Despite persistent need across the sector, Empower Simcoe will soon close two of its group homes — a move officials blame on a lack of provincial funding to support people with intellectual disabilities.
By early August, the social service agency will close homes in Orillia and Barrie, meaning eight individuals will need to relocate to other homes Empower Simcoe operates in their communities.
Empower Simcoe’s group homes provide support to adults living with intellectual disabilities, providing staff support throughout the day and night, with 44 locations supporting more than 160 individuals in Orillia, Barrie and Oro-Medonte.
Although the agency operates dozens of group homes in Simcoe County, chief executive officer Claudine Cousins stressed the “significant” impact of any closures at all — pointing to static funding from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services over the years and a wait list of more than 1,300 people last year in Simcoe County alone.
As each home can only accommodate four to five individuals, Cousins said the loss of two homes stresses an already overburdened developmental services system.
“Given who we already have housed, these are people looking in, saying, ‘Can you house us?’ As a service provider within Simcoe County, you can see that any erosion of any space within the sector is significant, given the wait list just within Simcoe County alone,” she said.
“We are impacted, and we do not ever want to see a loss of resources within Empower Simcoe … but it goes beyond us.”
Over the past 30 years, the developmental services sector has received a cumulative funding increase of just four percent, Empower Simcoe stated in a news release.
Last year, Empower Simcoe joined other agencies to launch the #5toSurvive campaign, calling on the province to provide a five per cent funding bump to the sector.
“Our funding has remained pretty static over many, many years, (and) what we get is intermittent investments that are targeted at certain parts of the organization,” Cousins said, pointing to $3-per-hour wage increases for front-line workers in the sector during the pandemic as an example.
“Anyone else within Empower Simcoe wasn’t getting that $3 an hour. We also didn’t get operational costs.”
Cousins explained clients’ needs shift over the course of their lives, and that additional supports are typically underfunded by the province.
“If we have someone who’s in our service who may have come in at 21, and now they’re 45, and they need special equipment. … maybe they have dementia or higher behavioural (needs), so we need another staff to support them … We don’t get, usually, funding to support those changing needs,” she said.
Rampant inflation over the past few years has also led to a funding gap as Empower Simcoe absorbs the increased costs of doing business, Cousins said.
“Inflation made a bad situation worse, so the gap is growing,” she said.
“According to Stats Canada, from 2019 to 2024, the cumulative decline in the amount of money we have has been 18.49 per cent. So, that means that for every $100 we get to spend, we lose $18. The money that we’ve been given over time continues to erode because the funding we get is not attached to cost of living, and the funding we get to operate does not increase year over year.”
That reality has led to a need for Empower Simcoe to begin “doing things differently,” Cousins said.
“This is us tightening our belt, doing things differently, living within our means — that’s what it means,” she said. “If we only get a certain amount of money, and we can only buy a certain amount of goods or spend a certain amount with it, the cost of heating, the cost of repairs, the cost of gas, insurance, food — all of those things have gone up.”
For the people involved in the group home closures, Cousins said it can also be stressful and disruptive to relationships clients have formed with staff and people in their neighbourhoods.
Work is underway to relocate the eight individuals affected by the closures.
“We’ve looked within Empower Simcoe to see where else we can find housing to suit the change and needs of those individuals,” Cousins said. “We worked with their families, with they themselves as self-advocates to talk about where that is.”
When asked about the funding shortfall, Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop said the province is providing an additional $114 million for developmental services this year, for a total of $3.4 billion — a jump she says is $1 billion more than funding levels in 2017-18.
“This will help address ongoing funding pressures, including the need to provide services for individuals who require daily living support and the associated risks to their health and safety if these supports are not available,” she said in a statement. “Empower Simcoe will receive an increase of close to $1.3 million.”
Increased operational funding will also come over the next three years, she said.
“Additionally, through Budget 2024, we are investing $310 million over three years to address operational costs for community organizations, including Empower Simcoe,” Dunlop said. “These funds will be annualized in agency contracts and should be considered ongoing base funding increases.”
Empower Simcoe said no employee job losses happen as a result of the group home closures.
A decision on the future of the two homes, which Empower Simcoe owns, will be made at a later date.
