Homelessness initiative enhanced community capacity, HRDC report.

OTTAWA -- More facilities and services are in place to assist the homeless along with enhanced structures to support the development of community capacity since the introduction of the federal National Homeless Initiative says a report from the Human Resources Development Canada. The HRDC asserts that "there has been substantial progress made in most areas of the Initiative."

Among the areas cited for improvement by HRDC were a need to develop clear roles and responsibilities for senior management staff in federal departments and in regions "to ensure a cohesive and coherent federal approach to addressing homelessness," increased collaboration between all three levels of government, a greater focus on transitional and supportive housing, an ongoing need to build community capacity in Aboriginal communities, and continued efforts to develop research on homelessness.

The HRDC asserts that the majority of communities that participated in the NHI benefited from the initiative as far as "increased community capacity and the implementation of a planned approach to addressing homelessness."

The NHI, announced in late 1999, is a three-year plan of the federal government to invest $753 million to help prevent and alleviate homelessness. The plan's funding was intended to address local homelessness issues by enhancing community capacity to do so. Monies were available to "foster investments in facilities and services for homeless people, and to increase knowledge about homelessness in Canada."

The HRDC evaluated the four components of the NHI and their effectiveness. Those areas included the Supporting Community Partnership Initiative, which was the main component of the NHI, and was intended to contribute funding to homelessness services through community-based planning. In the past three years, $305 million was spent in 61 communities with homelessness problems.

The second element, Aboriginal Homelessness and Youth Homelessness added two additional streams of money worth $59 million each over three years to address the disproportionate level of homelessness among Aboriginal peoples, and in particular, the problems of youth homelessness.

In its findings, the HRDC noted that the SCPI was flexible enough to allow communities to fund projects according to their needs while ensuring adequate accountability for federal funds. However, the report also says that conditions placed on the Aboriginal Homelessness funds meant that projects must be focused on employment limited the number of projects and planning, even though those rules were changed in midstream. Consequently, unlike the SCPI where 85 per cent of the funds were spent by July 2002, only 20 per cent of the Aboriginal funds had been allocated.