This Community Plan for the Regional Municipality of Halton (Halton) has been developed in response to the Supporting Communities Partnerships Initiative (SCPI) of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC). It is also a logical outgrowth of work that Halton has been doing on the linked issues of homelessness and affordable housing in partnership with a broad range of community organizations over the last two years. As such, the plan is a natural progression from the guiding principle being used by Regional staff that:

People in Halton should be able to live in their own community...

In 1999, Halton convened a two-day Open Space community consultation to seek guidance from the community on the most appropriate and effective ways of allocating new dollars provided by the Province of Ontario (Provincial Homelessness Initiative funding) to deal with the issue of homelessness. This consultation resulted in a set of broadly supported funding priorities and ten recommendations, endorsed by Council, which have assisted in shaping ongoing Regional facilitation of community efforts to combat homelessness in Halton.

In 2000, Halton hosted a follow-up consultation during which the community was updated on what had occurred around these ten recommendations and was invited, again, to indicate here funding priorities might lie in relation to the ongoing battle against homelessness.

It was at this consultation that HRDC representatives shared detailed information about the SCPI resources that were to be made available to the community of Halton. After several subsequent meetings with HRDC representatives, an agreement was reached with HRDC that the Regional Municipality would eventually become the “community entity” responsible for administering and managing the SCPI process in Halton.

Key in the effective management and administration of SCPI is the development of a community plan, which clearly identifies community priorities in relation to homelessness. The Regional Municipality of Halton was well positioned to facilitate the emergence of this plan because of its facilitation of the previous community consultations, and it hired Jody Orr, Principal with The Chrysalis Group (and facilitator of the previous two community consultations) to provide the professional resourcing to this plan.