Thunder Bay agencies receive funding under new Canada homelessness strategy

Two Thunder Bay social service agencies will receive millions of dollars in funding over the next five years as part of Canada's new homelessness strategy.

Under the recently-launched initiative, the Lakehead Social Planning Council and Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre will receive a combined total of about $5 million in funding over the next five years.

In the Friday announcement, the government said the funding for the two agencies began rolling out on April 1.

Funding for municipalities

In a media release, the government said the Reaching Home model will be community-based, with funding going directly to municipalities and local agencies.

"Communities and organizationsknow best how we canreducehomelessness across the country and here in
northwestern Ontario," said Patty Hajdu, the MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North and federal minister of employment, workforce development and labour.

"Reaching Home will give our partners more flexibility and resourcesso that everyonehas afair chance at success."

Reaching Home was officially launched on April 1, as a replacement for the federal Homelessness Partnering Strategy. It's part of the national housing strategy and its aim is to reduce chronic homelessness in Canada by 50 per cent by 2028, the government said.