Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Réseau SOLIDARITÉ Itinérance du Québec, or RSIQ, team would like to express our gratitude to the members of the Standing Committee on Finance for this invitation. We welcome the consultative work you are doing to analyze the special measures that have been taken during this pandemic.
The RSIQ now includes 15 regional homelessness networks throughout Quebec. We are talking about 330 community homelessness organizations that offer services such as emergency housing, supervised consumption sites, street work resources, resources for women, day centres and organizations for troubled youth.
Founded in 1998, the RSIQ is a privileged interlocutor in Quebec. It is also the initiator of the National Policy to Fight Homelessness, which was adopted at the Quebec National Assembly in 2014. This policy is broken down into five priority areas of intervention. The first is housing, the second is health and social services, the third is income, the fourth is education as well as social and socio-professional integration, and the fifth is social cohabitation and issues related to court referral.
Many indicators are in the red right now and we anticipate that there will be an increase in homelessness-related needs in the coming years. It is imperative that our five axes be addressed. We also need to give more flexibility and capacity to community groups.
With respect to the emergency funding programs that were deployed during the COVID-19 crisis, we applaud the fact that the federal government quickly put in place substantial funding for Reaching Home: Canada's Homelessness Strategy - COVID-19, which we also refer to as VCS COVID 3. This funding allowed our members to develop services to urgently address the needs of people experiencing homelessness. However, we have faced the following limitations. While the amounts are substantial, the funding provided through the Homelessness Strategy - COVID-19 does not provide community groups with the flexibility to respond to the challenges they face, such as labour shortages, worker burnout, increased distress among those being served, and so on. They must therefore redouble their efforts to continue to respond well to the needs of people experiencing homelessness.
Unfortunately, all of these constraints have made it very difficult to adequately address the needs of populations that are too often overlooked, such as women, LGBTQ2S people, youth, indigenous persons, and people who use drugs. We had to commit huge amounts of money very quickly. I give you as an example what we call VCS COVID 3, which was up to $40 million for Quebec. We were asked to spend in three months, without offering us any flexibility, the amount of money we usually have for a year.
The guidance, in the case of these amounts, confirmed that the money could be committed from April 1 to June 30. Yet the groups did not receive the funds until January. History is repeating itself. We still don't know what will happen after July 1 in terms of the continuity of VCS COVID 3. As a result, groups have begun announcing service disruptions. Workers are now seeking employment. We need to at all costs announce these dates as soon as possible.
We report in our evaluation that the VCS COVID 3 dollars have not allowed agencies to act with sufficient flexibility to meet the challenges brought on by increased need while overcoming the barriers created by the health environment.
Considering that the negative effects of the pandemic will have alarming social repercussions for several years to come, it is necessary to move beyond the emergency and to look further ahead by working in a preventive mode and developing structuring measures for the future. Here are our four recommendations: 1) that the dates for the use of the $289 million that constitute the VCS COVID 3 envelope be confirmed as soon as possible and that these funds be available as early as July 1; 2) that, in order to allow for more flexibility, the $567 million that have been announced for the 2022-24 budget be allocated to the regular envelopes and not to the emergency envelopes; 3) that, as agreed to in the Canada-Quebec Reaching Home COVID 3 agreement, the funds be allocated respecting the comprehensive approach set out in the National Policy to Fight Homelessness, and the jurisdiction of the Quebec government; 4) that what was mentioned to us when the agreement was signed be respected and that accountability in the case of groups be lightened.
With respect to the rapid housing initiative, RHI, while our members reacted favourably to the announcement concerning the creation of this program, the application process is unfortunately problematic. Many groups were not able to apply for this project because the timelines were so short and the groups were dealing with the effects of the pandemic, which they had to manage.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.