Human Resources committee  I'm going to talk about Parks Canada. I mentioned that there are 44 vacant homes. We talk about sustainability over time. We were able, through various government programs, to raise the capital to take one of those vacant homes. Parks Canada didn't have the capital to do so. Not

Human Resources committee  One of the things that we haven't talked about is partnerships. We say innovation, and it's groups like my organization, Blue Door, working with groups like Community Living in York Region to make sure we're serving them and that we're listening to those lived experts, people wit

Human Resources committee  I agree with what Mr. Pomeroy is saying. This may not be the right fund for that. We do know that for people who need deeply affordable housing and people experiencing homelessness, the private market of rental supply is not cutting it right now, so we need to get more supply int

Human Resources committee  —with a rent geared to income for a long time into the future. I would just add that. Thank you.

Human Resources committee  Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be back. My name is Michael Braithwaite, and I'm the CEO of Blue Door, an organization up in York Region that's been serving our community for about 40 years. For the first 35 of those years, we were primarily focused on emergency housing,

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. It is a pleasure to be here to speak about this very important study. My name is Michael Braithwaite, I am the CEO of Blue Door. Blue Door is an organization in York Region. The population of York Region is about 1.1 million people, and on any given night, a

Health committee  A lot of that is around income supports, bringing the supports to the individuals and also matching the supports to what their needs are, especially for a senior. For seniors, their supports might look a little different—personal support workers, income support, keeping them in

Health committee  Approximately 235,000 people will experience homelessness on any given night.

Health committee  Unfortunately that number has continued to climb.

Health committee  That's CMHC's.

Health committee  Absolutely. For the average room in larger Canadian cities, a room in a house will be $700 to $900. If affordable is 80% of, say, $2,000 for a one-bedroom apartment.... Some people who are receiving government assistance have an income of $700 total in a month. There's a huge gap

Health committee  Sure. We run our youth emergency housing, Kevin's Place, which is in Newmarket. It's in a house. We actually couldn't run that safely at first, because there were shared accommodations—all shared common spaces. We had to move the youth in with men at Porter Place, our men's emer

Health committee  Thank you. It's so nice to see you, Tony. There's a lack of trust by people experiencing homelessness. There's not a lot of trust with systems to begin with. You'll see that with some vaccine hesitancy as well. There's a lot of fear in going into crowded spaces. Unfortunately, w

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question. I think it's just about providing appropriate and affordable supportive housing. That's what we've done with INNclusion. INNclusion is a very inexpensive way to do it. The organization is actually renting a home in the community, and we're

Health committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Michael Braithwaite. I'm the CEO of Blue Door, an agency that's been working for close to 40 years to take care of our most vulnerable through housing help and employment initiatives in York region. Whe