October 4, 2023, at 4:00 PM

Original link

The meeting was called to order at 4:01 PM.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

Moved by D. Ferreira

Seconded by S. Stevenson

That Items 2.1 and 2.2 BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

2.1   9th Report of the Animal Welfare Community Advisory Committee

2023-09-07 - AWCAC Report

Moved by D. Ferreira

Seconded by S. Stevenson

That the 9th Report of the Animal Welfare Community Advisory Committee, from its meeting held on September 7, 2023, BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed

2.2   Capital Needs at City of London Golf Courses

2023-10-04 - Staff Report - (2.2) - Source of Financing - Capital Needs - CoL Golf Courses - Full

Moved by D. Ferreira

Seconded by S. Stevenson

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Neighbourhood and Community-Wide Services, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report, dated October 4, 2023, related to Capital Needs at City of London Golf Courses:

a)    the Recreation and Sport Division, Neighbourhood and Community-Wide Services BE AUTHORIZED to draw from the Golf Course Reserve Fund to complete required capital needs;

b)    the funding BE APPROVED as set out in the Source of Financing Report, as appended to the above-noted staff report; and,

c)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all actions necessary to complete required capital needs. (2023-R05D)

Motion Passed

2.3   Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative and Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative Approval of Ontario Transfer Payment Agreement

2023-10-04 - Staff Report - (2.3) - COCHI and OPHI Approval of Ontario Transfer Payment Agreement - Full

Moved by D. Ferreira

Seconded by S. Stevenson

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Planning and Economic Development, the proposed by-law, as appended to the staff report, dated October 4, 2023, BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting to be held on October 17, 2023 to:

a)    approve the Ontario Transfer Payment Agreement, as appended to the above-noted by-law, between His Majesty the King in right of Ontario as represented by The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and The Corporation of the City of London for the provision of funding under the Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative and the Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 fiscal years;

b)    authorize the Mayor and the City Clerk to execute the above-noted Agreement;

c)    authorize the Deputy City Manager, Planning and Economic Development to approve any future amending agreements to the Agreement between His Majesty the King in right of Ontario as represented by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and The Corporation of the City of London with respect to the provision of funding under the Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative and the Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 fiscal years;

d)    authorize the Mayor and the City Clerk to execute any future amending agreements to the Agreement between His Majesty the King in right of Ontario as represented by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and The Corporation of the City of London with respect to the provision of funding under the Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative and the Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 fiscal years; and,

e)    authorize the Deputy City Manager, Planning and Economic Development, or their written designate, to approve and execute any reports and Investment Plan required under the above-noted Agreement. (2023-F11)

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

3.   Scheduled Items

None.

4.   Items for Direction

4.1   Alignment of Rent Supplement and Housing Allowance Programs to a Portable Benefit System

2023-10-04 - Staff Report - (4.1) - Alignment of Rent Supplement and Housing Allowance Programs - Full

Moved by S. Stevenson

Seconded by C. Rahman

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager of Social and Health Development, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report, dated October 4, 2023, related to the Alignment of Rent Supplement and Housing Allowance Programs to a Portable Benefit System:

a)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to implement the recommendations of the Rent Supplement System Final Report, as appended to the above-noted staff report, subject to legislative authority and contractual obligations with the Province of Ontario;

b)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to continue to gather input from internal and external partners, including people with lived experience, and to report back to the Community and Protective Services Committee annually about program implementation progress; and,

c)    the Deputy City Manager, Social and Health Development, or delegate, BE AUTHORIZED to reallocate existing Municipal, Provincial or Federal funding from one Portable Housing Benefit priority household group to another priority group as necessary. (2023-S11)

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

None.

6.   Confidential

Moved by C. Rahman

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That the Community and Protective Services Committee convene In Closed Session for the purpose of considering the following:

6.1    Personal Matters / Identifiable Individuals        

A matter pertaining to identifiable individuals with respect to the 2024 Mayor’s New Year’s Honour List – “Arts” Category.

6.2    Personal Matters / Identifiable Individuals        

A matter pertaining to identifiable individuals with respect to the 2024 Mayor’s New Year’s Honour List – “Age Friendly” Category.

6.3    (ADDED) Personal Matters / Identifiable Individuals        

A matter pertaining to identifiable individuals with respect to the 2024 Mayor’s New Year’s Honour List – “Sports” Category.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

The Community and Protective Services Committee convened In Closed Session from 4:33 PM to 4:37 PM.

7.   Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:39 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 (47 minutes)

Good afternoon. This is the 15th main, the Computing and Materials Services Committee. The City of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Neshnabek, Haudenosaunee, and the Lapinwock, and Anuandran. We honor and respect the history, language, and culture of the diverse indigenous people who call this territory home.

The City of London is currently home to many First Nation, Métis, and Inuit today. As representatives of the people of the City of London, we are grateful to the opportunity to work and live in this territory. The City of London is committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for meetings upon request, to make request specific to this meeting. Please contact CPSC@london.ca, or 519-661-2489, extension 2425.

We have all members of committee in chambers today, being myself, Councillor Stevenson, Pribble, Raman Farrah. The mayor has not joined us in person or virtually, nor am I expecting him. Looking to committee for disclosure is a pecuniary interest. Seeing none, I’ll also note that we’re working up the added agenda today, as a couple of things have been updated.

On the consent items, we have 2.1 through to 2.3. I’ll note that 2.3 has been updated with an revised staff report, as are some by-law items that were corrected in it, and I’ve been asked to pull item 2.3. So looking to put items 2.1 and 2.2 on the floor, I need to move her in a seconder. Moved by Councillor Farrah, seconded by Councillor Stevenson.

Looking to see if there’s a speaker’s list. On items 2.1 and 2.2 only. I’ll start with Councillor Stevenson, and then Councillor Pribble. Thank you and through the chair.

I just had a question around the Lenin Golf Course 2.2. And I was just wondering that a budget was 150,000, and now the request is another 1.6 million for what looks to be Club House, yeah, Club House repairs and upgrades. And I just wondered, I guess I just was expected that to be a well-planned and advanced kind of thing. So I just wondered why it was coming now versus at budget time.

Thank you. I’ll put this question to Ms. Smith in recognizing that committee is new. If you wanna do a little bit of a background too, of golf pays for golf and how it works, and what we see at budget time too, take that opportunity.

So thank you and through the chair, I’ll start, and then I’ll turn it to Mr. McGonigall, who’s probably knows much more about this subject than I do. You’re correct, so this is work. So we’ve recently been able to start building our capital reserve fund for golf, as you know, this is made solely from golf revenues.

So it’s just been in the last couple of years that we’ve realized enough revenues to start building a reserve fund to do some much needed work. So we’ve done some work in the past year at both Fanshawe and Thames Valley. So we’ve been working with our colleagues and facilities to identify some key work that needs to be done. So once we’ve realized those revenues, we’re able to reinvest them back into our golf courses.

So we are working on a long-range capital plan now that we have our two golf courses up successfully running. We are working on a long-range capital plan for our golf courses. So you will probably see things more in advance next time, but this is, we wanna get this work done. We have a limited time to get it done because of the seasons, and we especially wanna get the work done in Thames Valley because next year is its 100th year celebration.

So this’ll allow us to do some much needed work in order to improve some of our lifecycle renewal, which is most of these projects that are on the list in front of you today. I’m not sure if I missed anything, Mr. McGonigal. He seems pleased.

Thank you and through the chair. I don’t have anything to add. The main reason is that we’re still open in the last two years. We haven’t closed our golf courses till the first week in November and we open up again the first week.

April is a very limited window to get the work completed and this is the process on how we access the funds in that reserve fund. Okay, Councillor Stevenson. Thank you, that really is very helpful. And so without having the long-term capital plan, there’s no concern about spending this and then finding out that we spent it without seeing that plan, we’re good with this.

Just a sec. Thank you and through the chair, this, the white you’re seeing in front of you is lifecycle renewal. So it’s work that needs to be done. The washrooms aren’t accessible.

So this is really work that needs to be done to improve the HVAC, the accessibility of the washrooms, the front counters, which we did if you’ve been out to our golf courses to make them more accessible for customers. So this is really much needed work to be done. Some more long-range work we’re working on with facilities to look at a much broader capital plan that as we’re starting to realize the annual revenues that we hope to be realizing every year from golf. Councilor?

So just to follow up 100 years, that’s gonna be quite a celebration. So yeah, we have to get it looking good. Through the chair, we will invite you all. Perfect, we look forward to it.

A huge milestone in the city. Councilor Pribble. And then Councilor Ramen. So the chair to the staff.

And I’m personally really very happy to see this and not because I’m not a golfer, but because I do believe that this should be one of our jewels of the city. And it’s certainly well, well, well deserved and it really needs it. I do have two questions though. And when I toured it actually with the staff not too long ago, we did go through the NIC basement modification and refresh $55,000.

And we talked about it with the staff and with the management and with actually the potential that it could be developed and used for our community, certain classes, et cetera. And I wanted to ask you, is this $55,000 that it’s gonna get us to this point? Or if you already doing it and having a 100 year anniversary should we look at it and really make it as a jewel and spend more on the basement and get it all done? Ms.

McGall. Thank you and through the chair. I think it’s a great point. It is on our radar, our ultimate intention with these facilities is to make them multi-purpose in nature.

And we have some examples of running winter programs like Snowshoeing on Thames Valley Golf Course last winter. And we’ll continue to expand on that. As it relates to the basement, I think what you see in front of you today is for us to catch up on some outdated capital works that we didn’t have the funding to actually do prior to this time. So we certainly will be working on the long range plan for the basement related to multi-purpose.

That $55,000 will not cover it, but we will continue to put money away in our reserve fund. And as always, to access that money in the reserve fund, we will come back. We also have to phase out the work because of those opening and closing dates and the impact on the operations of the day-to-day. So we’re quite happy with the way that it’s phased in.

And we are really excited about the future opportunities that we think Thames Valley Club House will offer to the community. Councillor Peruzza. Okay, thank you for that. And one other flow up and I did seek a couple of amounts there for electrical work.

Did we look or are we looking at the opportunities in terms of the solar panels and going kind of looking the energy savings and potential investment that we can recoup from let’s say federal governments for initiative such suchities? To staff. Thank you and through the chair. I can start with that.

So as we’re looking at this, we are replacing all lighting LED. So we’re doing that. And as with respect to the electrical work, Thames Valley Club House is all electrical. So the facility itself doesn’t have natural gas.

So already we’re utilizing electricity for the heat and everything else. So we’re taking our steps forward to do that. And as we come forward with a capital plan as was outlined at SPPC in June, we will be coming forward with a net zero capital plan for our facilities. And Thames Valley Club House is one of our city facilities and assets.

So it will be part of the plan as we go forward just like our other facilities. I don’t know Mr. Mercado. Thank you through the chair.

And I will turn it over to our facility partners to see if they have any additions to those comments. Well, thank you and through the chair. We are currently working on developing a net zero plan specifically for an across the entire corporation and Thames Valley would be included in that as Ms. Smith referred to.

And in terms of specifically for solar panels, because of the age of the building again, being sold at its mainly wood structure. So there’s significant structural works that’s required as well as we need to verify the grid could handle the solar going into it. So there’s a few processes that would be required. That’s all tied into that net zero plan.

Thank you. Follow up, Councilor? No more full up. Thank you for the answers.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Roman. Thank you and through you. Happy to see this come forward and had very similar questions to Councilor Pribble.

Just wanted to point out one thing and that is the linkage to the corporate strategic plan and specifically to 3.2 in London’s infrastructure and systems are built, maintained and operated to meet the long-term needs of the community. So I understand that might be our long-term goal, but it is also supposed to be our short-term goal on any construction and any initiatives that we’re taking. So I’m not sure if there’s an opportunity before Council to evaluate what is proposed and see if there’s alignment with 3.2 and then make that amendment if possible to where it aligns within the strat plan so that again, we’re meeting our own objectives here as well. Thank you.

Not sure if staff want to comment on that. Thank you and through the chair, we will certainly undertake some of that prior to Council, but I think as indicated, this is a corporate asset like all of our facilities and it will be a part of the plan to net zero by the target date of 2045. So, and we are continually using the facility now for as many community purposes as we can at this time but that the infrastructure will allow for. Thank you.

Thank you. I have no further speakers on my list at the moment. Seeing none, calling the question on items 2.1 and 2.2. Closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero.

Thank you. Item 2.3, be in the Canada Ontario Community Housing Initiative on Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative, Approval of Ontario Transfer Payment Agreement, the revised staff report, looking for a move and a seconder to get this one on the floor, Councillor Ferreira, seconded by Councillor Stevenson. I’ll just start with Mr. Felberg.

If you want just a high level of what’s different from the original report versus revised and then we can start a Councillor speakers list. Certainly, and to you, Madam Chair, essentially what we’re doing, we’re just updating some of the delegations within the by-law to match the recommendations. So, the revised report is actually just matching the by-law at the end of the report. Thank you.

We always appreciate my by-laws match what we’re doing. Councillor Stevenson, did you wanna start the speakers list as you had requested to pull? Sure, thank you. I have to have questions about this so I can understand it all a little bit more.

I noticed that there was a substantial increase in funding for the Coachee portion and I just wondered if you could just fill us in on that. Okay, Mr. Felberg. Certainly, and through you, Madam Chair.

So, there’s a program through the, that comes from the federal government through the provincial government called Gazette Funding and the Coachee portion of that is actually ramping up as the Gazette Funding transitions down over time. The Gazette Funding is actually used to offset the mortgage subsidies for our social housing providers. And so Coachee is actually being brought into offset that reduction. And then we’d use that, the portion of the Coachee to offset any of the capital repairs that might be required in the social housing.

Councillor, a follow-up? No, I could ask, if anyone else is on the speakers list? Yeah, no, I do, I would just— Okay. I will, if that was the most— Because I want to speak to that.

(laughing) And then, it talks about on page 11 of the original version, anyway. Accepting the liability exposure is required to gain the greater benefit of the funding. Is this something new, or is this something that’s always been a part of this transfer agreement? Mr.

Felberg. Yeah, through you, Madam Chair. Typically, most of the agreements are pretty standard. They don’t change much from year to year.

So, I would suggest that that is generally something we’re expecting to see. Both legal and risk have reviewed it, and they’re comfortable with what’s in there. Oh, also, that tends to be a standard clause in most of the stuff that we see across different committees. On page 12, where it talks about the new development and repair, and I noticed that on page 15, the plan is to spend most of the $4 million on repairs.

In that list, it mentions water issues. I’ve heard a lot of concerns about the water problems in some of our social housing building, and I just wondered if that $4 million in repairs might be tackling some new water facilities, specifically for 202 McNay is what I’m asking. But I just wondered how specific you get in this, if it’s just repairs, or if there’s a plan. Mr.

Felberg. Through you, Madam Chair. So, every year, starting in April, we actually open up capital improvement program to all of our social housing providers. So, for this year, actually, what we’re looking to do is open that up a little bit sooner.

So, we’re going to be starting out in January. We need to start communicating with the providers on that as well. But what happens is those folks will come forward with their plans and their proposals for capital improvements. So, it’s really driven by the social housing providers themselves.

If they’re having water problems, I’m assuming you’re talking about wet basements or potentially leaks and roofs and things like that. Obviously, those are things that we want to address very quickly, and we want in order to maintain a sustainable building into the future. But again, it’s really driven by the social housing provider and what it is they feel their needs are. Councilor?

Thank you. It was actually water, like the waters turned off almost every week for repairs. So, I guess the request from some of the tendencies, you know, are they ever going to fix this so that it’ll be fixed? And we won’t be undergoing constant hot water, loss and water shutdowns.

To staff. Through you, Madam Chair. Actually, serendipitously, I guess, I sent a note out to our director of water wastewater earlier today, looking to see if there are any opportunities for us to work on conservation programs with some of the social housing providers. So this could be something that we work with our water operations, water engineering folks, see if there’s any opportunities for us to work inside the buildings and make some of those improvements.

Councilor? Okay, great. ‘Cause any news I can share along that way would be well received. The other question is, when you say social housing providers, who are those, ‘cause I thought it was all run by us under the LMCH, so are there other providers as well?

Mr. Felber? Three, Madam Chair. So there are 64 social housing providers in London, one of them being LMCH, the other 63 are the nonprofits that we work with on a regular basis.

LMCH has about half of the units within the city and the other 3,500 or so are run by those 63 social housing providers. Last question, I guess then, is in the recommendations, it talks about authorizing the approval and execution of the amendments and the investment plans. Is that something that happens standard every year or is this something new where we would be delegating that authorization or is that something that’s been ongoing? Mr.

Felber? Three, Madam Chair. As I understand it’s been ongoing and it certainly speeds things up for us on an administrative side, especially in order for us to get the funds out to those providers. It also allows us to be a little bit more nimble on how we manage it within our own financial management, reserve funds and all those other things.

One more if that’s okay. The plan, once that’s approved and you’ve got the list of projects, does that come to council as a report to be received? Or is that something we have to request? Mr.

Felber? Through you, Madam Chair. Typically we don’t bring it to council, that is something I suppose we could report out on. It would be another report that we’d be adding to the workload for staff.

I will say that there is quite a bit of work going on right now within the housing space. So if there’s a way for us to align with other reports, happy to do that and happy to come back to council. Councillor Peruzza. Thank you, Mr.

Chair, to the staff. In terms of this program and us being the service selected as the service manager through these programs, do we have kind of flexibility to have power to change certain things within these? Or is it really through the, let’s say, provincial guidelines from above that we are very strict to deliver these funds, this funding, or do we have any flexibility if we see that there is more need here or there? Do we have flexibility or not at all?

Mr. Felber? Through you, Madam Chair. We do have some flexibility within the rules of the different programs, so just reading off a list, we can develop an application process for Coachee and Ophi, for example.

We can work on selecting and recommending the different projects that we can be working on. So there are some things that we can do, but we do have to stay within that box that’s been created by the province. That’s cool. Thank you, no more questions?

Looking for any further speakers on 2.3 before we call the question, Councillor Stevenson. Thank you, I’ve got one. It’s not really related to this, just as I think it’s October and I’m looking at you and we’re talking about housing, that the software program issue, we were gonna get a report back this month, is that on track? I will note that for the next committee cycle, our deferred matters list of what’s coming when.

The clerk, thank you, it was confirmed that that is being revised right now in our next committee cycle, we will see that full list in that report, so that is coming. So 2.3 further questions, comments? Okay, seeing none, calling the questions on 2.3. Opposing the vote, the motion carries, five to zero.

Thank you for that, we have no scheduled items, items for direction, we have 4.1, being the alignment of rent supplement and housing allowance programs to a portable benefit system. Looking to, Mr. Cooper’s gonna give a brief overview of this one and then I’ll start my speakers list. I’ll also note that it’s on page 146 of your original agenda and the recommendations into a part A, B, and C, so when Mr.

Cooper’s done, I’ll look to see if anyone wants to move that or what the will of committee is. Mr. Cooper. Thank you, and through the chair, I’m pleased tonight to present a report on the system to a portable housing benefit.

This report is really the culmination of a number of months of engagement and feedback within our community. Our purpose of this report is really twofold, it first begins to look at transforming our current rent supplement allowance system into a more efficient and effective system that’s gonna serve low income Londoners. Those are the folks that would benefit from this the most. The second is really then to utilize the implementation guide provided by the consultant to support the necessary ongoing work by my team to get this system put in place.

So the work was undertaken in three different phases, the first being a background research report to understand sort of what other communities and other service managers are doing, learn from their best practices to see what could be implemented in London. The second being the consultation phase where we reviewed and worked with a number of internal staff here at the city of London as well as many community partners and those with lived and living experience that were represented a vast variety of different population groups in our community. And then the third phase, which is really before you today, is the final report and implementation. And that document as mentioned is going to assist in us involving this work into the portable benefit system.

So as you know, the consultant really took a, where are we now, where we want to be and how we want to get their approach to this work. So some of the key highlights really are looking to identify the four main programs that offer a range of supplement types and working them into a more portable benefit with a unit-based supplement for supportive housing units. Many of our current supplements have different intake methods, different rental calculations, and it’s really difficult for many of those folks who are applying to kind of understand and navigate the process and we really want to simplify it with this work. In order to kind of get to where we want to be, we’re really identified eight success criteria.

And those really focused on creating a system that emphasizes implementation and a consistent, of a consistent, fair and stable program. But it also identifies the needs of that program to be simple and easy to navigate, to provide more flexibility and choice, be adaptable while responding to the needs of recipients, all while working to try and reduce the number of individuals on our city’s social housing wait list. So we have 19 recommended actions that are being put forward through this report this evening, and our team is really working to implement those over the next coming years with annual reports to committee and council for updates. So my team and I are here and available to answer any questions, should you have any?

Thank you, looking to committee to see if there’s any desire to put the recommended motion on the floor. Is that a mover? Moved by Councillor Stevenson, seconded by Councillor Raman, and I will commence my speakers list with Councillor Stevenson. Thank you, just questions again, trying to understand all of this.

What are people going to experience overall? Is it going to be more of this one place to go to rather than various different things? I get the feeling it’s going to be easier, but what are they going to be the notices? This isn’t going to change the housing stability bank at Salvation Army, or is that pulling all of that in?

Mr. Cooper. Thank you, and through the chair, what we heard through the consultation was a need to simplify the access points for many of these programs. They are a number of different application access points, and so for the benefits, it was really loud and clear from community that they wanted City to make it a little simpler for them and easier to access.

So this work is definitely outside of the housing stability bank, although when we talk first and last month’s rent or utility rental arrears, there are intrinsically linked, but from a funding and operations perspective, they are separate. I’m not sure if you want to go next. Councillor Stevenson, or I’ll go to the Councillor Pribble and come back to you. Okay, Councillor Pribble.

Thank you, and I really like this proposal in terms of I think it’s a great initiative, and I think that it’s going to be very beneficial to us. One thing is one quick question. Was the 19 points, did I hear right that our deadline or we are hoping that the next couple of years, was that right? Mr.

Cooper. Thank you, and through the chair, we recognize that the implementation of this work is going to be ongoing and take a continual improvement methodology to that work. Many of the items in the report tonight are direct from the recommendations, and so we’re happy to bring that part of that next year’s annual report, a status update on where we’re at with implementing those 19 recommendations. Many of them are going to be fairly, I’d say short to mid-term for implementation, but there are a number of other aspects of them that will be long-term as noted in the report, so we’re giving ourselves a couple of years, as we know funding may shift in some of the whole of community work, as well we have to do an update to our housing stability action plan next year, so any one of those aspects might influence some of the work we do to implement this as supplements are key deliverable for providing housing stability for individuals in these tough economic times.

Councillor Pribble. Thank you very much, and one more question. Did we ever look at a big picture? Did we ever do cost-benefit analysis in terms of people actually, because we are spending a lot of money for various, you know, wintering in camp and so winter response, et cetera, and we do have, and we know, I’m quite sure you do, as well, just like I do certain people that are right now living by the river that recently lost roof over their head because of they can pay their rents anymore.

Did we ever do a kind of this big picture analysis, how much it would cost us to potentially offer more or higher supplements and to keep people actually to have them roof over their head instead of paying additional money’s funds for these other initiatives? So really looking at the big picture, if you ever done it, then we did what were the results. Mr. Cooper.

Thanks, and that’s a great question from the Councillor. This work by the consultant did do an understanding, a review of sort of how we can support individuals to maintain their housing, right? So the work that we utilize through our Canada Interior Housing Benefit is a provincially led, provincially administered, sorry, a housing benefit program that our teams are able to utilize to support many folks to maintain housing. We see a lot of seniors access that current benefit and apply for that benefit to do a loss of income or a loss of a spouse.

So this work did do some analysis on people’s ability to pay. It’s why we’re looking at moving away from the standard CMHC AMR and actually to an average market rent on vacancy type level of affordability. So it is to try and help alleviate the affordability challenges people are experiencing to help prevent and divert individuals from experiencing homelessness. Councillor Pribble.

Financially, did you ever look at the cost, kind of, let’s say that potentially, if we say that our initiative costs us $5 million, and we believe for, let’s say, six months, just like our kind of interest bonds, how many people are roughly, we help, and if we do it divided by number of people, we help, and then divided by 12, it will be monthly rent, right? The viewer will look at his perspective and potentially found out that actually our initiatives that we are doing are more expensive than if we help this one person $100 to $100 a month and have them keep their apartment. Mr. Cooper.

Thank you, and through the chair, I appreciate the question. And the reality is, we always say that, what is it, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? So, we do take that analogy on our teams. We are working on prevention and diversion pieces to that.

We also recognize that the current situation within our community is one of crisis. And so, those immediate responses to support people that are already experiencing homelessness are going to probably have a higher price tag than some of the work that we can do to prevent individuals from experiencing homelessness. And so, this program is one of several, including, as we mentioned earlier, housing stability bank or housing stability table, that does help and invest in work to support people to prevent homelessness and save, so to speak, the investment on the back end. So, full system analysis, we have not completed that at this point.

Maybe something we could add as part of our housing stability action plan. It’s not a provincial requirement for that, but should council wish to direct us to undertake that work then that is something we can consider. Councillor Perule. Thank you for the answers, no more questions.

And I will discuss it with some of my colleagues and this because I don’t think, I don’t know how much work would this take, but I do think that for the big picture and for our future, this would be probably a good idea to undertake. Thank you. Councillor Stevenson. Thank you.

I haven’t read through this really fully, so I’m gonna do that and reach out to you later with questions, but the portable housing benefit, the little that I had read said that they could use it to go anywhere in Ontario, is there a way to make sure that those funds help Londoners? Mr. Cooper. Thank you.

So the Canada Ontario housing benefit is specific for anywhere in the province once they get intake. We do support individuals from our service manager area, so the city of London and the county of Middlesex, and every year we get an additional allocation from the province for additional units. The portable benefit we’re looking at here is specifically to the city of London and for those investments that are made as a service manager, we would also support the county in those areas, but predominantly most of the investment here we go to the city of London. Thank you.

Councillor Stevenson, you’re satisfied. Looking for other questions or comments from committee members, and we have no visiting Councillors online, just to clarify that, calling the question on 4.1. Closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. For deferred matters additional business, as stated, the deferred matters list will be on the next agenda of this committee.

We do have three confidential items to consider in closed session. At this time I would need a motion to move into closed session to discuss the items as outlined on the public agenda. All three pertain to the Mayor’s New Year’s Honors list for potential 2024 awards. Moved by Councillor ramen, seconded by Councillor Ferra, calling the question, we’re staying put in council chambers, and anyone else will take their leave.

Closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. Just one moment as we move into closed session, and then we will open from closed session as well before we adjourn. Thank you. We’re moving back into public session, looking to Councillor ramen to report out.

Thank you and through you. I’d like to report that progress is made on the items that we went in camera for. Thank you for that. That moves us onto our final item of the agenda, which is adjournment, looking for a motion to adjourn.

Moved by Councillor Stevenson, seconded by Councillor ramen. A hand vote of all in favor of adjournment. Okay, that’s carried unanimously. Thank you very much and have a lovely evening.