Thursday, March 23, 2023
The Welcoming Streets pilot program in downtown Brampton has been extended until the end of 2023.
As Canada’s fastest growing city, Brampton has seen a rise in homelessness and mental health and addictions issues, leading many to seek support in the downtown core where essential services are available. However, this concentration of services has had an impact on local businesses and residents. To address these growing concerns, the Welcoming Streets Pilot was proposed in 2020, designed in 2021 and piloted in 2022. This project has helped to address some of the issues faced by downtown businesses, residents, and vulnerable individuals by offering non-police assistance, and connecting community members to required services.
A motion moved by Councillor Santos in 2020 prompted a staff report titled “Additional Immediate Actions to Address Concerns about Homelessness in Downtown Brampton”, which proposed service and program enhancements to support the homeless and address concerns of local residents and business owners. The “Welcoming Streets Pilot” was then co-designed through the fall of 2021 and a pilot launched in January 2022.
After a year of the implementation, an evaluation of the Welcoming Streets Pilot was tabled by staff at Regional Council on March 23. It highlighted the success of the program and found that it had a positive impact in downtown Brampton.
As stated in the report: “The Welcoming Streets Program enhanced collaboration among program staff and community partners. The program increased awareness in supports available, provided more appropriate options for assistance for vulnerable individuals outside of police and security involvement, and had a statistically significant effect in reducing overall Peel Regional Police outreach calls. Survey respondents also appreciated how the program was able to rapidly respond to challenges in downtown Brampton.”
Please visit, Regional Council Agenda (escribemeetings.com) to access the full report (pgs.309-321)
Welcoming Streets Leaders collected statistics about their daily activities, including interactions with various stakeholders, between January 24, 2022, to January 20, 2023.
Key highlights include:
● During this period, the Welcoming Streets program had 701 interactions with businesses, 301 interactions with vulnerable individuals, and made 143 referrals for vulnerable individuals.
● Peel Regional Police staff analyzed the program’s impact on police outreach calls and found a highly significant drop in outreach calls to Peel Regional Police the following week after a spike in Welcoming Streets calls.
● The pilot program for the outreach program revealed considerable overlap in responsibilities between the Welcoming Streets leader position and existing outreach workers demonstrated that dedicated place-based teams improved response times for businesses and others requesting assistance.
● Regional staff administered a survey to solicit feedback from various stakeholders in downtown Brampton, and 130 responses were received, primarily from business owners and employees.
● The top three services accessed by those who used the program were: de-escalation of an individual on business premises, connecting street-involved individuals with Welcoming Streets staff, and assistance with individuals sleeping or loitering on premises.
A comprehensive service level report with proposed enhancements to the Welcoming Streets Program will be presented to Regional Council in May 2023. With future initiatives to serve the entire region with the addition of four place-based teams.
MEDIA QUOTE:
“I am proud of the collaborative work of the region, city, BIA and social agencies over the past couple of years since bringing forward a motion to kickstart this pilot in 2020. After designing and successfully delivering a pilot program in downtown Brampton, I am pleased to see this update and support the extension of the pilot which takes a community approach to help our homeless population and also addresses some of the concerns from businesses and residents. I look forward to reviewing the comprehensive service level report with proposed enhancements to the program in May 2023. Many thanks to my colleagues at the region for supporting my motion in 2020 and the extension of the pilot.”
– Regional Councillor Rowena Santos, Wards 1 & 5
For more information, please visit councillorsantos.ca/welcomingstreetsprogram or contact:
Anitpal (Nitu) Grewal
Community Outreach & Media Relations Wards 1 & 5
City of Brampton, Council Office
2 Wellington Street West, Brampton ON, L6Y 4R2
T: 905-874-5929 l C: 437-331-4555
Anitpal.Grewal@Brampton.ca
