law, as appended to the staff report dated March 30, 2021, BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting to be held on April 13, 2021 to:

a)     authorize and approve the Amending Agreement to the 2020 Purchase of Service Agreement, as appended to the above-noted by-law, entered into between The Corporation of the City of London and the London Economic Development Corporation; and,

b)     authorize the Mayor and the City Clerk to execute the above-noted Amending Agreement. (2021-R08/M18)

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

2.8   Invasive Species Management Update and Funding Plan

2021-03-30 SR Invasive Species Management Update and Funding Plan

2021-03-30 SR Invasive Species Management Update and Funding Plan - SoF

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by S. Hillier

That, on the recommendation of the Managing Director, Parks and Recreation the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated March 30, 2021 related to an Invasive Species Management Update and Funding Plan:

a)     the above-noted staff report BE RECEIVED;

b)     the financing for the continuation of the invasive species management program in 2021 BE APPROVED as set out in the Sources of Financing Report, as appended to the above-noted staff report; and,

c)     the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to bring forward a budget amendment case during the 2022 Annual Budget Update to establish funding from 2022 to 2024 for the further continuation of the invasive species management program;

it being noted that a communication, dated March 25, 2021, from S. Levin, Nature London, with respect to this matter, was received. (2021-E18)

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

3.   Scheduled Items

3.1   London’s Housing First Emergency Youth Shelter

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by E. Holder

That the verbal delegation from T. Gillis, S. Cordes and M. Doucet, Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), with respect to an update on the funding awarded to YOU in 2017 and the Housing First Emergency Youth Shelter, BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

4.   Items for Direction

4.1   Update on Housing Issues from Mission Services of London - P. Rozeluk, Mission Services of London - REQUEST FOR DELEGATION STATUS

2021-03-30 Sub. Mission Services - Request for delegation status - P. Rozeluk - Part 1

2021-03-30 Sub. Mission Services - Request for delegation status - P. Rozeluk - Part 2

That the following actions be taken with respect to a request for delegation status from P. Rozeluk, Mission Services of London, related to an update on housing issues:

a)     the above-noted request for delegation BE APPROVED; and,

b)     the verbal delegation, the communication dated February 25, 2021, and the presentation, as appended to the Agenda, from P. Rozeluk, BE RECEIVED. (2021-S14)

Motion Passed

Voting Record:

Moved by S. Hillier

Seconded by S. Lewis

Motion to approve the delegation request from P. Rozeluk, Mission Services of London.

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by E. Holder

Motion to approve the remainder of the clause.

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

4.2   2nd Report of the Accessibility Advisory Committee

2021-02-25 ACCAC Report

Moved by S. Hillier

Seconded by S. Lewis

That the following actions be taken with respect to the 2nd Report of the Accessibility Advisory Committee, from its meeting held on February 25, 2021:

a)     the Civic Administration BE REQUESTED to undertake a review of City of London planning related documents and by-laws, in particular the City’s Zoning By-law, to ensure that terminology used in the documents is reflective of current language and terminology related to accessibility; and,

b)     clauses 1.1, 3.1 to 3.6 and 5.1, BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

4.3   2nd Report of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee

2021-03-04 AWAC Report - Full

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by E. Holder

That the following actions be taken with respect to the 2nd Report of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, from its meeting held on March 4, 2021:

a)     the revised attached “Recommendation to promote the Trap, Spay, Neuter and Release Program” BE FORWARDED to the Civic Administration for implementation or action, where appropriate; and,

b)     clauses 1.1 and 3.1, BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

4.4   Mayor E. Holder - Affordable Housing Units in London

2021-03-30 Sub. Affordable Housing Units - Mayor Holder

Moved by E. Holder

Seconded by S. Lewis

That the following actions be taken with respect to the creation of affordable housing units in London:

a)     the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to expedite the development of needed 3,000 affordable housing units as set out in “Housing Stability Action Plan” (HSAP) to be in place in five years, instead of ten years as set out in the Plan; and,

b)     the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to report back to a future meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee with an implementation plan, inclusive of financial impacts, that sets out the best supports for the development of affordable housing units;

it being noted that a communication from Mayor E. Holder, with respect to this matter, was received. (2021-S14)

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

4.5   Councillor M. van Holst - Capital and Operational Needs of Municipal Golf Courses in London

2021-03-30 Sub. Municipal Golf Courses - M. van Holst

Moved by A. Kayabaga

Seconded by E. Holder

That the communication from Councillor M. van Holst, as appended to the agenda, with respect to the capital and operational needs of municipal golf courses in London, BE RECEIVED. (2021-R05D)

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

5.1   Deferred Matters List

CPSC DEFERRED MATTERS as at March 22, 2021

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by A. Kayabaga

That the Deferred Matters List for the Community and Protective Services Committee, as at March 22, 2021, BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

7.   Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 5:23 PM.

Full Transcript

Transcript provided by Lillian Skinner’s London Council Archive. Note: This is an automated speech-to-text transcript and may contain errors. Speaker names are not identified.

View full transcript (1 hour, 44 minutes)

Okay, I’m gonna call the sixth meeting of Community and Protective Services Committee to order. This is a virtual meeting held during the COVID-19 emergency. Please check the city website for current details about COVID-19 service impacts. As you know, we just recently moved back into red control.

The city of London is committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for council standing or advisory committee meetings and information upon request. To make a city or make a request for any city service, please contact accessibility@london.ca or 519-661-2489, extension 2425. To make a request specific to this meeting, please contact CPSC@london.ca. Let’s start by looking for disclosures of community interest from colleagues.

Not, I’m gonna declare one on item 4.5, the communication from Councilor Van Holst as it relates to the essentially the operating capital budgets for the golf courses and my father is employed by the National Golf Course Owners Association. So I have keen our interest on matters affecting our membership fees to that association. So Councilor Hillier, when we get to that point, I’m gonna ask you to take over any other disclosures? Yeah, don’t see any.

It brings us to the consent agenda. We have eight items on there. I’ll just flag that there’s an added item under invasive species management update and funding plan. Communication from Mr.

Levin at Nature London. Any items you’d like to pull from the consent for discussion or debate? Raise your hand on the Zoom, Mr. Kaibaga?

I just wanted to know if we could just go through them separately. Single item, do that, sure. Councilor Van Holst, I imagine that covers whatever it is you wanted to pull. It does, Mr.

Chair. Okay, the first report for the Child Care Advisory Committee. Do I have a mover? Councilor Kaibaga, seconded by Councilor Lewis, discussion, questions on the advisory committee report.

Okay, let’s open it up. Closing the vote, the motion carries, five to zero. Committee safety and committee report. Do I have a mover?

Mr. Lewis, seconded by Councilor Kaibaga. Any discussion, Councilor Kaibaga? Thank you, through you, Mr.

Chair. I just wanted to ask, I know that we had discussed in the past with our neighborhood associations, such as Piccadilly or the Woodfield Association. I wanted to know if this community safety and crime prevention has done any work with the specific neighborhood associations, and if not, if they’re looking to support community to do the safety and crime prevention. There has been a lot of talks in different associations on how to better approach that.

And just knowing what the communities are trying to do, I just want to make sure that they can do it in a very safe manner. I’m wondering if there could be an extension in having those discussions with those community groups. Sure, who from staff would like to answer that, if it’s going to be someone from the clerk’s office, about recent discussions that may have been had, I think outreach directly to the chair of the committee is probably the best way to get a sense of what they’ve been discussing and how they’re engaging neighborhood associations, but does anyone know the answer to Councilor’s question? This is the first report we’ve had from the advisory committee in quite some time, and I don’t see anything on the agenda related to that, so perhaps we can inquire with the chair and get you an answer maybe before Council.

Yes, that would be very useful because currently the community associations are moving to figure out a way to do their own crime preventions, and I just want to make sure that it’s done in a very safe manner. There has been some interesting suggestions that the community wants to undertake, and I think that if we could support that framework to make sure that everybody’s safe, it would be really helpful. Any other discussion on the advisory committee report? Let’s open that up for voting.

Closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. Okay, that brings us to 2.3, which is the homeless person response April to June extension. First, I’ll just look to see if there’s a mover for the recommendation. That’s our kind of second to Councilor Lewis discussion.

I’m so I can just ask staff, do you just give an overview of what’s going on in this recommendation and what the plan is from April to June? I think that’d be helpful for everyone to hear out there in the community. Thank you and through the chair. What you see before you is our plan and our approach to maintain the isolation and monitoring spaces that have proven so very effective and so crucial as part of our COVID response amongst the vulnerable population.

In addition to that, it’s also an attempt to maintain a stock of hotel spaces that are needed to provide physical distancing for some priority medically acceptable populations. What we see playing out this week and last is that COVID is very much still ever present in our community and certainly our vulnerable population is as susceptible as they’ve ever been to the COVID strain as well as any variant. We have benefited from provincial investment on the social services relief funding as well as through some federal contributions that allow us to fully fund this initiative and it does not come at a cost to the municipal budget. So we are recommending that we maintain these spaces for an additional three months and through to the end of June as we continue to evaluate the COVID response in our community and we also anticipate within that window we’re optimistic that there will be a vaccination rollout amongst our vulnerable population as well.

So we feel that this timeframe is appropriate at this time. Thank you very much, Mr. Dickens questions. I see Councillor Lewis, go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. Well, I just want to say I think this is good news and I appreciate the senior levels of government coming through with some funding to help us extend these hotel room availabilities for people who need them. I do have a couple of questions from the community at large and so just through you, Chair, to our staff. I just want to be clear that this is for the hotel room spaces and this is not an extension of the winter interim shelter housing situations that we had at McMahon Park and in the parking lot downtown.

Thank you and through you, Chair, that is correct. This report is to extend our hotel uses again for physical distancing as well as for our monitoring and isolation spaces and just so that committees aware the monitoring and isolation spaces are used. When an individual fails a COVID screening, they will go to the monitoring space while they await testing and await their test results. And the isolation space is used for any individuals that test positive for COVID and have an inability to self-quarantine or isolate for a 14-day period, they would use the isolation space.

So that’s what these hotels are used for. So just a very quick follow up through you, Mr. Chair, to our staff then. Could they just provide us on a very, very quick, high-level update on the winter interim shelter situation so that the public is aware of what’s happening with those two locations as I understand that those are winding down now?

Mr. Dickens. Thank you and through the chair at a very high level. Yes, the work continues to evolve with the Wish Coalition.

They are very involved every day in trying to successfully transition residents that are in the temporary shelters into a housing option. We continue to work across multiple city departments as well around the wind up and transition of the winter response. And what council will actually see come before them. Sorry, what committee will see come before them in April will be our winter response roll up.

It will be a retrospective of the response as it were throughout the winter as well as some confirmed next steps and conclusion to the program. So you will see that come to you to caps in April and it’s too early for us to indicate whether there would be any further requests from council. Any other discussion on this report? I think councilor Kibaga, then councilor Vanholz, go ahead.

Thank you, three, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask just because I think based on the question that councilor Lewis asked, maybe if I could, I probably didn’t hear right, but can we get an update on the winter emergency shelter and where that’s at? Mr.

Dickens, anything to add to what you said in response to council to us? I don’t think so. Other than the work continues to unfold, as I said, to help people find housing or wish coalition has been very active as have other agencies in trying to connect people to our head lease program. We continue to roll that workout day in and day out.

Some participants are more prepared or in a better space or more willing to participate in those programs than others, but the work continues nonetheless. And we are working, like I said, across all city departments on what that wind down process looks like, including restoring the properties to their former state. So we will be reporting back to CAPS in April with more detailed information than any applicable next steps. Thank you.

So I just wanted to make some comments just to thank staff for this report and the work that they’ve been doing towards homeless prevention in the city. It’s a lot of work and we’re very appreciative of the initiatives that you’ve taken and looking forward to seeing the update on the winter shelters and also just continue to support people throughout the pandemic that are in need of housing. So thanks to you, thanks to staff. And thank you also for the report that you were able to share through our community meeting that we posted last week.

Councillor Reynolds. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I have a comment and a couple of questions.

My comment is just really a thank you to staff because I’ve had a chance to see firsthand how committed they are to get people into housing. So thank you for that. The one question for understanding. So there’s people being, we’ve offering hotel rooms to isolate people in the event that they’re tested positive for COVID.

How are those rooms cleaned? How do we deal with, how is that situation dealt with? Dr. Dickens.

Thank you through the chair. I’ll actually pass this one to Mr. Cooper. His team is closer connected to the daily operations of the space.

Go ahead. Thank you, Kevin. And through the chair, happy to answer this question. We actually have a contract with a cleaning company, a professional cleaning company that is focused on COVID cleaning practices.

And then we’ve been using them since early March of 2020 to provide cleaning at both our monitoring space and our isolation locations in addition to the winter response shelters and daytime spaces. Mr. Reynolds. Okay, thank you, a very good answer.

My last inquiry, Mr. Chair, I’ve realized that or I’ve heard that some communities have been using empty commercial space to allow some homeless people to, I guess, tent inside it. And I’m bringing this up because I know that not everyone, we can’t get everyone into a hotel or they may not be willing to do that. And so I wanted to inquire about that possibility.

We’d like to handle that one. Thank you. And through the chair, I’ll start and if I leave any gaps, I’ll, I’m sure my colleague, Mr. Cooper will jump in.

Right now, something like that is not something we’ve clearly brought forward to counsel for any direction. In fact, I would have to speak with our bylaw folks around whether that would even be permissible in the city of London. I do know from our service manager tables that represent service managers across Ontario that some municipalities, very few, have entered into this type of indoor encampment. And that’s essentially what it is.

You’re taking an outdoor encampment, you’re moving it into a commercial space, people can set up tents. Those municipalities have had a varying degree of experiences and success. I would caution that most of the experiences have not been all that helpful. Some have been categorized as a certain degree of lawlessness and maybe that’s by poor design, I’m not sure, but it is not something that we have explored doing here in the city.

There may be some benefits, there would certainly be some risks and it would take a significant amount of planning to look at doing that in addition to finding the most suitable and applicable vacant space to house something like that in. We know when people are permitted to set up space and then encampment, our experience tells us when it’s outdoors that over a period of time, that often doesn’t take very long. Certain behaviors can entrench themselves in those encampments, a certain level of hierarchy can establish itself within those encampments and it becomes very difficult to manage. And often it presents a health and safety concern.

We did experience this in a park this past summer and we did experience it on Bathurst Street and we will permit and support until there’s a health and safety concern. So I will leave it at that. Councillor Anholst. Mr.

Sharon, I’m happy with that response, thank you. Okay, any other discussion on item 2.3? If not, we’re gonna open up the vote. Brings us to 2.4, which is the proposed implementation of the G&S homelessness strategic plan.

There’s a multi-part recommendation there. And again, I think it’s probably helpful we hear from Mr. Dickens briefly, recognizing we’ve read the report that’s in front of us but just at a high level, what’s in the recommendation and then we’ll get into questions and comments. So I’ll look now to see if there’s a mover for the recommendation.

Councillor Karyabegas, seconded by Councillor Lewis. Mr. Dickens, anything you wanna say off the top? Thank you through the chair.

I will again defer to my colleague, Mr. Cooper, to speak about the Givatosh Cod Indigenous homeless strategic plan that’s before you. It does align very closely with the housing stability action plan and aligns very closely with all of the work and support that Mr. Cooper’s team does and works with at Losa.

So I’ll turn it over to him to speak to the report. Go ahead, Mr. Cooper. Thank you, Mr.

Dickens and thank you, Mr. Chair. And through the chair, I can let committee know that this report is coming before you to look to endorse and improve and support the implementation of the Givatosh Cod plan. As we know and our sector and our system has worked with various Indigenous partners, specifically at Losa Family Healing Services on Indigenous-led supports for our Indigenous population, we feel that this report will allow us and give staff authority to continue to do that work.

We recognize that there’s a lot of funding necessary to implement some of these responses and the report will allow us to work with provincial and federal governments to seek sources of funding for the implementation of this plan. We’ll note that it will be an Indigenous-led plan, very specific to our Indigenous population that is our Indigenous homeless population story that is disproportionately represented in our city. We work very closely with at Losa and the Givatosh Cod implementation circle. And we really feel that this report and moving forward with the implementation of this plan is a key priority to working towards ending Indigenous homelessness here in the city of London.

Thank you very much for that. Any questions or discussion about the recommendation or the report? If not, I just want to say, I think it’s excellent that we have this kind of plan coming out of the city of London. I’m really hopeful that the federal government and the province will take on some financial responsibility for executing the plan.

It’s going to take all levels of government for sure to come together and really move this forward. But I think the plan is laid out a way to do that. And I think it’s really great work coming out of the city of London. So excellent, excellent work for everyone who’s been involved in that initiative.

Any final comments? Councillor Kailabak, go ahead. Thank you, through you. Mr.

Chair, I just wanted to thank staff as well for working with at Losa to come up with this plan. And I’m looking forward to seeing how this is going to pan out. And this is a great plan to support the high number of indigenous people who are experiencing homelessness right now. So it’s a good plan and thank you for the support that you’ve given them.

Okay, we’re going to open up the vote. Opposing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. This is London to be designated the UNESCO city of music. You’ll see the recommendation as a couple of different parts.

Sorry, skipped over 2.5. I’m sure Councillor Ploza was wondering what’s going on. That’s my mistake. So this is the single source to hire the architect as the consultant for the Deerness Home Expansion.

As you know, this is something we funded through the budget. It’s an important improvement to Deerness Home. I know Councillor Palazzo is here in her capacity as chair of the Board of Management. So I’m going to go to her, I think, first, and then we’ll see if there’s any need for comments from staff.

Go ahead, Councillor Palazzo. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for recognizing me at your committee and happy with this report before you. There’s a number of Councillors who serve on the Deerness Home Board of Management.

For those of us who have, 2020 seems so long ago, but in Council’s wisdom, we approved this unanimously to do this auditorium expansion. Now through COVID, we’ve discovered what a great resource it would have been to already have this in place. So grateful to see this before us today, recognizing the architects for the sole source recommendation is MMMC, who are actually the architects who built the original Deerness Home that residents are currently in. They’re going to come with the reports, materials, and help to save time and costs as we move forward.

Deerness Home is home to 243 residents. And this idea for an auditorium actually came from the staff. When the staff was asked, if you could do something, like, what would you do? And always exceptional staff in putting residents first.

And this was their idea. So now more than ever, as they’ve been exceptional through COVID-19 with their service and care of the staff, there’s no better way we can keep honoring them by moving this forward through this process with construction to start in early 2022 and to be concluded by mid-2022. So I thank Committee for in advance for their support of this. And as Council as a whole, as we move forward and seeing something to help all the residents at Deerness and the staff be appreciated and have a higher quality of living.

Thank you. I’ll just look to see if there’s a mover for the recommendation. Councilor Lewis, seconded by the Mayor. Okay, any discussion on the recommendation?

Mayor Holder, go ahead. Thanks very much, Chair. I’m delighted to participate in the process of moving this project forward. I think Kevin Dickens and his team and Deerness Home staff are to be commended for this.

This is so important for the residents of Deerness. I’m just, just, just delighted. And I just want to congratulate them and really look forward to having Committee’s support. Okay, I don’t see any other comments.

So we’re going to open that up for a vote. Chair of all things, I’ll be tying in to describe but I’m voting yes. Seeing the vote, the motion carries six to zero. Okay, now 2.6, the application to UNESCO for London to be designated the UNESCO City of Music.

I have a mover for that. Recommendation, Councillor Lewis, seconder, Councillor Hillier. Okay, any discussion on that? Okay, we’re going to open that up for a vote.

Looks like a good idea to me. Chair, I’ll be voting up. I will still be voting. Okay, brings us to 2.7.

This is the film update. A recommendation about how to proceed with building up the film office. You see the recommendation before us in the report. Is there a mover for that recommendation?

Mr. Hillier, seconder, Mayor Holder, okay. Any discussion, questions about it? Councillor Vanhols, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And through you, I’ll also provide my thanks to staff. This direction, I think, is very much supported by the film community.

I think the LEDC will be able to do a great job of this. And because they’ve got so much in place, you might be able to see a little different approach than was suspected if we had it at the city. But looking forward to working with LEDC to bring more film to London. Thank you.

See any other speakers? So we’re gonna open that up for a vote. Building the vote, the motion carries six to zero. 2.8, which is the invasive species management update and funding plan.

You’ll see it as a three-part recommendation coming from Mr. Stafford’s area. Just look to see if there’s a mover. Mr.

Lewis, seconder, Professor Hillier. Okay, any discussion about this? Now we’re gonna open it up for a vote. Building the vote, the motion carries six to zero.

I know there’s another item coming up in 4.1, which is a delegation request. And I just wanna clarify, 3.1, we’ve already approved the delegation request. Mr. Cordes is here, I think, with some colleagues to talk about the youth shelter.

And the second one is gonna be a delegation request from mission services, which we’ll deal with afterwards. And if we decide to grant it at this meeting, I do believe that mission services here to speak at this meeting, if we want that to happen. So I’m gonna go to Mr. Cordes first, and you can take it away with your delegation, try and keep it around five minutes if you can.

Go ahead. Great, good afternoon. Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear. I’m gonna turn it over to our board chair, Terry Gillis.

Thank you very much, Steve. Good afternoon, and thank you very much for having us. In 2017, the council approved YOU as the lead in creating London’s much-needed youth shelter, and council supported that decision with a $1.2 million in capital funding to YOU. And we wanna thank council and staff for your ongoing support of YOU’s initial business plan, and for the staff support that throughout the project has been immensely helpful and incredibly grateful for that.

The YOU Board of Directors has asked staff to request delegation status with you folks today, so that we could get an update to you directly on how the capital funding has been invested into our city’s most marginalized youth. And then to that end, we have staff here to make a presentation. So I think we’re over to Max at this point, Steve, have our order correct. Yep, no, that’s right.

And if we have permission to share screen, Max has the brief PowerPoint, is that good? I’m getting some head shakes from the clerks, unfortunately. And I don’t think I’ve seen the presentation in advance, so that might make it a little bit awkward. But it’s really so that we don’t get zoom-bombed, you know, having people sharing power points and screens inadvertently with things that we don’t want to see.

So is there a way to do the presentation without the PowerPoint? There’s always a way. So yeah, for sure. (laughing) Aziliency is the middle lady to play with you.

Okay, go ahead, Max. Thanks so much. So brief recollection and I’ll turn it over to our shelter manager shortly to get into the details in the project, but at a very high level, Council has supported the capital investments to the shelter at 1.53, it’s pretty million dollars. Part of our work in our business plan with Council was that we would attract additional revenue support sources that would allow the shelter to be developed and built.

So I’m happy to report that in addition to Council’s 1.5 million dollars invested, we’re able to work with Canada Margin Housing Corporation on a grant of 3.01 million dollars. And in addition, we worked with our community donors and partners to raise an additional contribution of 2.5 million dollars from our community donors who have stepped up to help create this shelter. So in total, it was the capital investment of 7 million dollars. City’s investment was 22%, CMHC 42% and community contributions came in at 36%.

Our model of care at NYU and now I’ll turn it over very briefly, why are you put in a business case to deliver shelter services to youth? ‘Cause we thought we could be a bit of a disruptor in the space, meaning that we thought there was an opportunity not only to offer a safe shelter option for people that are experiencing homelessness in our community, youth in our community, but also to more immediately tie them into other service supports, employment, education, training, and permanent housing that NYU has in its wheelhouse. So within the shelter experience, I’ll turn it over to Max shortly. There’s an opportunity for young people that are coming into the shelter to be engaged in NYU’s employment programs that are funded through various levels of government, to be engaged in social enterprise opportunities that NYU delivers.

I know Councilors are very aware of these services and to actually help young people experiencing homelessness and, of course, permanent housing, help young people experiencing homelessness to find a path out of it. So to that extent, for example, there’s a young woman named Cece who landed in the shelter, she came from a small town, landed in London, things didn’t work out, she found herself homeless, a friend referred her to the shelter, she’s in the shelter for a period of a few months. During those few months, we were able to connect her with some permanent housing options, so she now has an apartment. We’re able to connect her with our social enterprise program.

She’s actually now earning a wage while she’s being trained through social enterprise. And she’s also taking time and effort with our employment counseling team to work towards an apprenticeship application that we’re going to be going forward to Fanshawe College for a hairstyling apprenticeship. And there’s a beautiful picture of her in our presentation and hope someday we’ll get a chance to show that to you. I’m gonna turn it over to our shelter manager now, Max Dusette.

Go ahead, Max. And if you can send the presentation deck to the clerks for the meeting, so CPSC at London.ca, we’ll get that folded onto council so everyone can see it. Go ahead, Max. Thanks so much.

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Max Dusette. I’m the U-Shelter Manager for U-S Opportunities Unlimited. And I’m grateful for the opportunity to talk about the great impact the U-Shelter’s having on our community.

To date, the U-Shelter has helped 35 young people secure safe and permanent housing solutions. And we’ve been able to divert 30 young people through our Family Reconnect program. When individual attempts to access shelter, they go through a diversion process, which means that we’ll look for any safe alternative to shelter because we understand that shelter should only be accessed as a last resort. We’re also some unanticipated experiences we’ve had to date.

Since we’ve opened up, we’ve had over 300 youth turned away due to capacity issues. So the demand in our community has been quite high. Four youth have disclosed that they’ve been experiencing pregnancy. We’ve had four near fatal overdoses and two attempted suicides, all of which have been shelter staff that respond to successfully.

We’re pet friendly. I have some great images of some dogs and rabbits that I’d love to show you and you’ll see shortly. But the U-Shelter has provided service to eight dogs, three cats, two hamsters and two rabbits. It’s just an example of the low barrier service that we’re able to provide at the U-Shelter.

And Steve, would you like to talk about the location and building features? Yeah, so very briefly, one of the wishes of council is that we look for a facility that perhaps looked at London as a bigger geography, where it might be the best location for the facility. So we actually found what had been an abandoned property at Clark Road and Culver Street, where the three abandoned homes actually located on that property, 1.6 acres across from the McCormick plant. We acquired that and with that, we built a one floor facility.

That one floor facility has 30 individual bedrooms. It’s approximately 11,000 square feet. It has, it’s an adjacent to a residential neighborhood, but not embedded into the middle of a residential neighborhood. It was already zoned appropriate for a shelter services, but in spite of being zoned appropriately, we still engage in community and neighborhood consultations as we were developing plans for the site and informing our residential and our commercial neighbors about the plans for the facility.

And got some great input from our neighbors, great input from community advisors. And we’re able to build a facility that’s fully accessible is energy efficient. Actually, it’s four out of five green globes, I think they’re called, which is equivalent to a lead platinum designation. We engaged actively consultant on crime prevention through environmental design, septide training.

So it meets a very high level of standard for safety. And in fact, although it was designed prior to the pandemic, it’s actually been incredibly well designed to support youth through COVID with individual rooms, nine foot wide hallways, a large gathering area in the middle for lunches and breakfast and so on, and a courtyard for people to engage in some visits outside, but still be socially distanced. So we’re very proud of the facility and very proud that we’re able to bring this investment into a property that had been into significant neglect prior to that. Back to Max.

We, so the youth shelter was open on August the 17th. We anticipated to only have approximately 10 youth access or service, but we ended up having 17 participants on day one. Additionally, we anticipated not to be full until the colder months, but we actually reached maximum capacity on August the 30th. Today, our occupancy rate is approximately 94% and our average length of stay is 33 days.

We are a housing first shelter. So we’ve adopted the core principles of housing first into our program, one of which is reintegration back in the community. So I have a great picture of some of our participants watching the YU annual breakfast. And this event was sponsored by General Dynamics who purchased all the meals and tickets for the youth to attend the event.

We’ve been fortunate to have great community partners support us, including Fanshawe College, McCormick’s Dr. Upker, as well as various churches and restaurants in the community. Because they see the amazing work that the staff are doing and engaging youth in housing first, trauma informed and harm reduction principles. So all in all, just to summarize where we’re at, in terms of course homelessness for any population, particularly for young people who are experiencing homelessness for the first time, it’s a heavy topic.

It’s a vital topic. I know many of us would describe it as a critical community issue for all of us. We’re really proud to be working with the city staff and with council’s investment on what’s happened to date. It’s certainly got a lot of attention in other communities across our region and even far outside of our region as a model around how shelters might be built and how shelters might be operated.

We’ve had extensive community input from some of our brightest and best homelessness experts in the city, as well as those that are far, far afield, including even folks out in St. John’s, who have a community opportunity there for us to learn from. So altogether, I think it reflects a lot of planning. It reflects a project that was resourced well in its capital investment and built to a standard that even in COVID has resulted in people experiencing homelessness, finding paths out of homelessness and people experiencing homelessness, finding a safe place to be at a time when so many people experiencing homelessness just don’t have that option.

So I wanna thank you, Councillor Helmer and all the Councillors that are today at the meeting and certainly Craig, Kevin and the staff that are also part of what overall is a good news story and a field that lacks good news. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can we have any questions?

Yeah, thank you very much, Mr. Cortez and your team. Thanks for being here. And what I’d like to do first is just have a motion to receive the delegation.

Thank you, seconded by the mayor, okay. And then we’ll get into any discussion if you have questions for Mr. Cortez or Mr. Gillis, the board chair or Max who’s operating the U-shelter that we can get into that now.

Hi, man. Councillor Helmer, whenever you’re ready? Go ahead, Councillor Slee. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. And thank you for the report. I’ll be supporting it. I just wanna say I really do appreciate the fact that they’ve reached out prior to the construction.

Obviously for those who don’t know, it’s been War III and really educated me. And as well, that gave me enough opportunity to speak to you some residents who we were apprehensive in the beginning. It’s really, really drive the fact home that this is an important thing that needs to be done. And I think this is the success that you’ve seen.

So they’ve been able to transform that little part of the ward and I think it’s been positive. And I think I think they’re right when they say this could be a model for other communities and other places. So I wanted to thank you for that. Thank you very much, Councillor Slee.

Any other comments? Councillor Lewis, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And I’m gonna be brief. I just want to thank all the staff at YOU. I have some personal experience with the quality of service that they provide youth. And it makes a tremendous difference in those young people’s lives.

And this just is an opportunity to say thank you for what you’re doing. Thank you, Councillor Lewis. Anyone else? If not, just from the chair, keep up the tremendous work.

I know that it can be very challenging the work that you’re doing. And it’s really appreciated. It’s a crucial need in the community that you’re filling extremely well. So thanks very much for making time to give the presentation and for undertaking the work of building the youth shelter and running it so well in the first place.

Thank you so much, Councillor. We’ve sent the presentation into the email address that you will have it when it’s distributed. Thank you so much. Thank you and sorry for the miscommunication there.

Good adaptation. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay, we’re gonna open up the motion to receive for voting.

Opposing the vote, the motion carries six to zero. Items for direction. So we have the delegation request from Mr. Rosalock at Mission Services of London.

I’d like to deal with that first. He is here if we wanna hear the delegation right now. Is there a mover to approve the delegation request? Councillor Hillier, seconded by Councillor Lewis.

Any discussion about the delegation request? Go ahead, Mayor. I was jumping into first or second. I look forward to hearing it.

Okay, let’s get that open for voting then. Opposing the vote, the motion carries six to zero. Okay, I believe Mr. Rosalock is in committee room number five.

So I’ll go ahead there. You’ve got five minutes ballpark. We went a little bit longer with the youth opportunities in London, so if you go a bit over, that’s okay. I’ve timed it, so it won’t be that much over.

So through the chair, thank you for having me here today to report on a couple of Mission Services of London’s programs and to make some funding observations. In 2014, Mission Services received federal funding through the City for a research project to determine whether early intervention could prevent family homelessness. Pilot program began at Roth home family shelter to assess effectiveness of early intervention in the form of shelter diversion, which helps families prevent the need to stay in emergency shelter. Of those families who participated in diversion starting during the pilot, only 3% needed to access shelter.

For those that were diverted, 90% of those families were known to be still housed at an 18 month follow up. Those excellent findings resulted in the development of a program called Prevention of Homelessness Among Families, or P-HAF at Roth home. And today P-HAF is comprised of three components, shelter diversion, housing selection, and housing stability. In 2020, 46 families accessing P-HAF successfully secured housing, representing 179 individuals.

And currently our housing stability team is supporting 26 families in the community, helping them maintain their housing and avoid shelter dependency in the future. So my first thank you really is to the City of London for providing access to the funding that made this pilot possible, and which led to the development of very successful program. In 2018, one of Mission Services’ strategic directions concerned housing, and one specific objective was to engage in a head lease program and a pilot project to lease a house from the city to then sublease to a family served at Roth home. We signed a head lease for our first house on a BRT route in June of 2018, and today we are now leasing eight houses.

All told, nine families have benefited from this program with one family moving on to rent gear to income housing and a second moving shortly. So my second thank you is to the City for partnering with us to directly reduce homelessness for families. Not only will the City celebrate better transit in the future, but along the way, you have changed the world for these families. And lastly, I just wanna discuss some observations and funding.

So the 2021-2022 Chippy Funding Allocation to Mission Services represents a 30% reduction to men’s mission and a reduction to Roth home of 50% compared to previous years. So speaking as an advocate for men’s mission in Roth home, this reduction is potentially extremely destabilizing. I can only speak for Mission Services and for the time that I’ve been there. So the first thing I note is that in the past decade, the city has never funded the entire cost of shelter operations.

And that is why we, and presumably all of shelters, the first glance it seems as though the funding cuts may be directly related to a reduction in the amount of beds we can offer due to physical distancing. Beds may be one way of determining service and therefore funding, but I suggest it’s not necessarily the best way nor the only way to determine service. Most expenses are not directly related to the number of beds provided and reducing beds doesn’t necessarily reduce other costs. So an example, you’ve got four beds in a room, you remove one bed for physical distancing, you’ve reduced beds capacity by 25%, but staffing and electricity and heat and cleaning costs are not reduced by 25%.

And furthermore, while beds may have decreased, the outcomes of services provided in 2020 are only slightly below that of 2019. You can see from the information that provided that there was a reduction of 10% in the number of men that were housed in 2020 compared to the prior year and a reduction of 25% for families. And interestingly, we responded to more opioid overdoses in 2020 than in 2019, but the funding cuts are aligned with the number of beds available. And finally, an observation regarding the temporary winter response funding, that response was absolutely needed in this city, but as best as I can determine from publicly available information, the city’s budgeted operational costs related to the temporary shelter beds on an annualized basis and adjusted through 76 beds for comparison would be about 2.4 million compared to their proposed annual Chippy funding of 1.3 for men’s mission.

Regarding staffing, our desired service, our direct service to care ratios or ratios during the pandemic is about one to 12, which is an improvement over pre-pandemic ratios. But that said, we continue really to underperform and be understaffed when compared to staff client ratio targets of one to five. So really the point of these comments is to acknowledge that the homelessness sector is underfunded for the services our community expects, ‘cause there’s not really enough money in the system. And so while I understand that reality, I just wanted to share those observations with you for consideration in future decision making.

The RFP process to be undertaken this year really comes at a very good time. These are gonna be difficult decisions for this committee to make and for council and I certainly don’t envy you in that. My request is that decisions are internally consistent, that the evidence based, they’re aligned with council’s housing stability plan and that the implications and ramifications are understood. So losing 30% or 50% of funding of a program, that’s a big deal.

So Mission Services has been a partner with the city for 70 years, partnership that brings together know-how, resources and joint solutions. And to meet the needs and challenges of this coming year, we clearly have to look to the community to fill that gap in funding. We fully expect to participate in the RFP process. We fully expect to continue to work with the city, with Craig and with Kevin Dixon and their team.

And perhaps we should be honored that the city has confidence in us and able to be able to achieve what we need to do this year. And we just hope that we’re up to the challenge. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr.

Rosalick, for your presentation. We are gonna just have a motion to receive that presentation. Councillor Lewis, is there a seconder? Mayor Holder, okay.

We’re gonna get into discussion. The only thing I’m gonna say is that we are not under any circumstances gonna talk about the pending RFP process, which we do not wanna be talking about before it gets underway and before there’s an evaluation. I understand why you brought it up, Mr. Rosalick, but just as a council and as a committee, we’re not gonna talk about that.

But I think we can talk about what’s happened in the past and what’s happening right now outside of the RFP process. So with those comments, I just wanna see if anyone has any questions or comments for Mr. Rosalick, but any of the items that he brought up. Okay, I’m not seeing any.

I wanna say on the first two points that you mentioned, I thought those were two wonderful examples of how Mission Services has done really great work in the community and I appreciate you passing on the credit and the thanks to the city, but we know as a delivery partner working on those things, it’s really the work that you and your staff team and all the volunteers who are involved in Mission Services are doing that makes that stuff work. And I wanna say thanks very much for that. I do know that Mr. Dickens and Mr.

Cooper are always trying to make all the funding cover, all the various needs that we have out there in the community. And I think your presentation is very helpful in working through how we’re gonna allocate funds. This is a very dynamic, difficult environment, as I’m sure you know, and we all appreciate COVID has really impacted a lot of operations. It’s changed a lot of things.

We’re having to do things that we never would have anticipated doing like setting up the temporary winter response on very short notice. And I think we have to be open to getting this kind of feedback from organizations that are out there trying to do their best and to deliver really needed services in the community. So I wanna thank you for making the time to be here. I know you have a lot of things to be doing and a very big job.

So thanks for coming down to City Hall to talk to us about these issues. Are you welcome? Thank you so much. Okay, we’re gonna open up for a vote.

Let’s end the vote. The motion carries six to zero. Okay, that brings us to the Disability Advisory Committee Report. It’s under items for direction because there is a request to civic administration to undertake a review of planning related documents.

So that’s why it’s there instead of under consent where it would be for information. I do think it’s probably helpful just to hear from staff. We have the rethink London Zoning Review underway already. Seems to me like this is something that could be included as part of that and may already be in fact included under that project.

Maybe we can just have a brief comment about that before we vote on it to handle that. We’ll see anyone from planning. So perhaps we can have the answer to that before council. So is there a mover for the recommendation?

Councilor Hillier, seconder. Councilor Lewis. Mayor Holder, is that a question? Go ahead.

Chair, that was again rushing to either move or second. Now to speed up, we’ve got a quick committee. Okay, we’re gonna open up for a vote. Using the vote, the motion carries six to zero.

Okay, that brings us to the Disability Committee Report. And similar to the last one, there is a recommendation there that these recommendations about the Trappes Bay Nuter and Release Program be forwarded to administration for implementation or action where appropriate. So that’s not quite a direction to say do all these things, but it’s pretty close. And so I wonder if the staff have anything to say about that direction.

It seems like consider these ideas from the advisory committee, which is their role. And I think it’s very helpful. Mr. Kootolik, I wonder if you have anything to say about that?

Through the Chair, civic administration would support the awareness that AWAC is recommending with the Trappes Bay Nuter Release Program. We are planning to hire a student as we do every summer within our animal services area. And the focus, one of the focuses this summer will be on this program. Thank you.

  • Excellent. Do I have a mover for the committee report? Councillor Lewis, seconded by the mayor. We’re gonna open that up for a vote.

Thank you to the advisory committee for your work. Great to see a report coming in from the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee. Through the Chair, can you hear me? Sorry, just on a last matter, with respect to the accessibility terminology and documents, we currently have a rethink zoning process that is just currently underway.

And I will ensure that this matter gets put forward to that committee for consideration in the upcoming zoning by-law review. Closing the vote, the motion carries six to zero. Thanks for closing that loop right away, Mr. Batswece, I appreciate that.

That brings us to item 4.4. This is the letter from a Mayor Holder about how we should build 3,000 units of affordable housing over the next five years. Mayor Holder, take it away. Thank you very much, Chair.

Colleagues, you will find in your package a letter from me addressed to all of you. And I thought long and hard about this issue, I know we all have, because I think we’re in historic crossroads and we have an opportunity to show leadership like never before. In all the time that I’ve been on council, which is now literally two years and a few months, we have discussed issues around homelessness and the challenges that you’ll know that when I was first elected, we talked in terms of taking care of London’s most vulnerable. But what I appreciate most is how council has truly responded to that.

We have already heard two presentations today from YOU and mission services around areas of homelessness and providing shelter in the life. London has done its part, but I feel strongly, there’s so much more that we can do. You’ll know that we announced in February that London was the first city in Canada to achieve functional zero for veterans homelessness. That was acknowledged by the federal government that very day.

That I think is a phenomenal achievement, but I also think it’s as we have discussed, I’ve discussed with many members of council, if we can do this for veterans, why can’t we do it for the indigenous community in London? Why can’t we do it for those impacted by additions? Why can’t we do it in a way that deals with chronic homelessness? Our best numbers together came up 3,000 units required to be able to deal with that.

I recognize that has the potential to be a moving target, but you have to start somewhere. And what this does is if we’re able to and when we’re able to build these 3,000 units and produce them through a variety of means, what that does is that deals in today’s terms with the issue of chronic homelessness. Future councils are going to decide how we continue on, but what an amazing legacy that would be, in my view, for all of us. So on the average of what we’ve typically done, it would typically, it would usually take 20 years to achieve 3,000 units to be built.

You will know that in the housing stability action plan, they look forward to doing it 10 years. So in my discussions with our own staff with the development community, with our not-for-profit sector asking, can we do it in five? So my motion colleagues is as follows, that civic administration be directed to expedite the development of the needed 3,000 affordable housing units to set out in the housing stability action plan to be in place in five years instead of 10. The years are set out in the plan and that civic administration be directed to report back to a few community protective services committee with an implementation plan that’s inclusive of financial impacts that sets out the best supports for the development of affordable housing units.

From my heart, I would tell you, we must do no less and I’m happy to answer questions and our staff has put some thought to it again questions of them, but I’m moving this and I believe I have a secondary and Councillor Lewis, Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, Councillor Lewis has got his hand up just as you’re finishing speaking.

So I imagine that’s the second. Yeah, I’ll go to Councillor Lewis and then get on the speakers list. If you’d like to weigh in, I see Councillor Silly next. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. And through you, I’m very happy and honestly honored to be able to second this motion from the mayor because I’m building on the commitment that he made in the state of the city address. I think this is the one issue more than any other that has united this council in terms of achieving real tangible goals on the housing and homelessness challenges that we have in the city. So I’m not gonna say much more other than to say, I know 3,000 units in five years is an ambitious goal.

I know that if you don’t set ambitious goals, though, you don’t have a chance to attain them. So I’m happy to second this and provide whatever assistance I can to all colleagues on council and to our staff to help achieve this. Councillor Silly. Sorry about that, my device wasn’t working, but I didn’t have my hand up.

Okay, sorry, any other speakers? Deputy Mayor Morgan, go ahead. Thank you, Chair. And I apologize if my internet cuts out.

My kids are home from school now, so they’re sucking up all the bandwidth with their activities. I just wanted to tune into the committee and I appreciate you recognizing me just to recognize what the comments that were made today. And to be honest, the ambitious goal that’s been set by the mayor, you know, on the heels of the historic investments that we made in our multi-year budget in the housing space, I can’t think of a better way for us to really set a stretch goal for us to make a real difference for those who most needed. And I think in the mayor’s letter, he said it very well.

This isn’t just gonna require Council buy-in, which is why I think bringing the motion before council today to ensure that that buy-in is there. It’s gonna require support from our civic administration, from our federal and provincial partners who have just recently made a significant investment in our LMCH housing stock, buy-in from social agencies and of course, the private sector. So it’s gonna require everybody pulling in the same direction to achieve this goal. And I just wanted to come to the committee today to express my support for us moving in this direction and applaud the mayor for his comments in the state of the city and pushing council to the next level on this particular file.

Any other discussion with the councilor Vanhols, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And as the mayor is looking for the support of his council, I just want to say at this opportunity that I’m also supportive of this initiative.

Thank you. Okay, any other speakers? If not, I’m just gonna ask a question. So I think this is a great initiative and I commend the mayor for bringing it forward.

There’s definitely an area where we need to be very ambitious. But I’m eyes wide open in terms of what it’s gonna take. You know, it’s not gonna be business as usual in terms of delivering housing. We’re gonna have to pick up the pace quite a lot to meet this goal.

And so I wonder through the chair, I guess through myself, to Mr. Cotsifis, we’re seeing development at a very rapid rate right now. I would describe the building division as kind of bursting at the seams in terms of workload. What is it gonna take in terms of additional resources, even just to handle the number of applications, processing inspections set aside the market housing, but the affordable housing side, the increase.

I don’t expect you have a precise answer, but if you give us a sense of what you think might be required because I think we’re gonna have to step up in that area in a big way, all the development approvals, everything comes through the City of London. And we can fund things over and over again, but it still has to go through the same application process. So I wonder if Mr. Cotsifis, if you just wanna weigh in about what you think might be required to deliver on this target so we can be successful.

Through the chair. So currently we’ve been having a lot of conversations internally about this. And we’ve done a few things internally to try to help with the affordable housing initiative. And in particular, we’ve created basically a, we call it kind of an internal SWAT team, where it’s a prioritization model where we utilize staff basically from all disciplines.

So site plan building right through HDCs involved and others to try to expedite applications where they are affordable housing in nature. So that’s helping the cause. However, you’re absolutely correct. There is a huge demand on staff currently with the volumes that we’re experiencing.

So at this moment, I couldn’t really tell you exactly what we were proposing. Our hope is that with this direction that we will report back to you and give you very precise numbers in terms of staff, resourcing, any gaps that might be in the either existing process or where we need additional resources. And we would bring that to you with the financial implications as well and how they might be funded. So that would be part of the entire report back.

Okay, thank you very much. Mayor Holder, is there something you wanted to add to that? Go ahead. Thanks very much.

I’d like to thank Mr. Crossfuss for his comments as well. They say it takes a village. Well, we’re going to build a village and we can only do that with the significant support a lot of partners.

The comment was made by Casa Rose by how ambitious this is and Deputy Mayor Morgan made the same comment. And it is, but the status quo is just not good enough. Not if we want to try to not even get ahead just to try to catch up to what the demand and the need truly is. You want to give people dignity.

You give them a home, place to live. You want to help people out of addition so you give them a home, place to live. But we’re going to need a lot of partners. So you’ve already heard reference about the senior levels of government.

Absolutely need them. And we’ve had some discussions with both the local members of provincial and federal parliament, but ministers as well about the need. We need support from our development community and building community so that when they provide affordable housing in the various developments that they create that goes towards it. We need support internally to make those processes go smoothly and make sure that it works.

We need not for profits. We need the individuals, the while use, the habitat for humanities. We need everybody on board with this. And with the social, with the mayor’s task force and social impact and recovery and with the London Community Recovery Network, what’s become clearer and clearer is that if we want to deal with the issues, we’ll need our most vulnerable.

It starts with providing them appropriate shelter. When I say shelter, I mean from a place that they can call their own place to put their stuff, a place to live with dignity. So I’m hopeful that we will get support. But look, what’s going to happen is what this motion is doing is getting ultimately council endorsement because it’s not the mayor saying that this is the priority.

It’s all of us together. And if all of us together believe that this can happen, then we set the foundation for making it work. So that’s my ask and we know that staff will come back with their appropriate and thoughtful response to this providing we get to support the committee and that council. But I’ll tell you as I’ve been sure with you, as I’ve said, this will be the most outstanding thing that I believe this council will ever do to take care of those embrace next year.

Any other speakers? Councillor Kailabaga, go ahead. Thank you. I just wanted to thank the mayor for bringing this forward.

I think that as we recognize the issues that the city of London is facing, we know that homelessness is a big one and lack of appropriate housing, accessible housing and affordable housing is a big issue and challenge that we have faced continually in this city for the last couple of years. And I think this plan can be ambitious, but given the current state we’re in with COVID and the numbers of people have lost their jobs and people who are struggling right now to even stay in their homes, I think this is not an ambitious plan. It’s a plan that needs to be done. And I’m happy to support this, this direction.

We are going to be thankful that we took this ambitious plan when we’re in a time to, when we start talking about post COVID and what post COVID is going to look like for women, for people who live in a margins, for young people, for people who are not able to retain their jobs. And I think if there is one thing that we can do to continue to support the growth of our city is really talking about issues such as housing, such as mental health issues. There’s, this is the beginning of the ambitious plans that we’re going to have to take as a council and as a city altogether to make sure that we are prepared to face what post COVID is going to look like. So thanks for the mover, to the mover, the mayor and the seconder.

I think this, I’m happy to support this plan. Okay, I don’t have any other speakers. I just wanted to say in response to what Mr. Caspas said, you know, we have the building permit stabilization fund and I just wanna encourage civic administration before we have a report back, you know, if there’s some place that you need to move right away, you know, hiring people takes a long time and you know, we can’t just scale things up instantaneously.

The overall financial impacts might take a while to report back on, you know, what is it gonna need in terms of grant money or loans or, but the internal staff resources, if there’s something that can be done to just scale that up now, I think the sooner the better when it comes to this area. And I don’t think we need a direction on that front. It’s certainly within civic administration’s ability to do that, but I did wanna put an encouraging word out there. We have some resources held in reserve from years where the building permit revenue has been very high and I’d rather see it used now to start scaling things up now.

If that’s where we know we’re headed. If we’re gonna hit these kind of numbers in terms of development, both in the market housing side and the affordable housing side, the building area is gonna be very, very busy for a long time. So I would just encourage that activity to happen soon. Any other discussion?

Okay, set up for a vote. Opposing the vote, the motion carries, six to zero. The chair over to Vice Chair Hillier for the discussion about Councilor Van Holls’ letter as I’ve declared a pecanary interest on this matter. Councilor Hillier.

Thank you very much. Yes, that brings us to 4.5. Communication with Councilor Van Holls regarding plans to address the capital and operational needs of municipal golf courses in London, Councilor Van Holls. Yes, thank you, Mr.

Presiding Officer. And when we left off our discussion about golf, we determined that the sale of river road would provide a capital injection and also some operational advantages to golf, but we were still not in a position where it was a sustainable thing in the long term. And although I’m confident that staff can come up with a plan to do that, I think just in terms of oversight, it would be nice to have them report back with that. Just so there’s a confidence in the community that in the future, we won’t be happy to sell another golf course, for instance, in order to keep things running.

Thank you very much. I am willing to move that if there’s a seconder for that. I can’t see anyone at all. A seconder.

Thank you very much. I can’t see anyone on the screen. Do you need to have a vote for that? And you just, how about discussion?

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, discussion. And I recognize Mayor Holder. Thanks very much. A question through you to perhaps Mr.

Stafford. Is it your intention? I know that when we discuss the issue of river road and it would place on the capital needs for the other two. It seems to me that Councilor Vanholst’s motion is trying to where you already said we would be.

And I’m mindful because we can put tasks on staff that are reasonable, and this doesn’t feel unreasonable, but it also feels either redundant or not quite critically necessary to have a motion to what we’re going to do. So could I, through you, Chair, get an update for Mr. Stafford as to what the intention was along the line of what the Councilor’s proposing? Let’s hear, yes, I say, Mr.

Stafford. Yeah, it’s John Paul McGonagall sitting in for Mr. Stafford today. So through you, Mr.

Presiding Officer, what I can say is that the recommendations that were before you and that Council resolved in relation to river road was administration’s recommendations to put the municipal golf system on a sustainable path. Those were the recommendations that were passed that we felt were necessary for golf to continue to pay for golf. I just also wanted to recognize the annual budget process where golf is a part of that and the corporate asset management approach in which golf is a part of that. But we most certainly are happy to report back at Council’s direction on anything related to golf that Council wishes to see.

Anything else, Mr. Mayor? It sounds like we’re crystallizing through this motion of what administration intended to do. So it’s fine, thank you very much, Chair Chair.

Okay, thank you. I have Councillor Karyabagh and then Councillor Lewis. I thank you through you, Presiding Officer. I just wanted to know from the move for whether or not they were intending to a second of the motion just to have the conversation.

I was curious to know if the money remains in a specific reserve or if the money could be used with some of the initiatives that we’re talking about right now such as housing to support the city of London. Let’s see what staff has to say. Yeah, thank you through the Presiding Officer. I think, sorry, I’m just gonna ask Councillor Karyabagh to get a repeat or question if that’s okay.

I apologize, I just lost it for a second there. No worries, I was just asking if the money has to remain in the reserve for golfing or if this money could also be considered for some of the very ambitious and bold steps that were taken forward in addressing homelessness in our city. Thank you, and through the Presiding Officer, thank you for the clarification. So what I can say is that council approved a recommendation that notwithstanding proceeds of a full or partial sale of River Road to go to the golf reserve fund.

That was the recommendation that passed. I will leave it to council should they choose to change direction on proceeds of that. Thank you for that clarification. So back to the mover, just also curious to know what other direction you’re needing other than what we’ve already done from council.

Sorry, Chair, if I could just break in here. Based on the conversation under 31.2 of the council procedure by-law, the chair cannot move a motion. Okay, well, would someone else care to move the motion? Then this discussion is done.

I’d like to take back my second. And I relinquish the chair back to you, council member, having not received. I’m going to pass it back to you. You need to receive the communication or something, at least to deal with it.

I’m sorry. Okay, motion to receive the communication with council members. Very well, thank you. Councilor Kailabaga, thank you.

I’ll second it, Chair. Thank you. All in favor. Oh, sorry.

Mr. Hanvo. Wasn’t the vote, the motion carries five to zero. I relinquish the chair back to you.

Thanks very much, Vice Chair Hillier. Brings us to deferred matters, additional business. We have the deferred matters list on there. Item 5.1, it’s getting smaller.

It’s nice to see 10 items only, mover, to receive, Professor Lewis, yeah. Seconder, Professor Kailabaga, discussion. Professor Lewis, go ahead. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. I did want to raise one item. Sorry, I’m just pulling up the list again here. So I refer to the right item, I believe it is.

Item number four, the swimming pool fenced by law. I’m just wondering if staff can update us because I’m conscious of the fact that we are almost to the beginning of April and pool season is starting. And we have a fenced by law that had some recommendations for updating and it was referred back. So I wonder if staff can advise, will that be coming back to our April CAHPS meeting?

Through the chair, yes, it will. And we have already advertised this meeting and the main intent of the by-laws to look at situations where you have double-ended garage doors leading into a backyard that has a swimming pool. Also, I’d like to point out that items five and seven on the deferred matters list could probably be deleted because they were dealt with at the last council meeting. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Right now the motion is just to receive the deferred matters list. We’re going to open the vote on that. Fosing the vote, the motion carries six to zero.

Any additional business? See any motion to adjourn? Circaabaga, seconded by all in favor. Your hand vote, yeah.

Mr. Saleh, okay, we’re adjourned. Thanks very much. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.