Regional council debates A Better Tent City’s place in homelessness plan

The Region of Waterloo’s Plan to End Chronic Homelessness was a focal point at council chambers Tuesday.

Multiple motions in relation to the plan were tabled, and there was disagreement on a request from Councillor Michael Harris.

Harris was looking to direct staff to collect data and metrics from A Better Tent City, a community organization that has already been approved for two years of funding, that shows their alignment with the region’s approach.

Councillors were on board with the request for data, though some raised concerns about the specific wording of the motion, where Harris was asking that funding be withheld until A Better Tent City provides that information.

“If Councillor Harris wants to bring a motion that takes out the part about payment and wants to talk about accountability and some parameters being added, we can have that conversation. That’s fair,” said Councillor Rob Deutschmann. “We can not now say after approving the funding that we’re not giving you the funding unless you agree to certain terms. That is inappropriate.”

Meanwhile Councillor Vrbanovic also shared concerns about why A Better Tent City was not informed about the item being on the meeting agenda.

“If we want to be effective community engagers… then I think it means letting people know so that at least they can choose whether to delegate or not,” said Vrbanovic. “Based on that, I will move a motion to defer to council… so they have the opportunity to add their voice to this. It’s part of democracy, quite frankly.”

That deferral was approved. The next regional council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 21.

Later during the Special Council meeting, a new plan for the $10.2 million of funding was approved for the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. The original Fee for Service Requests will be cut down by 10 per cent, allowing an extra $300,000 to be used on other Plan to End Chronic Homelessness budget requests.

You can read more about that decision here.