City of Waterloo endorses ‘Solve The Crisis’ Campaign to tackle homelessness

City of Waterloo council is officially onboard with a larger campaign to deal with housing, mental health and addictions issues.

The Solve The Crisis campaign was launched by the Big City Mayors group, calling on the provincial and federal governments to commit to immediate action to solve what is described as a humanitarian crisis.

Waterloo council on Monday voted unanimously in favour of endorsing the campaign.

The main hallmark of that campaign is a call from the collective mayors of Ontario’s biggest cities for one provincial ministry to deal with all issues surrounding homelessness.

A statement from Waterloo city hall describes it as asking “that the provincial and federal governments provide adequate, sufficient and sustainable funding to ensure that municipalities have the tools and resources to support individuals suffering with mental health and addictions, including unhoused people and those from vulnerable populations that may be disproportionately impacted.”

The motion from Mayor Dorothy McCabe to endorse the campaign includes acknowlegement that the provincial and federal governments have provided funding for homelessness issues in the past.

But it goes on to say cities are “lacking the expertise, capacity, or resources to address the increasingly complex health care and housing issues.”