Homelessness Prevention Program in Frontenac County

Jeff Green | Jan 27, 2021

Bonita McCourt, the Director of Community and Family Services with the Salvation Army in Kingston, briefed Frontenac County Council at their January 20 meeting about the delivery of homelessness prevention services in Frontenac County.

The Salvation Army took over the delivery of a basket of services covered under the umbrella of homelessness prevention in the four Frontenac townships in January of 2020 from Southern Frontenac Community Services.

“We took a long time to try to find out where the best location would be for our office, and when a spot became available right on Highway 38, it looked like it was the right location for us, for now,” she said.

The office, which opened in the fall of 2020, is located at 6697 Road 38, in the building that also houses Service Ontario.

Mcourt pointed out that “our staff will travel anywhere in Frontenac County to deliver services to people who require them. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges for us as it has for everyone else, but throughout it all our staff have continued to work remotely to deliver service.

The Homelssness Prevention Program includes a coordinated intake, prevention and diversion, housing first, rapid relocation case management, and the homelessness prevention fund.

Coordinated intake is the first step in the process. Clients are referred to the program through agencies, social services, health service providers or self-referral. The intake process helps determine what services are required.

Prevention and Diversion includes education, help dealing with landlords, handling finances, etc. It is aimed at keeping people from requiring the use of emergency housing, which often involves having to use the shelter system in Kingston.

The second level of service, which is a longer term service, is rapid re-housing.

“People using this service require housing often require metal health or addiction services as well. It can be a 6-12 month process process or longer to work through all of the issues and establish a stable set of circumstances,” said Lou Mcbride, who manages the program.

Beverly Harvey, the Housing Co-ordinator, oversees the staff at the Frontenac County office, and also administers the homelessness prevention fund. She said that the fund “provides financial assistance to eligible households, in order to maintain their housing. If people have troiuble getting first or last months rent, or they are in rent arrears, or they are in utilities arrears, or owe property taxes, then we will work with them to help them, if they qualify, to assist them.

The qualification criteria for the fund is income based. For one person, the threshold is $33,000 per yer, for a two person household, $39,000 in family income, three person, $43,500, and 4 or more, $59,500. Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program recipients are not eligible for this program, but there are other supports offered for this group.

In the 13 months since the Salvation Army has started this program, they have hired two full time staff, has connected with agencies and businesses in the community and established a network for referrals.

In 2020, 23 households were assisted through prevention and diversion, 15 households accessed the homelessness prevention fund, a 5 households were assisted through the housing first, rapid rehousing program.

“I think that is a very good success record” said Harvey.

Bonita McCourt identified some challenges that the program is attempting to grapple with. One is a lack of affordable housing throughout Frontenac County. a second is the lack of shelter.

“I am not only talking about emergency shelters, of which there are none in Frontenac County, but a lot of the people facing homelessness do not have family and friends they can rely on to help them out,” she said.

She mentioned the recent fire at McCmullen Manor with removed 28 affordable housing units from Verona “has been a big blow to that community.”

COVID-29 has also made it much more difficult for program staff to interact with the community at large.

Going forward, she said that establishing a higher profile in the community, fostering partnerships with community groups and agencies are priorities.

“We would also like to look at creating some sort of housing and homelessness hub that would offer sheltering services, mental health, housing and support services that could help bring the community together,” she said.