London’s Homeless Prevention team is leading its first ever Housing Stability week. The team is working to house as many people as possible.
So far this week we’ve been able to provide housing to 35 adults and 3 children through 33 units and have connected many individuals and families with the immediate supports they required,” says Craig Cooper, Manager of Homeless Prevention at the City of London.
The city took this intensive and collaborative initiative to bring community partners and organizations together to rapidly access housing needs and facilitate housing placements for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in London.
“Our Goal”
“Our goal is to connect with Londoners experiencing with sheltered and unsheltered homelessness and provide support that helps people move towards housing stability this week.” Says Zane Estabrook, educational and training specialist for Homeless Prevention.
The team provides individuals and families facing or at risk of facing homelessness with a centralized access point to services and programs. The initiative is one of the short-term actions identified in the Core Area Action Plan.
“Key needs” 
The Plan addresses four key needs:
· people struggling with homelessness and health issues need help
· people need to feel safe and secure
· businesses need an environment that allows them to be successful
· and, the Core Area needs to attract more people.
With winter right around the corner, housing prevention is hoping to make a larger dent in the housing wait list and are looking for community and private landlords with affordable housing options available to help get more individuals the housing they need.
Estabrook says they urge landlords to connect people into housing as much as possible.
“And please also if there are any Landlords listening, we are still actively seeking units. And filling those as people through the door here.” Estabrook says.
“More donations are needed”
In addition to affordable housing options, the City is also asking for clothing donations.
Estabrook says they have received a tremendous response from the community, organizations, and individuals in the community in regards to donations.
“It just has been car after car bringing really needed items to help make this week a success. Things are flying at the door pretty quick. So, continue to encourage community, to bring donations in, those are always welcome all the way through the end of Friday.” Estabrook says.
The team encourages more donations including the following items:
· Winter coats
· Winter boots
· Winter gloves, hats and scarves
· Men’s clothing in sizes small and medium
· Women and men’s clothing in size extra-large
· Sweaters – any size
· Pants – any size
Clothing donations can be dropped off at Silverwood’s Arena (50 Sycamore St.) 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until Friday November 1, 2019.
The first two days of Housing Stability Week saw close to 290 individuals attend Silverwood’s Arena seeking immediate housing and supports including financial, health and social services. With a large number of people coming in, the Homeless Prevention consulted the corporate security of the city to ensure they had all the health and safety measures in control.
“Silverwood prior to the event, we consulted with the corporate security of the city of London. We consulted with human resources from health and safety perspective and we borrowed quite a bit from the emergency response team within the city of London as well.” Estabrook says. 
The team got representation from multiple different London service areas. Emergency shelters, housing first programs, veteran services, addiction services, Thames valley, and the no fix address project through London health sciences. CHMA is also supporting.
“Homeless prevention and housing are a complex issue facing all of London and an issue we can’t solve alone. We’ve been working together with many community partners and agencies to make as much impact during this week as possible.” Cooper says.
To help make it easier for private landlords to offer affordable housing options, the City offers landlord supports including direct rent payment through Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program, financial supplements, support for the housed individual, and dispute resolution support.
Landlords interested in offering affordable housing are encouraged to connect with Danielle Neilson at 226-926-7192.
“We want to continue to work with our community partners. We want to continue to work with landlords and we’ll be continuing to work all throughout this week and beyond to ensure as many people as we can have housing stability.” Estabrook says.
