HPS Funding Announcement

The Homelessness Partnership Strategy is essentially the same program that has been funding homelessness initiatives across Canada for over a decade.  What has changed recently is the City of Kamloops' role in assisting with distributing the funds.  This is great news because more of the decisions will be made locally, and the process will be more respionsive, saving time and money:

 

 

FROM http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20120628/KAMLOOPS0101/120629787/-1/KAMLOOPS/city-takes-on-1-million-responsibility-for-the-homeless

City takes on $1-million responsibility for the homeless

By Sylvie Paillard, Kamloops Daily News Staff Reporter

 

The federal government is entrusting the City of Kamloops with $1 million in homelessness funding to be dispersed until 2014.

The funds resulting from the Homelessness Partnership Strategy needed an administrative and accountability component before they could be handed over.

The City was happy to step into that role, said Peter Milobar during a joint federal-municipal announcement on Thursday.

"When we were asked if we would be the community agency to see the money flow through for homelessness in Kamloops it was a very easy decision for council to make and agree to," said Milobar.

"(The agreement) gives Ottawa that ease which they need to make sure the taxpayers' dollars are being spent with accountability."

The funding has already been earmarked for a variety of programs and projects thanks to the Kamloops working group on homelessness, a community advisory board that drafted the disbursement plan four months ago after receiving applications, according to Dana Lee Baker, member of the Homelessness Action Plan, which sat on the community advisory board.
Housing and homeless support programs, which remain unnamed until future federal funding announcements, will receive money on a monthly basis until 2014.

"This is a great step forward in trying to address homelessness issues in Kamloops," said Milobar. "We've seen great strides already with work that the Homelessness Action Plan is doing in terms of bringing groups together and trying to co-ordinate and work collaboratively with all the agencies that are all trying to provide housing and different resources for those in the community at risk."

The Homelessness Partnering Strategy connects provinces, federal departments, communities and the private and not-for-profit sectors to bring stability into the lives of displaced and vulnerable residents.

The strategy is a more efficient and logical approach to dealing with homelessness than a federal one-size-fits-all solution, said McLeod.