Which level of government should pick up the tab for homelessness?

The growing number of people experiencing homelessness not just in the region but across Ontario is causing concern for local politicians who don’t want to see the municipality foot the bill that they think upper levels of government should be chipping in for.

While on the Mike Farwell Show, Regional Chair Karen Redman, said it was shocking to everyone to see the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) report that 80,000 people were homeless in the province and that if nothing is done, that number could double in the next decade.

“The timing of this report by AMO, I think couldn’t be better,” said Redman.

“We want all parties to be talking about this in the upcoming year, if there is a provincial election, to say these are supports that are needed and we need all parties to step up during the election.”

According to AMO’s report, an $11 billion investment over ten years is what’s needed to help ease the homelessness crisis. But Redman wants to know who exactly is going to foot that bill.

During the 2025 budget process, the region put over $380 million into the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. Redman would like to see the federal government and province take on some of that funding.

“Just imagine if we could have taken $382 million off this budget.”

The funding will go towards service providers, service partners and shelters.

“Whether its our service delivery partners, whether it’s a not-for-profit agency or for profit, we need spaces where we can provide affordable housing subsidies that can get people into stable housing,” mentioned Redman.

“I can’t say enough about our outreach workers who develop trusted relationships with people who are very broken, sometimes it’s economic factors, it’s family breakdown, it’s unemployment, it could be mental health, it could be addiction or cross addictions, or it could be a variety of all those things, so we need to deal with this one person at a time.”

The region recently released a Point-In-Time (PIT) Count that showed 2,371 individuals were experiencing homelessness in the region, Redman says they know there are more out there.

“For a lot of those people they need wraparound services, that means investing in human resources as well, but it needs to be sustained and steady,” she added.

The region is aiming to end chronic homelessness so people entering a shelter system is short lived and leads to them finding affordable housing.

Redman is confident municipalities know what the solutions are and where to put the investment if it comes in, but what they need is the funding to get it done.