The following article appeared in the February 12 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
The City of Guelph hasn’t put aside any funding for a new youth shelter yet, but that could soon change.
The joint Guelph-Wellington social services committee is to vote tomorrow on a recommendation to approve funding for Wyndham House to provide an overnight shelter for youth at risk, something that has been missing since Change Now closed last summer.The cost will be about $72,000 over three months in 2008, or nearly $300,000 for all of 2009, according to the county’s report. The shelter would be entirely funded by the city, the report said.
The city has not included those costs in its budget plans so far, but it would be possible to find the money during the budget process, said Sue Aram, Guelph’s manager of budgets and reporting.
“It’s always an option,” she said.
“Either we would have to find another source of funding or increase the tax rate.”
To put it into context, it takes $1.4 million to raise the tax rate by about one per cent, Aram said.
After Change Now closed with no explanation in June, the United Way of Guelph and Wellington — a principle funder of the shelter — put out a request for proposals for agencies to run a new shelter. Wyndham House was the only agency that applied, but it later said it did not have enough funding to cover those costs.
The option of funding the shelter from municipal coffers was raised at last month’s committee meeting.
Mayor Karen Farbridge said she would support the city finding some money to help run the shelter.
“On a personal level, I feel that this is a much-needed service,” she said. “It should have been opened this winter.”
Farbridge added the county has a surplus in its social housing budget, which is one option for coming up with the funding. However, she said she didn’t agree with the county’s proposal for the city to foot the entire bill.
“This isn’t just a city issue,” she said. “The purpose of the shelter is to be there for youth, whether they previously had a city address or they previously had a county address.”
But county social services director Kim Warner said the youth shelter primarily serves youth from the city.
“From the usage we have seen over the years, virtually no county kids are going to it,” he said.
Two other Guelph councillors who sit on the county committee, Vicki Beard and Bob Bell, both said they would support city funding for the shelter. So did Wellington County Coun. Brad Whitcombe.
“In the bigger picture, if we really help vulnerable youth, we can save money in the long run,” said Whitcombe, the mayor of Puslinch Township. “If you look at the overall investment, it’s fairly modest.
“There seemed to me to be a lot of enthusiasm from the city representatives. I hope that positive attitude prevails.”