MINDEN HILLS, ON – A high-level overview is being given for the status of housing in Haliburton County.
Today at the county council meeting, Hope Lee, the Manager of Human Resources for the Kawartha Lakes Housing Help Division provided a look at the latest numbers of things like rent, vacancy rates etc.
According to the Housing Help’s findings, the average rent for a one bedroom in Haliburton County is $855, and the average three bedroom costs $1,459.
Another item to come from the update was a line graph suggesting that the average market rent is stabilizing after years of gradual building. As of October 2018, one and two bedroom units were still above the consumer price index but had levelled off at 15 per cent.
Also included in the 10-year plan was the fact that 658 households received homelessness prevention support in various ways. Whether that be through electricity, property tax, or rent arrears.
Each year of the plan, there is a registry week done to update the demographics in need and where they are. According to the 2018 registry that 75 people filled out, 44 of those were adults, 15 were families in need, and 24 were youth.
Based on the registry numbers, the average time spent without permanent housing was 1.5 years. As well, 17 per cent indicated they had without permanent stable housing for two or more years.
As a way to combat homelessness in the area, the city and county implemented the Coordinated Entry System which is designed to organize community-level responses to homelessness.
Individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness or a housing crisis are directed to community level entry points where trained workers use a common triage assessment tool to evaluate the individual or family’s depth of need, prioritize them for housing and/or support services, and then help to match them to available housing-focused interventions. Assessment of an individual’s or family’s acuity allows each housing intervention to match the level of support intensity that an individual or family may need to resolve their homelessness.
Currently, there is a 21-unit building planned for Minden with the expectation it will be lived in by 2020.
The update to the plan can be found here.