1. Local Housing and
Homelessness Plans
EOMC
September 2012

2. Local Housing and Homelessness
Plans
Local Plans must include:
1. an assessment of current and future housing needs within
the Service Manager’s service area
2. objectives and targets relating to housing needs
3. a description of activities proposed to meet the objectives
and targets
4. a description of how progress towards meeting the
objectives will be measured
Local Plans are expected to:
– be high level strategic plans that address the entire
housing continuum
– treat housing as a whole system with links to other
municipal planning activities, for example:
– Land-use planning and Official Plan
– Infrastructure planning
– Human services planning
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3. Local Housing and Homelessness
Plans
Other Local Plan requirements:
– 10 year planning horizon, reviewed at least every five
years
– Province will have 90 days to comment on plans before
they are finalized
– Plans are approved by Service Managers
– First plans approved by January 1, 2014
– During plan preparation and review the Service
Managers shall consult with the public
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4. Challenges
• Transition from program planning to strategic systems
thinking
– Including Integration of housing and homelessness
– Strengthening links with other municipal departments, such as land
use planning
• Service Managers have differing levels of experience
with long term planning, governance structures and
political cultures – no one size fits all
• These different environments and increased local
flexibility means Local Plans will vary across the 47
Service Managers
• Need for support to build sector capacity
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5. Housing and Homelessness Resource
Centre (HHRC)
• Partnership between MMAH and OMSSA with AMO,
Toronto, HSC, NOSDA, SMHN
• Additional input from other sector stakeholders such
as CMHC
• Mandate is to develop and deliver tools and resources
needed by Service Managers to develop Local
Housing and Homelessness Plans including:
– Strategic planning of housing and homelessness services
– Consultation and engagement with the local community and
housing sector stakeholders
– Developing methodologies and scoping of need and demand
assessments, including data collection and analysis
– Link to other planning activities including land use planning,
human service plans, and infrastructure planning
– Establish networks of external stakeholders with resources that
can aid with the successful completion of the plans
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6. HHRC
• Primary focus is supporting peer to peer knowledge
transfers in supporting long term plan development
• Supporting system development
– Building capacity to support better local planning
– Tools and training on items such as service integration, public
engagement, data analysis
• Targeting 3 levels
– Smaller Service Managers with limited resources and little
experience with long term system level planning
– Service Managers with some planning experience in Housing or
Homelessness but not yet looking with a long term strategic view
of the whole housing system
– Service Managers with integrated housing and homelessness
plans looking at developing more innovative and targeted
activities to address the housing issues in their communities
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7. HHRC
Areas of specific interest
• Consultation
– with the public during the preparation of local plans (HSA)
– with a broad range of local stakeholders including those who
have experienced homelessness (OHPS)
• Assessment of Current and Future Housing Needs
– the regulation requires that the plan include an assessment of
needs, objectives and targets, measures to meet the objectives
and targets, and progress measurement in relation to housing for
victims of domestic violence and accessible housing for persons
with disabilities
• Procuring resources
– Terms of reference for the project
– Approaching the right consultants
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8. HHRC resources
• Website: www.hhrconline.com
– Resources include templates and checklist
– Guidebook covering major elements of Strategic Plan preparation
– Third party research on important areas for long term planning of
the housing and homelessness system – e.g. evaluation of
homelessness program approaches
– Samples of Service Managers strategic plans
• Other Resources
– Data Profiles for each Service Manager area, and supporting
guide
– Twitter feed @HHRC1 – includes links to discussions and
resources germane to the development of the local plans
• Semi-annual forum
– Spring forum ‘Getting Started’
– Fall Forum ‘Integrating Planning Activities’
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9. HHRC
We’ve come a long way…
• Announcement & brainstorming sessions during the
Dec 2 SMHN meeting
• SM Needs Survey - Released Dec 14
• Preliminary Resource Centre development of tools/
content:
– Online resource library
– Housing & Homelessness Plan Requirements
– Local Plan Table of Contents
– Helpful links
• Enhanced Website Design
• Enhanced Product Development based on Service
Manager Evaluation and Readiness Assessment
• Outreach Program
– Presentations at conferences, local meetings
• SM Workshop/Forum in April 2012
– Survey follow-up
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10. Example: Data Profile
A critical part at the start of plan development is doing a need
and demand assessment for housing in the communities in the
SM territory.
For housing, a wide variety of information can be found in
standard sources such as the census or CMHC sources, and the
challenge is to focus in on the data that best captures the issues,
and to find the expertise to analyse the data and draw
For homelessness and supportive housing, the main data
sources in most cases will be administrative data (e.g. on service
usage, from funders or providers) as well as any special studies
that may exist.
Each service manager will need to make its own decisions about
what data have priority, find out what exists locally, and
determine what is feasible. This list is simply a starting point.
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11. Data Profile
Collection of information from publicly available
sources formatted by SM boundary. Sources include
census and other Statscan data, CMHC, Ministry of
Finance. Coordinated by MMAH.
Information in Data Profile:
1) Age profile and trends
2) Households by age, family type and tenure
3) Housing condition [not shown here]
4) Core housing need and severe need
5) Social housing and waiting list [not shown]
6) Production and prices
7) Market rents and vacancies
These tables enable SM to do an efficient analysis of
basic trends in their communities housing market and
lays a foundation for community consultations and
more detailed analysis.
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12. Age profiles: trends & projections
►What are the trends in age, e.g. how much increase in
seniors; will rise in young adults balance this or not?
►Also becomes a basis for household projections… 12

13. Tenure by age and family type
►How many young families, senior singles, etc., are
owners or renters?
►What segment of the community is directly affected by
rental housing needs?
►Can readily calculate household formation rates to
apply to future population and to project future
households… 13

14. Core housing need
►What is the extent of affordability problems among
owners and among renters?
►What is the extent of severe problems?
►What is the extent of problems among seniors, and
among Aboriginal people? 14

15. Production trends
►How much housing & what sort built in past 5 years?
►Can consider what types of households this may or
may not serve
►Can compare this to net change (in census) and see
what implied loss of rental or other trends 15

16. Rental housing
►What situation and what trends in the price
and availability of market rental apartments?
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17. Data Profile
This information can be used to develop a
basic profile of your communities and identify
the issues which can start the conversations
or change the direction of existing
discussions.
But for the long term management of the
whole housing system we need to develop
more timely, comprehensive and locally
appropriate data ….
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18. Implementation Timeline for Local Housing and
Homelessness Plans
2011 2012 2013 2014
Legislation, policy Training, development Training, final planning Local Plan
direction, training and Planning and approval Implementation
Housing Services Act, MMAH Needs Survey and Consolidated funding
2011 Royal Assent Outreach envelope provided to 10 year Local
(May 4) Service Managers for Phase Housing and
OMSSA Resource Centre One Program Consolidation Homelessness
Housing Services Act, Needs Survey, Plans in place
2011 regulations and development of training Continued OMSSA
January 1, 2014
Ontario Housing Policy programs and guides and Resource Centre delivery of
Statement released outreach products and services
(August 11)
Local Plan development Approval process
iCAST with Service • Needs assessment • Service Manager
Managers and sector • Gap analysis approval of draft plan for
representatives • Consultation submission to MMAH
(August 17) • Goal setting • 90 days Ministerial
Review
• Action plan
OMSSA Housing and • Revise plan as needed to
consider any Ministerial
Homelessness comments
Resource Centre • Present final plan for
announced (Dec. 2) Council/DSSAB approval
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