SOCIÉTÉ / LIVING
Subsidy cap raises concerns about vulnerable
L E R EFLET inforeflet@eap.on.ca
social services costs will rise anyway if more people requiring assistance are forced to fend for themselves. The burden will only increase because of the aging population, the group warns.
Subsidies, which in the past were automatically paid to eligible applicants, vary according to the individuals’ incomes. Residence association president Nicole Normand had held out hope up to the last
minute that counties council would reconsider the limit. Although disappointed by the move, she said that the association would continue its lobbying efforts.
L’ORIGNAL | Prescott-Russell county officials will continue to press Toronto for more funds after imposing a cap on the number of subsidized housing program beneficiaries. In setting the threshold at 500, united counties council members also agreed to create a working group with hostel owners to lobby for an increase in provincial government allocations, said Warden Jean- Yves Lalonde. Effective January 1, 2012, the measure “will not affect in any way the current beneficiaries since the departures will not be replaced until the threshold of 500 beneficiaries is reached by attrition,” say the counties. However, members of the Prescott- Russell Residence Association, which represents the owners of 30 homes for seniors and the handicapped, fear that many vulnerable people will be deprived of the proper accommodations. In the new year, all new applicants will be kept in a centralized waiting list and processed in chronological order. ”The intention is not to abolish the program since it addresses a critical need for the counties but to follow the budgets while continuing to meet the needs of beneficiaries,” said Anne Comtois Lalonde, administrator of the UCPR Social Services Department. The decision was made when she notified council that the counties would face a $50,000 shortfall in 2012. The Ontario Ministry of Social and Community Services (MSCS) covers 80 per cent of the $3.5 million program, with the regional government covering the balance. The per diem rate of the provincial allowance has remained fixed since December 2009 at $47.75 for the UCPR. But the number of applicants for the counties’ subsidized housing program has increased from a monthly average of 444 in March, 2007 to the 512 people now receiving benefits. The ministry has given no sign of any plans to increase the per diem allowance. The residence association cautions that Together We will end MS.
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