SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES 

Homelessness Prevention

2026-2027 REACHING HOME COMMUNITY APPLICATION IS NOW OPEN!

Homelessness has an impact on every community in Canada, affecting individuals, families, individuals fleeing violence, youth, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities. Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy is a community-based program aimed at preventing and reducing homelessness across Canada. This program provides support and funding to communities to help them address their local homelessness needs. Reaching Home supports the goals of the National Housing Strategy to support the most vulnerable Canadians in maintaining safe, stable, and affordable housing and to reduce chronic homelessness nationally by 50% by fiscal year 2027 to 2028.

 

As the Community Entity, Hastings County administers the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home funding stream locally to support individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness or are at a risk of becoming homeless within the Designated Community of the City of Belleville. Hastings County is pleased to announce the availability of community funding for the fiscal year of 2026-2027 and is now inviting proposals from community organizations who are working to end homelessness in the City of Belleville. 

 

TO ALL CURRENTLY FUNDED AGENCIES, you will need to reapply for the new funding cycle.

 

Please note the due date of January 30, 2026 for this application

2026-2027 Reaching Home Community Application
Sustainability Checklist

Any questions can be directed to Sarah McDonald at mcdonalds@hastingscounty.com.

The Canadian definition of Homelessness describes the situation of an individual, family or community without stable, safe, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect, means and ability of acquiring it. 

 

There are different types of homelessness:

Unsheltered

  • Living outside (“living rough” on sidewalks, parks, forest, etc.)
  • Living in places not intended for human habitation
         (vehicles, garages, out buildings, hunting camps, tents etc.)

Emergency Sheltered

  • Emergency overnight shelters for people who are homeless
  • Shelters for individuals and families impacted by family violence and natural disaster

Provisionally Accommodated

  • Referring to those whose accommodation is temporary or lacks security of tenure

Temporarily Sheltered

  • Interim housing for people who are homeless 
  • Temporarily living with other people (couch surfing, staying with family, etc.)
  • People in institutions with no guarantee of permanent housing upon release (hospital, correction facilities, treatment facilities, etc.)
  • Reception Centres for recently arrived newcomers

At-Risk of Homelessness

  • Refers to people who are not homeless, but whose current economic and/or housing situation is precarious or does  not meet public health and safety standards
  • It should be noted that for many people homelessness is a fluid experience, where one’s shelter circumstances and options may shift and change quite dramatically and with frequency

Coordinated
Access

Rent

Connect

RENT CONNECT is a web-based application that will aim to connect landlords to prospective tenants.
Coordinated Access Process

Ontario Works

Financial Assistance

In need of financial assistance? Click here to be linked to financial assistance services

Homelessness Response

Hastings County Community Response Program

 Comprised of caseworkers who work with varying acuity cases to assist vulnerable individuals in connecting to housing, resources, and services, while striving for long-term housing solutions. The Community Response Program can be contacted by email at communityresponse@hastingscounty.com. 
 

Grace Inn Shelter

Grace Inn is a multifaceted agency within the Hastings County region supporting those experiencing homelessness. Grace Inn Shelter opened December 16, 2019, to provide Hastings County's first and only homeless shelter. Their mission statement is "Housing homeless adults in a safe, dignified, and hospitable environment by meeting essential needs, providing compassionate mentors, and advocating for a future with hope"

Grace Inn Shelter provides 21 overnight shelter beds for both male and female identifying homeless individuals.

Grace Inn also operates Grace Inn Shiloh House, which is a male-identifying housing program for up to 6 individuals that have expressed a want/need for strengthening their independent living skills. Shiloh house is a 24 hour a day staffed environment providing structured programming and Case Management focusing on various life skills, effective communication and conflict management. The maximum stay is 364 days with the hope that the resident will secure successful, permanent housing before this period expires.  

https://graceinnshelter.com/ 

Bridge Street United Church (BSUC)/John Howard Society (JHS)

Day-time Drop In Program

BSUC provides a range of services for the homeless and vulnerable population, including meal programming, shower and laundry, as well as linkages to health services and harm reduction.

https://johnhoward.on.ca/belleville/services/homelessness-services-daytime-drop-in/

 

After-Hours Emergency Homeless Services

Hastings County, along with Grace Inn Shelter operate an After-Hours Emergency Homeless Program. When Hastings County offices close at 4:30, on weekends and holidays the following number becomes active for those in need "after-hours"

1-877-528-9514

Services offered by phone are:

Immediate phone response

Referrals to Services

Transportation to Safe Shelter

In the moment diversion support

Safety planning

Appropriate supports for shelter

After Hours Emergency Services 

 

Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness

Hastings County Community and Human Services staff have developed and maintained a close working relationship with The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, (CAEH) with respect to their mandate to prevent and end homelessness in Canada. CAEH has provided support with the enumeration process, the mandated By-Name List, (BNL) and Coordinated Access in Hastings County.

Accurate data is valuable not only to support the ongoing work being done by Hastings County staff, but also to support advocacy for funding that is desperately needed in our communities.

Homelessness is a complex issue, along with CAEH, our structured, supportive and data-driven approach will focus on optimizing our homelessness response. 
The new coordinated access system is also a key driver in the valuable work being done by not only Hastings County but our community partners.

Staff are committed to updating and reporting a homelessness scorecard on a quarterly basis. 
https://caeh.ca/ 

 

 

Built for Zero Score Card

Built for Zero Canada is an ambitious national change effort to end homelessness across Canada. As a participant, Hastings County is committed to addressing chronic homelessness. Quarterly, Hastings County will share information about the number of people experiencing homelessness in our community, and the inflow and outflow of the system we work within. We hope that sharing this information will promote transparency and accountability in our homelessness response.

 

See Score Card here

Veterans Homelessness Program | Trenton Military Resource Centre

The Veteran Housing Program is designed to support veterans who:

  • May be at risk of being unhoused
  • Are currently unhoused
  • Are experiencing mental health/financial challenges that are putting the current housing situation at risk

The Veteran Housing Resource Specialist provides direct support to veterans facing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, focusing on housing, health services, and client support.

 

Flyer on Veterans Homelessness Program

 

Learn more information here

Community Integration Resources

Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI) has been replaced by the Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP). HPP consolidates the CHPI, Home for Good (HFG), and the Strong Communities Rent Supplement Program (SCRSP) into one flexible program. The program consolidation responds to several findings and recommendations from the December 2021 Office of the Auditor General of Ontario (OAGO) Value-for-Money Audit of homelessness programs, the recent

Multi-Ministry Supportive Housing Initiative (MMSHI), housing engagement sessions with service managers in 2020-2021, and program reviews of CHPI, HFG, SCRSP. 


The HPP vision is to provide funding to support service managers in implementing a variety of flexible, local approaches to delivery of services and supports with three key goals and outcomes: 

  1. Preventing homelessness and ensuring people at risk of homelessness remain housed and have connections to support services.
  2. Addressing homelessness and ensuring people who are experiencing homelessness or experiencing homelessness chronically obtain and retain housing and support services.
  3. Reducing the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness. 

The HPP service categories are: 

  • Supportive housing
  • Community outreach and support services
  • Housing assistance
  • Emergency shelter solutions

Hastings County Community and Human Services staff are pleased to announce the availability of Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP) funding for 2023.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/addressing-homelessness 
 

Comprised of caseworkers who work with varying acuity cases to assist vulnerable individuals in connecting to housing, resources, and services, while striving for long-term housing solutions. The Community Response Program can be contacted by email at communityresponse@hastingscounty.com.

Vital Services: Vital services by-laws are to ensure landlords are providing adequate and suitable vital services such as light, heat, water, and sewer. Municipal enforcement measures include the power to remedy the situation and recover all costs through either collection of rent or the application of a lien on the property. Clients (and/or tenants) typically contact the Community Advocacy and Legal Centre (CALC) at 613-966-8686, who refer the case to Hastings County through the Policy and Planning Coordinator, Eric Moniz at 613-966-1311 ext. 2306.

Hastings County receives federal funding from Infrastructure Canada (INFC), formerly managed by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), to administer Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy in the City of Belleville. 

 

Community Homelessness Report Summary for 2023-2024

 

Reaching Home: Belleville Community Plan 2024-2028

 

Reaching Home aims to support individuals and families in the city of Belleville to maintain safe, stable, and affordable housing, and to reduce the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness. These federal funds are overseen by a Community Advisory Board (CAB). The CAB consists of community members with related experience, such as Justice, Legal, Social Services, Faith, Health Care, etc. 

https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/homelessness-sans-abri/index-eng.html 

Hastings County operated warming centres during the cold weather season in The City of Belleville, The City of Quinte West and The Town of Bancroft in 2022-2023. Hastings County understands that Warming Centres are not long-term solutions to the issue of homelessness, however they do provide temporary safe, warm spaces while more permanent housing solutions are being established. 

Hastings County, with Municipal, Provincial and Federal funding support many programs in the Community.

Municipal Community Grants (formerly SAR funding) are issued annually to programs for children and families, Provincial HPP funding is issued per an application process for greatest determined need through the Community Investment Review process, and Federal funding allocaitons through INFC/Reaching Home is allocations by the CAB and Hastings County. 

Rent Connect is a geographic information system-based online service designed to link landlords and prospective renters to housing rental unit opportunities. If you are a landlord wishing to list a property, you can do so at no cost through this interactive tool. Likewise, if looking for rental opportunities, you can use the Rent Connect tool to perform a customized search of listings across Hastings County and the surrounding areas. Check out the tool! 

Key Contacts

Headshot of Manager of Homelessness

Shannon Tummon-Graham

Manager of Homelessness Initiatives and Prevention

613-966-1311 ext. 2334
Email