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2. RENT BANK BANQUE D’AIDE AU LOYER |
Committee RecommendationS
That Council approve:
1. Authorize the Manager
of the City’s Policy, Evaluation and Community Partnerships Branch to receive
rent bank program funding from the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing,
to administer a rent bank program in accordance with the 2009 Rent Bank
Agreement and the rules thereof, and to negotiate and execute a service
agreement with a local not-for-profit corporation to operate a rent bank
program in accordance with the requirements of the 2009 Rent Bank
Agreement.
2. Authorize all
payments of rent bank program funding on a grant basis and in accordance with
Provincial Rules set out in the agreement.
RecommandationS DU Comité
Que le Conseil approuve :
1. autorise le directeur
des Politiques sociales, de l’Évaluation et des Partenariats communautaires à
recevoir des crédits du ministre des Affaires municipales et du Logement dans
le cadre du Programme des banques d’aide au loyer, afin d’assurer l’administration
d’un programme de banque d’aide au loyer conformément à l’Entente de 2009 sur
les banques d’aide au loyer et aux règles qui s’y rattachent; ainsi qu’à
négocier et à signer une entente de services avec une société sans but lucratif
locale en vue de la réalisation d’un programme de banque d’aide au loyer
conforme aux exigences de l’entente de 2009 sur les banques d’aide au loyer.
2. autorise le versement
des crédits du programme de banque d’aide au loyer sous la forme de
subventions, en conformité avec les règles provinciales énoncées dans
l’entente.
Documentation
1.
Deputy
City Manager's report, City Operations dated 10 August 2009
(ACS2009-COS-CAS-0015).
Community and
Protective Services Committee
Comité des services communautaires et de protection
and Council / et au Conseil
10 August 2009/ le 10 août 2009
Submitted by/Soumis par:
Steve Kanellakos, Deputy City
Manager/Directeur municipal adjoint,
City Operations/Opérations municipales
Contact Person/Personne ressource:
Colleen Hendrick, Manager, Policy, Evaluation and Community
Partnerships Branch, Community and Social Services Department/ Gestionnaire,
Direction des politiques, de l’évaluation et des partenariats communautaires, Services
sociaux et communautaires
(613)
580-2424 x/poste 24366, colleen.hendrick@ottawa.ca
SUBJECT:
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OBJET :
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That the Community and Protective Services Committee recommends that
Council:
1.
Authorize the Manager of the City’s Policy, Evaluation and Community
Partnerships Branch to receive rent bank program funding from the Minister of
Municipal Affairs and Housing, to administer a rent bank program in accordance
with the 2009 Rent Bank Agreement and the rules thereof, and to negotiate and
execute a service agreement with a local not-for-profit corporation to operate
a rent bank program in accordance with the requirements of the 2009 Rent Bank
Agreement.
2.
Authorize all payments of rent
bank program funding on a grant basis and in accordance with Provincial Rules
set out in the agreement.
Que le Comité des
services communautaires et de protection
recommande au Conseil :
1.
d’autoriser le directeur
des Politiques sociales, de l’Évaluation et des Partenariats communautaires à
recevoir des crédits du ministre des Affaires municipales et du Logement dans
le cadre du Programme des banques d’aide au loyer, afin d’assurer
l’administration d’un programme de banque d’aide au loyer conformément à
l’Entente de 2009 sur les banques d’aide au loyer et aux règles qui s’y
rattachent; ainsi qu’à négocier et à signer une entente de services avec une
société sans but lucratif locale en vue de la réalisation d’un programme de
banque d’aide au loyer conforme aux exigences de l’entente de 2009 sur les
banques d’aide au loyer.
2.
d’autoriser
le versement des crédits du programme de banque d’aide au loyer sous la forme
de subventions, en conformité avec les règles provinciales énoncées dans
l’entente.
The City
of Ottawa has, since September 2004, received and administered “Rent Bank” funding
from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) which provided
financial assistance of up to two months of rent to tenants who are at the
point of losing their housing because of rental arrears. The goal is to prevent homelessness, which
is costly for both the province and municipality, and disruptive to individuals
and families including the affected children.
From
2004 to 2008, the City received Rent Bank funding from MMAH totalling $2.3 million. The City’s former Employment and Financial
Assistance Branch and the Salvation Army distributed the Rent Bank funding. The City’s Homelessness Initiatives Team, of the
Policy, Evaluation and Community Partnerships Branch, oversees and administers
the funding contract. Since January 2009, the City has contracted with the
Salvation Army to distribute all the Rent Bank funding.
Ottawa’s share of the $5 million annual provincial funding ($368,402) is determined on an equal weighting of the area’s population, level of core housing need, and percentage of renter population. CMHC defines core housing need as “households who are unable to afford shelter that meets adequacy, suitability, and affordability norms. The norms have been adjusted over time to reflect the housing expectations of Canadians. Affordability, one of the elements used to determine core housing need, is recognized as a maximum of 30 per cent of the household income spent on shelter”.
Ottawa’s Rent Bank Program
Ottawa’s Rent Bank is mainly used
by employed people with low incomes. During
2007 and 2008, an average of 318 Ottawa households per year received an average
of $1,323 grant per household ($421,000
was distributed each year, on average).
Applicants
requesting Rent Bank assistance typically have high rent in comparison to their
low incomes. Additionally, many have
recently encountered a major situation such as a birth or death in the family,
loss of employment or other change in household income, family breakdown, etc. Many are dealing with temporary employment,
the shortage of appropriate affordable housing, etc.
The process to assess applicants’ eligibility for Rent Bank assistance includes a review to ensure that the client will be able to afford the housing after the arrears have been paid; and an assessment to determine if the housing is appropriate for the client’s household.
Other Arrears Programs
Where tenants are not eligible under the Rent Bank
Program, other programs exist that can assist applicants with arrears payments
to avoid eviction. Ontario Works or
Ontario Disability Support Program clients with rental arrears are often
eligible for mandatory and/or discretionary benefits that are cost-shared with
the province. Low-income applicants may
be eligible for Emergency Assistance, as well as other benefits, to cover the
costs of arrears. These are also cost-shared. The Essential Health and Social
Supports Program can also provide assistance to low income residents. This
program is 100% city funded. It is in
the City’s interest to prevent residents from becoming homeless and therefore
staff will continue to work with the Rent Bank Program to ensure that as many
eligible applicants as possible are supported to retain their housing,
including households residing in rent geared to income units.
DISCUSSION
Under the terms of the Rent Bank Agreement, the City is required,
by October 31st 2009, to demonstrate that City Council has:
The new Rent Bank program’s rules,
(similar to previous rules) will be effective October 1, 2009, and are
summarized as follows:
(1)
To be eligible for Rent Bank assistance, the applicant must
(2)
The funding must be paid directly to the applicant’s landlord and not to
the applicant, and the amount of the assistance may not exceed two times the
average market rent for the City of Ottawa, as set by the Ministry.
(3) Payments
of Program Funding for applicants shall be in the form of a loan and/or grant,
to be used only for rental arrears, and at a maximum frequency of once every
two years. Council has discretion to decide whether the payments are issued as
a grant or as a loan.
(4) Up to 10% of the Program Funding may be
used for administrative costs.
As mentioned, CMHC recognizes housing affordability as a maximum of 30% household income contribution towards shelter. Many of Rent Bank clients are paying from 50 to 60 %, with some extreme cases paying between 60 and 70 % of their income on rent due to unforeseen circumstances. As a result, there may be insufficient income to cover food, transportation, clothing and other costs of daily living for a period of time.
This reality coupled with the fact that eligibility for Rent Bank assistance includes a review to ensure that the client will be able to afford the housing after the arrears have been paid and an assessment to determine if the housing is appropriate, provides some reassurance that issuances will stabilize the household with a one time intervention.
However, the program’s goal of
preventing homelessness would not be served if that issuance was a loan,
increasing these low-income clients’ debt loads and stress levels as a result
of the need for repayment. Also, this program
is already administratively overburdened, notwithstanding adding loan
collection to the workload.
Ten Percent Administration Costs
An issue to many municipalities,
including Ottawa, is the Ministry’s continued 10% maximum limit on the amount
of Rent Bank funding that may be used for administrative costs, The City
currently contracts with the Salvation Army to operate this program, but given
the funding reduction to $368,402, the available $36,840 in administration
funding would only allow that agency to provide less than one full-time staff
position. With the reduced funding, the
Rent Bank’s office should handle a reduced caseload of approximately 250 annual
cases as well as the related reporting, recording and auditing requirements set
out in the contract. (The past level of
service, when some of the funding was distributed by the City, provided 318
grants per year averaging $1,323 each.) City staff has advised MMAH that the
10% maximum administrative funding is inadequate, but there is no indication
that the Ministry is considering changes. Staff will continue to advocate for
an increase in administrative funding limits.
If the City is unable to contract
with a local non-profit organization to administer this program after March 31,
2010, the City’s Social Services Centres may administer the program. The City will use the 10% administration
funding, and leverage Social Services’ Centre staff to administer the program.
Therefore, staff recommends that
Council accept the new program as written by the province, in order to secure
this program funding, without which the City’s funding agreement will end on
October 31, 2009, including the staff recommendation that assistance be
provided as grants (not loans) to avoid placing additional hardship on City of
Ottawa low-income tenants.
The Salvation Army has agreed to continue to administer the Rent Bank funding until at least March 31, 2010 provided that the funding continues to be given as grants rather than loans. Before that period expires, the City will issue an Expression of Interest to determine if an appropriate non-profit community agency, including the Salvation Army, is able to administer this program within the available funding.
The City’s Business Support & Integration Branch of the Community and Social Services Department has confirmed that if possible, all the funding should continue to be distributed through a non-profit community agency but that it will distribute the funding if that is not possible.
FINANCIAL
IMPLICATIONS
The Rent Bank program is 100% funded by the Province. If the City is unsuccessful in contracting with a local non-profit agency to administer this program, the Community and Social Services Department will deliver the program within the existing 10% administration allocation with no additional cost to the City.
There
are no legal/risk management impediments to implementing the recommendation in
this report.
SUPPORTING
DOCUMENTATION
Document 1- Rent Bank
Agreement with Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (On file with the
City Clerk’s office.)
DISPOSITION
Community and Social Services Department will implement the decision of Council.