The City of Ottawa is receiving $10.5 million from the federal government to address homelessness and encampments, and while Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante is optimistic, she said she hopes her ward can serve as a warning.
The funding is available through the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative (UHEI), which has inked agreements with the Ontario municipalities of Durham, Toronto, Peel, York, Hamilton, Niagara, London, Waterloo, Ottawa and Sudbury, as well as the Saskatchewan cities Regina and Saskatoon. Collectively, this represents investments of more than $91.5 million over two years. The municipalities will match the federal funding.
Ottawa has said the funding will focus on creating more drop-in spaces with health and housing case management services.
As a result of this investment, city staff will be updating its 10-year housing and homelessness plan, which will be presented to council in 2026, based on partnerships within the community.
Rideau-Vanier Ward contains three shelters — The Ottawa Mission (35 Waller St.), Shepherds of Good Hope (256 King Edward Ave.) and Salvation Army Ottawa Booth Centre (171 George St.) — and while Plante said the drop-in centre will not be in her ward, she said she hopes it can provide comprehensive, wraparound services that will help many of the people living unsheltered within her ward.
“We don’t know yet what the impact will be in my ward specifically,” she told Ottawa Compass. The key to the UHEI is that it focuses on people who are not accessing shelter services and instead living on the street, in cars, or elsewhere.
“There are some people, and this is very true, who don’t want to go to traditional shelters, sometimes because it’s violent, or their stuff gets stolen. Sometimes they get kicked out. That is all fair and very true, and I hear about it all the time,” she explained. “This is a lot of coin for a drop-in. So this better be worthy.
“This will be very interesting to see what it looks like eventually, but I think the one thing I would counsel the city, or anyone who’s coming into this space is that the drop-in should be housing-focused,” Plante continued. “It should be getting people into solution mode.”
There are drop-in services in her ward that offer free laundry, food, showers, and other necessities, she explained. Instead, she hopes this funding can dig a bit deeper into the problem, collect comprehensive data, and guide people to the services they need, whether it be housing, mental health or others.
“It should be a place of navigation, and not just necessarily a place to just have a coffee,” she said. “Those things are great, but for that kind of money, it would be interesting to see what kind of model they set up and how they’re guiding people to solutions.”
In a memo to members of the press, Kale Brown, interim director of housing and homelessness services at the City, said that “although Ottawa continues to have adequate beds within the shelter system, some people choose not to access shelter.” It also said that in 2024, the City of Ottawa saw an all-time high of 350 individuals living unsheltered at one time.
“I hate when people say that ‘shelters are part of the continuum of care’… That insinuates that people have to earn proper housing. You have to live on the street, and then you have to go to a shelter, and then you have to go to transitional housing, then you have to use day programs, and then maybe, at some point, you can get a lease with rent,” Plante explained. “That’s not housing-first.
“Housing is a human right. Everybody should have either supportive or affordable housing. And you should have a place to live. You should be able to close your door. You should be able to go do the washing by yourself. You should not be worried about your neighbours stealing your stuff at 3 a.m.,” she continued. “It’s just wild to me that we are still with this shelter model that came about before the First World War. We’re in 2025, and we can do better.”
She also said she hopes the shelter system in her ward can serve a bit of a “cautionary tale” to the City as it looks to expand housing and homelessness services.
“We still need to have an orientation of trying to get people out of the shelter day program and that hamster wheel. Whatever you put into place with this kind of money, set it up so people are set up for success,” Plante continued. “We don’t want somewhere that says, ‘Oh, it’s 4 p.m.; we have to close now; it’s time for you to go to your shelter.
“It should be a place where people can go for solutions.”
