Bruce County council heard a report from the Human Services department.
The report is to update council on the events of the first quarter of 2025, shared the progress of the department that oversees housing, child care, and financial instability support.
Director of Human Services Tina Metcalfe shared that staff is continuing to move forward with community partners to help the unhoused people in the county get into housing faster.
She told council, “Bruce County has partnered with the YMCA and CMHA to begin fostering a transitional, supported housing model, along with a rural homeless response approach, which focuses on diversion.”
The county currently has 28 individuals who are on their wait list, who are experiencing homelessness.
Metcalfe says that the wait list has increased since the last report to council, which is a trend that is not just happening locally, but provincially and nationally.
“Given this, staff continue to collaborate on multisectoral initiatives, including those outline within the Bruce County Housing Action Plan, to increase overall housing supply across the housing continuum,” she said.
This also includes providing stability supports to assist households within the low-income threshold to obtain and maintain housing.
Looking at happenings in childcare services, the demand for licensed child care has increased, and the county is continuing their work with their EarlyON childcare programs.
They’re also focusing on local recruitment in their collaboration with Grey County, under the Bruce Grey Early Learning Educator Recruitment and Retention Working Group in order to attract more students to pursue a career in Early Childhood Education, and to attract new ECEs to the area.
The county also has a Special Needs Resource Program, which works to include children with special needs in local childcare and recreational programs, at no additional cost to parents and guardians.
Metcalfe lastly addressed the increased demand for the county’s social assistance programming.
“Social assistant caseloads continues to rise, reflecting broader economic and social pressures impacting residents,” she explained.
Staff has taken an integrated approach to reporting on stability reports, since it’s more reflective of the coordinated approach that county staff takes in order to help those who need it.
The priority of the Human Services team is to ensure that all residents of the county feel included and valued.
Meanwhile, Human Services also shared that the province’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) requested that service managers not complete reviews or any updates to their local Housing and Homelessness plans until further communication from the Ministry was received.
