Hamilton looks for ways to fight growing cost of putting homeless families in hotels

The cost of keeping people who are homeless in Hamilton hotels isincreasing eachyear andthecity is tryinga new program to try to curb that growth.

By thefiscal year end in March, the city will have spent as much as $800,000 to deal with the overflowfrom the city's packed shelters, said Vicki Woodcox, acting director of Hamilton's housing services division.

But she hopes a new $358,000, one-year pilot program will get as many as 120 families out of hotels and into housing asfast as possible. If it works, it could be a way to stem the cost of keepingfamilies in hotels that's increasing about 20 per cent year over year.

The city putsfamilies in hotels when the shelter system isfull, which increasingly, it has been, she said. So more people are staying in hotels, and longer.

Last year, she said, the city spent $506,100 keeping people in hotels. That'supfrom $112,000 just three years earlier.

Half the people in hotels are familiesfrom women's shelters, she said. About $60,000 of the cost is families of asylum seekers who have recently migratedfrom the U.S., so the city will approach Ottawa to repay it.

Otherwise, "we don't really know the cause of it," Woodcox said of the increased demand.

The city is draining a $358,000 housing capital reserve for the program. Those identified to be part of it will be assigned case workers, she said, and the city will pay part of the rentfor a short period of time.

Good Shepherd Housing Services will use its "existing relationships with local landlords" to match 120 people andfamilieswith housing, said a staff report Monday.

That wasn't the only housing news at city council's healthy and safe communities committee Monday.

Nrinder Nann, Ward 3 councillor, pitched using $50,000from a housing surplus to help tenants with steep rent increases.

When landlords hike rents beyond the guideline of 1.8per cent a year, they have to apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board. If Nann's idea goes through, tenants will be able to use some of that $50,000for legal costs.

City staff will report back with details, including how many people in Hamiltonmight use it.