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A London agency has been granted nearly $2 million by city hall to keep operating its drop-in and overnight shelter spaces until year-end, but not without criticism of the move and questions about what happens if the money doesn’t keep flowing.
City council voted 12-3 to grant Ark Aid Street Mission $1.8 million from reserve funding for shelter spaces first introduced under the city’s recent winter response to homelessness but since pitched as a year-round expansion of the city’s shelter capacity.
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Council voted Tuesday to continue funding through December for 24-hour assessment, 40 drop-in spaces and 30 temporary overnight spaces at the agency’s Dundas Street location, and 60 transitional beds at 432 William St. The same beds were granted a boost of nearly $700,000 in May to extend their use through June and July.
City staff will also come back with a proposal for next year’s budget update to operate the beds year-round through March 2027 at a cost of $4.3 million a year.
Councillors Susan Stevenson, Steve Lehman and Steven Hillier voted against funding Ark Aid for the rest of the year, but all other politicians endorsed the move.
While council praised Ark Aid for stepping up to provide the majority of the city’s winter response on short notice, the second funding boost in two months for the agency came with a warning by Mayor Josh Morgan to not count on city funding forever.
“Our decision is, do we spend this money now and try to figure out a way forward?” he asked. “We cannot in the long run continue to support (it), to the level that we are, on the backs of the property tax base — it is not sustainable.”
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That sentiment is why council unanimously approved a motion to lobby senior governments to cover the $4.3 million cost for the beds in future.
The meeting began with sharp opposition to the extension by Coun. Susan Stevenson, the ward councillor for the area that takes in Ark Aid’s headquarters.
“The neighbourhood doesn’t want it, and . . . . is worse (off) for these paid services than it is without them,” she said. “It is unsustainable for the businesses and the residents who live there.”
She said approving the extension, and not securing funding from Ottawa or Queen’s Park, could put council “in a very difficult place” during budget talks this fall. Politicians would have to decide whether to add 0.5 per cent to the property tax increase for 2025, or look at bed closings during the winter, she said.
The appetite to extend city funding in future seemed tepid, as politicians stressed the importance of outside funding but also wondered what the fallout would be without the beds.
“I agree with my colleagues that have said, without these beds, what would the situation be like? Because it’s really hard to understand and imagine what we might be facing,” said Coun. Corrine Rahman.
“One of the things I heard loud and clear when I was campaigning: The importance to Londoners that we deal with our housing and homelessness situation,” she said. “I think by not giving Ark Aid this money, it’s not going to solve the problem.”
Morgan’s budget will be unveiled in late October. Council will have a chance to weigh in on that draft, potentially including Ark Aid’s continued funding.
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