The definitive answers to all your questions about transitional housing.
Any people coming to transitional housing are vetted, they are given a set of rules and curfews they have to abide by and are instructed and trained by professionals on what they will need to know to be successful in their near futures.
There are no studies that show crime going up in a city, but in fact every study indicates less crime as people once committed to a particular lifestyle became contributing taxpayers and left their old habits behind.
Indigenous youth and adults need access to services that will lead to their success. Access to bus routes, grocery stores and malls leads to higher success rates as it allows saving and planning for the future.
Being able to easily bus to school, college and/or university or to be able to easily get to work has been proven to lead to future success. According to Statistics Canada. 86% of Indigenous people live off-reserve in Ontario.
There no studies that show transitional housing hurting a community yet there are many that show it reduces crime numbers, reduces social assistance funding required and helps women who are on the streets.
Even the most critical studies show it reduces the amount of money being spent on people at risk and improves homeless rates overall, so yes, less money will be spent on crime and social assistance and this leaves more funding overall to improve programs for all.
Transitional housing is actually a well established method of ensuring that communities in a city thrive, Canada unfortunately has fallen victim to the same colonial situations as any other country in the world but it's housing and programs like this that allow people to rejoin the larger community in a healthy and strongly contributing way.
Tax dollars are contributed through people finding new jobs, housing is rented and/or purchased contributing to community growth, issues with jobs and trades having no physical bodies to fill them are alleviated. There are zero studies that show a negative effect from transitional housing.
It's a choice between doing something that is proven to work or to keep spending more and more money on doing nothing at all and leaving things as they are.
"Transitional housing contributes significantly to a city’s economic well-being: for example, Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services pays roughly $7 million every year to local contractors and contributes more than $4 million to property tax revenue. Further, the Homeless Hub reported in 2014 that “spending $10 on housing and supports for chronically homeless individuals with the highest needs, result[s] in $21.72 in savings related to health care, social supports, housing and involvement in the justice system.” When marginalized members of the community are provided services and do not fall farther between the cracks, the cost to that community is much, much lower."
Dr. Travis Hay
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