Groups tackling homelessness in N.S. welcome federal cash, but there's a catch

Agencies that administer federal funding for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Nova Scotia have had their budgets more than doubled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While community organizations welcome the extra money, it comes with a catch: it has to be spent in the next three months, which means it won't create any long-term solutions.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality's community entity received about $250,000 at the beginning of the pandemic, and has another $645,000 to disburse from the federal Reaching Home fund. 

"It's a significant amount of money in the community, but when you start talking about purchasing, renovating or constructing new affordable housing, it just won't go that far," said Billy Hill, co-ordinator of the community entity in Sydney, which is tasked with addressing homelessness in CBRM.

"Unfortunately, the amount of money that I have, we would be lucky to put up one apartment building ... so it's not necessarily meant to create a lot of affordable housing, which is really what we need in CBRM."

The pandemic funding from the government is over and above Hill's annual budget of about $800,000, which typically goes to shelters, food banks, service providers and outreach agencies. The extra cash has to be spent by the government's fiscal year-end of March 31.

Hill recently took out a newspaper ad seeking applications for funding from local organizations.

Because of the tight time frame, he said the money will likely go toward cleaning supplies, personal protective equipment or quick capital improvements.

"With more time, we probably could maybe find some partnerships and have something bigger happen ... but three months is not a lot of time," said Hill.

Still, he said, the money has gone to good use.

Last summer, the federal funding helped the Loaves and Fishes community kitchen and food bank buy takeout containers for clients while its dining hall was closed due to pandemic restrictions. 

The community entity also helped fund a project by the Ally Centre of Cape Breton, which installed porta-potties throughout urban centres in CBRM.

Federal funds to address homelessness in the rest of the province are administered by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia based in Halifax.

Jim Graham, the association's executive director, said he is not advertising for funding applications.

"It's only three months," he said. "It's really a tiny, tiny window."

Association hopes for permanent solutions

Graham said a large part of his budget has already been spent on temporary housing for people who are homeless in Halifax and there's no shortage of other projects needing funding. There has been very little call for funding outside the Halifax Regional Municipality, he said.

The association's annual federal funding is usually a little more than $2 million for HRM and $800,000 for the rest of the province, excluding CBRM.

Graham said federal money to counter the effects of the pandemic added another $2.5 million to its HRM budget and an additional $900,000 for rural communities. But he said there's not much left to go around.

With vaccines rolling out over the next few months, it is hoped the need for pandemic funding to assist people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness will ease up.

"It would be nice to just focus on some permanent solutions as opposed to, you know, this finger-in-the-dike kind of approach," said Graham.

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