At the Oct. 26 council meeting Wellington County Ward 4 councillor Lynda White, spoke about her work on the social services committee.
That work covers three basic areas, White said.
These are childcare, housing and Ontario Works.
Social services is different from other county functions in that it provides services both to Wellington County and the City of Guelph.
“We serve about 220,000 people with the county as the manager of the service.”
Its budget in 2015 was just over $74 million – representing 40 per cent of the county”s gross expenditures.
But since most of the programs are delivered on behalf of the province, White said social services does receive additional funds from the federal and provincial governments and the City of Guelph.
She said from a program perspective, lots of changes are taking place.
In child care, White said the county directly operates three child care and learning centres in addition to supplementing private and home programs.
For housing, Wellington County receives funding to provide affordable housing.
“As you are aware, the county is moving ahead with the build of phase two for Fergusson Place in (the north end of) Fergus. We hope to begin construction in Spring 2016 and have it finished in 2017.
Phase 2 will have 36 one-bedroom apartments, 11 two-bedroom apartments, six one-bedroom accessible apartments and two two-bedroom accessible apartments, White said.
Her understanding is that this phase will be occupied mainly by seniors.
“We”re already getting calls from people interested in moving into the new building.”
She noted that housing was a big issue in the recent federal election, “so we are all wondering what kind of federal announcements will be coming forward now.”
“We all know we have major housing needs even in Wellington County. There is a lot of homelessness in Wellington.”
Councillor Steven VanLeeuwen said if phase two of Fergusson Place is directed at seniors, he asked what the makeup of the population of phase one was.
VanLeeuwen also asked if there were younger families there who managed to get back onto their feet and into regular housing choices.
White was uncertain if there was a lot of movement of families out of Fergusson Place.
That said, she wasn”t certain there were a lot of families in the building.
“Housing is an issue in Wellington County.”
She said that while there are programs available for job testing and searches … “I don”t believe there is a lot of movement from Fergusson Place.”
Within Ontario Works, a new program, the Housing First pilot program provides intensive case management to help the most chronically homeless individual, White said.
She added the program has proven itself to be quite successful in improving the participant”s quality of life and generating savings across various emergency services. “It seems to be a really good program.”
White said there are many initiatives undertaken through social services through the county and through the city.
“It”s exciting and sometimes heartbreaking,” White said of her involvement in the committee.
Councillor Kirk McElwain asked if there was overlap between what the county social services and the local LHIN and programs such as home care. “A lot of our staff work with the LHINs if there are health issues involved – we work together.”
Councillor Fred Morris said earlier in the current term there was talk of strengthening the working relationship with the county.” He added, “as you are aware municipalities across the province are struggling with the costs of infrastructure and having to address the deficit that creates.
Morris asked if there were any ways the municipalities could partner with the county to address this problem.
“Centre Wellington is responsible for a considerable amount of infrastructure in roads and bridges and our population is just not sufficient to address those costs.”
White responded that each year “The county is always looking at what is required for municipalities. But as we all know there is one taxpayer and if the county was to put more money into municipal roads (and infrastructure) then county taxes would have to go up.”
