Two transitional housing proposals have been lined up for city council debate during next month’s budget deliberations, including a 25-unit build for youths and 40-unit Indigenous build.
The youth project would cost $10 million for the building (plus annual operational costs of $1,490,016), while the Indigenous building would cost $15 million (plus annual operational costs of $2,642,977).
Both business cases anticipate the municipality funding their operations and an even split of municipal, federal and provincial governments funding capital costs. No funding has been announced.
A local need for these facilities has been long established, with city council members requesting the two business cases proposing more transitional housing in July as part of the largely unfunded Roadmap to End Homelessness by 2030 plan they approved last year.
The plan includes $322 million in capital and start-up costs, $13.6 million in annual operating costs, and $11 million in annual rent supplements.
Both of the transitional housing complexes proposed in business cases are recommended in the Roadmap to End Homelessness.
The city currently owns the 40-unit transitional housing complex on Lorraine Street, which they received provincial funding for three years of 24/7 staffing earlier this year. The $14.4-million building opened to residents recently, and city CAO Shari Lichterman told Sudbury.com earlier this week that three residents of the Energy Court encampment have already shifted into units.
Once there, residents receive wraparound services staffed through Health Sciences North in an effort to ease them into permanent community housing.
“It’s a short-term place to stay where we enable folks to identify the goals they need to reach in order to transition from surviving on the streets toward living independently,” Dr. Tara Leary told city council members during a presentation about the staffing complement in October.
Both transitional housing complexes proposed in business cases share this goal of easing people experiencing homelessness into permanent community housing via various on-site medical and social supports.
The larger of the two efforts focuses on Indigenous people because they represent roughly half of those experiencing homelessness in Greater Sudbury despite making up 11.3 per cent of the total population, according to the business case.
(The city’s August 31 by-name list counted 137 of 244 people experiencing active homelessness in Greater Sudbury as being Indigenous. Inclusion on the by-name list is voluntary, and it isn’t a full representation of the number of people experiencing homelessness at any given time.)
“By creating an environment with holistic and culturally appropriate wraparound services/supports, Indigenous-led housing … provides opportunities for self-determination, meaningful collaboration and contributes to reconciliation and healing,” the business case reads.
The effort is to be Indigenous-led with the city as a partner, and similar to the Lorraine Street build, would invite the chronically homeless as residents.
The youth transitional housing program with emergency shelter beds would be open for youths between the ages of 16 and 24.
Although only 14 of the 277 people on the city’s by-name list on Aug. 31 were aged 16-24, 43 per cent of respondents during a point-in-time homelessness count in October 2024 said they experienced homelessness before the age of 25.
This, the business case notes, indicates “the importance of preventing youth homelessness and supports to exit out of homelessness to support their lifelong trajectory."
The business case also notes that youth homelessness services have been needed even more since Sudbury Action Centre for Youth, the city’s only low-barrier youth centre, closed last year.
“Youth experiencing homelessness must now access other low-barrier shelters or make other arrangements such as use of encampments, the outdoors or couch surfing,” the business case notes. ”This increases the level of risk for this vulnerable population and may increase the risk of attachment and likelihood of experiencing adult homelessness.”
The two business cases featuring transitional housing projects will come up for city council debate in the event a member chooses to champion them during budget deliberations.
Every $3.7-million on the tax levy affects it by one per cent, with the youth transitional housing program projected to increase the 2026 levy by 0.2 per cent, and the Indigenous project to hike it by 0.35 per cent.
The base budget currently includes a 2026 tax levy increase of 5.2 per cent, which doesn’t include any of the business cases city council members can champion for debate.
Budget deliberations are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 2 at the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre in Azilda, with subsequent days’ meetings scheduled as needed. The meetings can be viewed in-person or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.