Homelessness System of Care

Throughout 2022, the City of Brantford engaged with the Brantford-Brant Homelessness System of Care network and individuals accessing services to define how we want our services to be experienced by our community as a whole. The hope is that this vision and set of values will support cohesion amongst community partners, and align activities for continued growth and improvement.   

Our Vision

“We envision a community where everyone has a safe place to call home and accessible supports that meet their everyday needs. Together, we achieve this by providing flexible services that respect individual choice, dignity, and diversity.”

Our Values 

1. Action-Focused – We are committed to providing time-sensitive and compassionate solutions that support individuals to achieve their goals.
2. Barrier-Free – We aim to deliver accessible services, foster inclusivity, and streamline processes in order to achieve equitable access.
3. Collaborative – We do our best when we work together.
4. Person-Centered – We believe that individuals receiving services are experts of their own experience, and that services should be responsive to their unique needs and strengths. 
5. Respectful – We strive to foster positive relationships where everyone feels that their individual choices, abilities, and contributions are respected. 
6. Empowering – We encourage individuals to use their voices for self-advocacy by providing clear and consistent resources to help them do so. 
7. Accountable – We build trust amongst our organizations and those that we support when we are genuine, communicative, and transparent with our actions. 
8. Compassionate – We create a community that cares by advocating for others, expressing gratitude, and listening to each other’s stories without judgement.

We continue to engage our community in our Vision and Values, and will apply updates on an annual basis (if required).

Coordinated Access aims to bring consistency to processes that deliver services for those experiencing homelessness or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Core components of Coordinated Access include a Housing-First approach, real-time data about the supply of and demand for housing resources; and a streamlined service delivery approach with clear access points to service,  standardized workflow for triage and assessment; prioritization; and vacancy matching and referral. (Reaching Home Definition)

A By-Name List (BNL) is a real-time list of all known people experiencing homelessness in Brantford-Brant.  It includes a robust set of data points that support coordinated access and prioritization at a household level and an understanding of homeless inflow and outflow at a system level.  This real-time actionable data supports triage to services, system performance evaluation and advocacy (for the policies and resources necessary to end homelessness).

First, an individual that is experiencing or at-risk of homelessness engages with an Entry Point. An Entry Point can be any service provider within the BHSC – from an emergency shelter, to the Housing Resource Centre – and is defined as the location where the individual has made their first contact.

Individuals are then prioritized on the BNL based on a variety of locally defined factors. Prioritization factors were determined through a series of jurisdictional scans, and further refined by agencies within the Brantford-Brant Homelessness System of Care.

These factors include length of time experiencing homelessness, sleeping location, presence of mental health / physical health / and substance use issues, age, Indigenous identity, DV/Human Trafficking/Abuse, families/households, and SPDAT assessment score.

These factors are reviewed on an annual basis to ensure relevance is maintained.

The City of Brantford’s Housing and Homelessness department, in consultation with the Coordinated Access Advisory Committee (CAAC), aim to develop clear and consistent policies and protocols for the delivery of the Coordinated Access System for emergency shelters, affordable housing, and supportive housing.

Membership:

The committee is comprised of:

• City of Brantford
• Brantford Native Housing;
• Canadian Mental Health Association
• Grand River Community Health Centre;
• Kayorie Manor;
• Nova Vita;
• Penmarvian Retirement Home;
• Rosewood House;
• Salvation Army Brantford Booth Centre;
• Salvation Army Housing Resource Centre; and
• St. Leonard’s Community Services

The Reaching Home (RH) Community Advisory Board (CAB) is a body of community representatives established by the City of Brantford. CAB monitors the allocation of funding for homelessness-related initiatives, identifies service needs and gaps, raise social awareness regarding the causes of homelessness, and advocate for vulnerable members in our community.

Membership:

CAB aims to engage with a variety of stakeholders in the community including:

• Persons who have lived experience with homelessness;
• Representatives from the Indigenous community;
• Members from the County of Brant;
• Members from the health sector;
• Members from the landlord association and/or housing sector;
• Members from organizations that serve individuals experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness;
• Members from the domestic violence sector;
• Members from the youth sector;
• Members from the LGBTQ2S+ serving sector;