A Housing Strategy For Nova Scotia

From a May 6th social media release by the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services:

More Nova Scotians will find affordable housing that meets their needs as part of the province's first long-term housing strategy. Premier Darrell Dexter and Community Services Minister Denise Peterson-Rafuse unveiled the strategy today, May 6, during a visit to the North Woodside Community Centre in Dartmouth.

Quotes

"Our homes, and the communities they are part of, shape nearly every aspect of our lives -- health, education, success in the workplace, even the security of our retirement and dignity in old age. Yet many working families cannot afford rent, let alone a mortgage, and many seniors and people with disabilities lack good housing options."

Premier Darrell Dexter

"Our strategy will build vibrant communities, revitalize existing neighbourhoods, and offer affordable new housing choices to Nova Scotia families."

Premier Darrell Dexter

"Few things are as important as having a good, affordable home that meets a person's unique needs. Through collaboration, we have developed a strategy that sets out a new direction for housing -- one that stresses affordability, partnership and community-building. The right housing choices can mean safer, more sustainable, and more vibrant communities."

Denise Peterson-Rafuse, Minister of Community Services

"Shelter Nova Scotia is pleased to see a collaborative strategy that espouses a housing first model. We have seen first-hand the benefits this model has had on the men and women we serve."

Don Spicer, executive director of Shelter Nova Scotia

"It is a challenge but we must build more housing that people can afford. We must not continue to equate big with better when we discuss housing options. This strategy is a bold and innovative roadmap in that direction."

Paul Pettipas, president of the Nova Scotia Home Builders' Association

"I am so grateful to own a home that my children grew up in. I believe this is something we all wish for. It is because of the work that community and private organizations do that I was able to own my own home while my children were young enough to live there. Programs that give more Nova Scotians a chance at affordable home ownership or rent is good news."

Karen Cole, a single mother who purchased her home through Habitat for Humanity

Quick Facts

• The strategy represents a fundamental shift in the province's approach to affordable housing.

• Over the next 10 years, the development of affordable housing and affordable home ownership will substantially increase and will focus on diverse communities with different housing and tenure types, income levels and family composition.

• $500 million over 10 years will go towards supporting new and enhanced affordable housing projects and programs.

• The strategy was built on themes that emerged from provincewide public consultations held in 2012 with more than 500 Nova Scotians, including non-profit and community organizations engaged in housing issues, housing developers, governments, and interested Nova Scotians.

• The strategy will restructure the Nova Scotia Housing Development Corporation and all housing staff in Community Services as Housing Nova Scotia.

• Among the programs that Housing Nova Scotia is considering are down payment assistance, lease-to-own opportunities, a graduate home ownership program, and retrofit programs

Also see:

Download the strategy (PDF)

Download a plain text version (PDF)

Learn more about the consultation process

Information, pictures and videos from the launch event

Old Vancouver motor hotel gets new life as part of homelessness experiment

An article published in yesterday's edition of The Vancouver Sun:

By Todd Coyne

Downtown Vancouver’s old Bosman’s Motor Hotel is once again filling up fast. Not with the road-weary travellers of earlier days, however, but with people whose paths in life have led them, wearily, to the streets.

Now renamed the Bosman Hotel Community, the four-storey former inn at 1060 Howe St. officially opened its doors Monday as the Vancouver site of a five-city federal research project studying the relationship between homelessness, mental illness and addiction.

With similar facilities in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Moncton, the Mental Health Commission of Canada is studying the effects of a “Housing First” approach to treating the mental health problems of chronically homeless people in Vancouver. This model means providing suitable candidates with housing and food as a first priority before trying to address their mental-health problems and their goals for recovery.

Inside the Bosman, the rooms are small and bear all the furnishings immediately familiar to anyone who’s ever stayed in low-cost, continental breakfast-included lodgings anywhere in North America. There’s a heavy-blanketed bed, a lamp, a bathroom on the left and even a Bible in the nightstand.

For a hundred of Vancouver’s hardest to house, it will be home.




“If it was not for this place, I do believe I would not be here today,” said new Bosman resident Nicola Keate [pictured].

In front of a crowd of city politicians, university researchers and homeless-outreach workers in the Bosman’s cramped main room, Keate told of how at age 14 she started using drugs and immediately became hooked.

Later, she found out she had a bipolar disorder — which, she said, led to more drugs and a life of crime.

It’s a cyclical refrain among the Bosman’s 67 residents — drugs leading to illness leading to drugs — and one which the federal mental health commission, in association with the Portland Hotel Society in Vancouver, is trying to end in the homeless population nationwide.

Jeff West, the Bosman’s project manager, said that 500 of Vancouver’s homeless with addictions and mental health problems were selected as potential candidates for residency at the Bosman Hotel. One hundred of them were then offered residency at the Bosman — something one resident compared to winning the lottery — for a maximum stay of three years.

That’s when the national study ends and when West said the Bosman Hotel’s owners, Prima Properties Ltd., plan to build condominiums.

Of the other 400 study participants in the city who will not be moving into the Bosman, 200 will not receive housing as the study’s “treatment as usual” control group, and 200 will be put into “scatter housing” around the city and connected to case managers and mental health support workers, West said. Nationwide, 2,285 people are participating in the three-year “At Home” study; of these, 1,325 will receive housing.

tcoyne@vancouversun.com

Photo credit

MHCC receives major grant from City of Vancouver

A February 19th news release from the Mental Health Commission of Canada:

CALGARY, Feb. 19 /CNW Telbec/ - The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) has received a $500,000 grant from the City of Vancouver. The funds will help operate part of a research demonstration project on mental health and homelessness at a downtown hotel.

The 100-unit Bosman Hotel is being converted into supportive housing for some of the participants in the Vancouver At Home/Chez Soi project. It is part of the MHCC's four-year national research initiative.

The initiative is taking a 'Housing First' approach to finding the best ways to help homeless people who also live with a mental illness. Similar projects are being carried out in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Moncton. 2285 homeless people living with a mental illness will participate nationally and 1,325 people from within that group will be given a place to live.

"This is terrific news," said Mr. Michael Kirby, Chair of the MHCC. "It is wonderful to see such a strong commitment and we look forward to working with the City of Vancouver and other partners over the course of this initiative."

This latest grant is in addition to a 1.1 million dollar contribution to the project previously made by Vancouver's "Streetohome Foundation" (www.streetohome.org). That donation included a $275,000 grant from the "Vancouver Foundation" (www.vancouverfoundation.bc.ca). Both organizations are helping tackle homelessness in Vancouver.

The Mental Health Commission of Canada is a non-profit organization created to focus national attention on mental health issues. The MHCC does not provide services, but rather acts as a catalyst for action.


For further information:

Nujma Bond, Mental Health Commission of Canada, (403) 385-4033

Catharine Hume, Vancouver At Home/Chez Soi project, (604) 688-2204

Also see:

The Mental Health Commission of Canada Announces a Framework for a Mental Health Strategy for Canada

MHCC Launches National Research Project to Find Sustainable Solutions for People With Mental Health Issues Who Are Homeless

A news release distributed today by the Mental Health Commission of Canada:

Study will investigate 'Housing First' approach

TORONTO, Nov. 23 /CNW Telbec/ - The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) has implemented a ground-breaking national research project in five cities to find the best way to provide housing and services to people who are living with mental illness and homelessness. Using a 'Housing First' approach, the research project focuses on first providing people who are homeless with a place to live, and then the other assistance and services they require. The goal is to see if this approach is better than traditional 'care as usual.'

A total of 2,285 people who are homeless and living with a mental illness will participate in the study. Of these, 1,325 participants in the research project will be given a place to live and offered a range of housing, health and social support services over the course of the research initiative. These supports include help with maintaining a home, undertaking routine tasks like shopping or getting to a doctor's appointment or securing opportunities for education, volunteering and employment. The rest of the participants will receive the services that are currently available in the five test sites. Both groups will be compared to see which approach works best.

"The study will produce evidence on whether providing a place, plus services, will better support reintegration into functional, meaningful living," said Dr. Jayne Barker, Director, At Home/Chez Soi Project. "Another research question is cost. Will it cost less to house and provide services than it would if these marginalized individuals were in hospitals, prisons and shelters?" said Dr. Paula Goering, Research Lead, At Home/Chez Soi Project.

The At Home/Chez Soi project is the largest of its kind in Canada. The research will help make Canada a world leader in providing better services to people living with homelessness and mental illness. Each test site will focus on a specific target population within the overall study group.

Toronto's project will provide specialized services for people from diverse ethno-cultural backgrounds. Moncton will examine the shortages of services for Anglophones and Francophones, and Montreal will focus on the outcomes related to social housing, as well as helping people to return to the workplace. In Winnipeg, the needs of urban Aboriginal people will be highlighted, while Vancouver's project is aimed at people with addictions and substance abuse problems.

The MHCC is working closely with many partners on this project, including provincial and municipal levels of government, researchers, many local service providers and individuals who have experienced homelessness and mental illness. "This research initiative is meant to represent a significant step forward in understanding and reducing the incidence of homelessness in Canada," said the Honourable Michael Kirby, Chair of the MHCC.

In Toronto, services will be provided in eight different languages and approximately 57 per cent of the participants will come from immigrant and ethno-racial groups. 300 participants in the Toronto research group will get housing units within a number of different locations across the city, including apartments, where they can stay for the duration of the project.

Participants in the Housing First model will have to pay a portion of their rent, will meet with program staff once a week, and will be encouraged to make use of the support services. 260 participants in the non-Housing First group will meet with an interviewer every three months.

A unique focus of the Toronto project will be the development and evaluation of a Housing First ethno-racial intensive case management model for people who are homeless from different ethno-racial groups. One hundred participants will be served by this innovative program, and will have access to holistic, culturally appropriate and linguistically competent services and supports.

Key partners in the Toronto demonstration project include: the Government of Canada, COTA Health, Across Boundaries, the Centre for Research on Inner City Health - St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto North Support Services, the City of Toronto, and Housing Connections.

"A recent survey found more than 5,000 people are homeless each night in the City of Toronto. Our hope is that this project will help us find best practices and long-term solutions for all people in this city with homelessness and mental health issues, as well as Canadians in similar circumstances in communities right across the country," said Faye More, Toronto Site Coordinator.

Previous related research suggests that the provision of housing and support services may be effective. For example, a joint report by Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary found each person who is homeless in B.C. costs taxpayers $55,000 a year in health, corrections and social services. The report concluded that if housing and support were offered to these people, it would cost the system much less -- $37,000 a year -- a savings of $18,000, or 33 per cent per person per year. According to Corrections Canada, the cost of incarceration in a federal prison averages $90,000 per year, per inmate.

The Mental Health Commission of Canada is a non-profit organization created to focus national attention on mental health issues and to work to improve the health and social outcomes of people living with mental illness. In February 2008, the federal government allocated $110 million to the MHCC to find ways to help the growing number of people who are homeless and have a mental illness. Updates on the study will be posted on the MHCC website at www.mentalhealthcommission.ca.

For further information: or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Micheal Pietrus, Director of Communications, MHCC, (O) (403) 255-5808, (O) (403) 385-4037, mpietrus@mentalhealthcommisson.ca;

Nujma Bond, At Home/Chez Soi Communications, MHCC, (O) (403) 385-4033, (C) (403) 826-3942, nbond@mentalhealthcommission.ca;

Charmain Emerson, Strategic Communications Inc. for MHCC, (O) (416) 588-8514, (C) (416) 857-9401, charmain@building-blocks.ca;

Susan King, Strategic Communications Inc. for MHCC, (O) (613) 744-8282, (C) (613) 725-5901, susanking@sympatico.ca

Also see:

Housing first for mentally ill homeless

‘I've gone through a metamorphosis'

An article published in yesterday's edition of The Globe and Mail:

Stability is the key to managing mental illness, experts suggest. André Picard looks at a Montreal project that puts housing first, providing troubled homeless people a stable home of their own

By André Picard

Ricardo Maddalena has lived in many places over the past four decades: fleabag apartments, a psychiatric hospital, prison, rooming houses and on the streets.

Four years ago, he finally found a home.

The 58-year-old, who suffers from severe schizophrenia and has struggled with alcoholism since his teens, moved into an innovative housing project in downtown Montreal that is operated by Chambreclerc, a non-profit group in the city that offers housing to long-time homeless men and women with severe psychiatric disabilities.

“Since I moved here, I've gone through a metamorphosis,” Mr. Maddalena says.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Also see:

Homelessness: By the numbers

Harm reduction: Contentious, but experts say it works

Photo Credit: John Morstad for The Globe and Mail

Housing First ACT Team

To understand 'housing first' and Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), the following is an excellent overview.

From the RainCity Housing and Support Society's website:

Housing First ACT Team

In response to the growing challenge of homelessness in Canada, the Mental Health Commission of Canada is sponsoring Research Development Projects on Mental Health and Homelessness. These projects will take place in five cities across Canada, including Vancouver, with services beginning in September 2009 and ending on March 31, 2013.

Each project is designed to answer questions about what services and supports best achieve housing stability and improved health and well-being for persons who are homeless and living with a serious mental illness.

In Vancouver, the research will also have a focus on people with a concurrent substance addiction. It will be conducted on four service models:

• An Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team with rent supplements

• An Intensive Case Management team with rent supplements

• A staffed building with clinical and support services

• The usual care provided in the community

RainCity Housing’s ACT team

RainCity Housing’s role in the Vancouver Project Team is developing the ACT team. The ACT team is based on the Pathways to Housing model from New York which incorporates a ‘housing first’ approach into the Assertive Community Treatment model.

Housing first is a recovery-oriented supportive housing approach that offers homeless people living with a mental illness immediate access to rent supplements so they can live in the same kinds of apartments that are typically available to people that don’t have a mental illness.

The rent supplements are provided without requiring participation in psychiatric or substance use treatment and will be available to clients throughout the course of the project. Self-determination, choice and harm reduction are at the centre of all considerations with respect to the provision of housing and ACT services.

ACT is a well researched evidence-based transdisciplinary model that includes a broad array of clinical and support services. The team will support 100 clients at a client-staff ratio of 10:1. 80% of the work will occur in the community and crisis support is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Program staff are closely involved in hospital admissions and discharges. Clients will be randomly assigned to the ACT team by the research team.