Healthy & Safe Communities department budget presentation focuses on a healthy, safe and supportive community across the lifespan

Hamilton, ON - Today, Hamilton City Council’s General Issues Committee (GIC) considered the 2019 budget from the Healthy & Safe Communities department.

Grounded in the things that make us healthy, the social determinants of health, Healthy & Safe Communities is a system of services that work together towards ensuring Hamilton is a safe and supportive city where people are active, healthy, and have a high quality of life.

General Manager, Paul Johnson provided the General Issues Committee with an overview of the critical Healthy & Safe Communities’ services and supports across the lifespan, from pre-conception health to have the healthiest babies possible, to high quality early years programming and affordable/accessible licensed child care enabling families to work, and to oral health and vision screening - activities that lay the building blocks and foundation for individual and community health and wellbeing. He also highlighted housing and income supports, programs that create opportunities for youth and young adults to gain employment skills and opportunities, and recreation opportunities for all ages and abilities.

Healthy and Safe Communities’ preliminary budget proposes a $3.6 million increase (1.5 per cent).

Highlights for 2018 include the grand opening of the new Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre, new programs aimed at working with youth who experience barriers to participation in the community, and the city’s continued success with the Housing First approach. Additionally, the budget presentation highlighted what’s to come in 2019 and beyond such as:

• Service integration
• Housing and Homelessness Action Plan
• 10-Year Fire Service Delivery Plan
• 10-Year Hamilton Paramedic Services Master Plan
• Urban Indigenous Strategy

2018 in review

• 0 children on child care subsidy waitlist.
• 17,345 dental screenings in school age children. 16,522 dental screenings completed in Hamilton elementary schools (17/18 school year); 823 completed at Public Health Clinics for school aged children (Jan – December 2018).
• Youth in Construction works with local construction companies, LIUNA and Public Works and Healthy & Safe Communities staff to train young people in trades. 60% have graduated and have full time jobs.
• 1000 youth served through the Xperience Annex.
• Continued success in the Housing First approach saw 260 people housed – 95% of those individuals remained housed a year later.
• Significantly lower Ontario Works (OW) cases at 10,920 – down to 2008 levels. Also increasingly more OW exists are due to employment – 17% up from 13% in 2017.
• Received $1 million grant over three years that will enable approximately 550 more residents with limited or no dental coverage to access oral health services per year.
• 19% decrease in Code Zero events over 2017 in spite of a increase in 911 emergency calls within the community. There were 96 code zero events in 2018 with January and February seeing record Code Zero events (55). Through collaboration with local hospital partners and improvements to practice, over the next 10 months there were 41 Code Zero events –fewer events than either 2016 or 2017.
• 32,511 fire responses - approximately 89 per day
• 197 clients in @Home Community Paramedicine Program resulting in a 67% reduction in calls to 911 from the eight vulnerable seniors buildings in the city and saw a total of almost 2200 visits in 2018.

View the 2019 Healthy & Safe Communities Budget Overview presentation
Read more about the focus of the 2019 Budget

City Council will hear presentations by other departments of the City over the coming weeks and will consider approval for the final operating budget in March.