THUNDER BAY – The chair of a city committee is defending the decision to deny a Shelter House appeal for additional funding.
Coun. Larry Hebert, who heads the city’s Community, Youth and Cultural Funding Program appeals committee, said there was no reason to reverse the initial decision by city administration to provide only a slight increase of $20,000.
Shelter House had requested their grant to be upped to $500,000, a significant increase from the $235,000 it currently receives.
Administration ruled that Shelter House would only be given a moderate increase, bringing the contribution from the fund up to $255,000.
“It was felt that Shelter House is still in pretty good shape with pretty good reserves … While they have deserving programs, as do other programs, we can’t fund them all,” Hebert said Tuesday afternoon.
“We thought administration did a very good job this year. We had eight appeals and we didn’t list any of them. We felt they were very fair in their analysis and we supported it all.”
Shelter House executive director Patty Hajdu takes issue with administration’s assertion that the reserve funds should prevent most of the requested increase.
The operating budget is being hit by a $210,000 funding shortfall in the managed alcohol program as well as a further deficit of nearly $160,000, both of which are being covered by reserves.
Relying on reserve funds to cover those gaps is not a long-term strategy.
“We’ve set aside money over the years to account for emergency situations, like the roof falling in or not receiving funding in a timely fashion,” she said.
“In fall 2015 we will not be able to continue to use those reserves because it’s fiscally irresponsible for any organization to plan an operating budget on an annual basis and deplete their reserves.”
In the past two years the organization has launched both their $500,000 per year managed alcohol program as well as their Street Outreach Services, which serve as pillars in city initiatives such as the drug strategy and crime prevention council.
Those likely won’t be able to keep operating without support.
“The expectation of Shelter House to come to the table with these creative, innovative and very difficult solutions is very high without concurrent investment fiscally,” Hajdu said.
“I think that’s a problem for our organization because we are a non-profit. We have to raise somewhere in the range of $350,000 this year, we have to solicit grants and operating grants from other levels of government and we’re committed to doing that but we need the help of the city.”
Coun. Andrew Foulds, who serves on the four-person appeals committee with Hebert, Iain Angus and Trevor Giertuga, said the denial of the application for additional funding doesn’t mean Shelter House is being ignored.
“We as a city provide base funding to Shelter House, we do provide funding for managed alcohol and we have provided funding for the SOS,” he said.
Foulds added there are a number of other poverty reduction programs throughout the city that receive municipal funding.
He also said Shelter House appearing before council on Dec. 8, where $50,000 was approved for SOS, was a factor as the committee felt the organization should appeal to council as a whole.
However, Hajdu has a letter from the city saying there is no further appeals process and that a denied application is to not return during the upcoming budget season.
She also said Shelter House was requested to appear at that council meeting and was not told it would impact the appeal.
When asked, Hebert said the door is still open for Shelter House to go back to city hall.
“They’ve been to council before and they know the ropes. They are a well-respected organization so if they want to do that then it’s up to them,” he said.
