How do emergency shelters, transitional and supportive housing help?
- provide essential support to individuals in immediate housing crisis
- act as a stepping stone to permanent housing
- reduce reliance on other high-cost services (e.g. emergency rooms)
- bring people indoors, providing an alternative to sleeping in parks (encampments)
Shelters, transitional and supportive housing provide critical services to help individuals experiencing or in threat of experiencing homelessness gain stability as they work toward permanent housing. Many individuals using these services are working but are unable to afford market or even affordable rents.
The City of Kingston is committed to adapting emergency shelter services to better support people in the community who are experiencing homelessness and is taking steps to address homelessness and provide timely assistance to those in need throughout Kingston. By investing $6,280,000 from the 2025 approved capital budget -- including a $280,000 contribution from the Community Benefit Fund -- the City is moving to wind down the temporary shelter services offered at Adelaide Street Shelter later this year and has been advancing work on various properties within the city to relocate existing shelter services to new locations.
How Delegated Authority Helps Us Address Unique Challenges
The City’s By-Law Number 2022-154, A By-Law to Establish a Procurement Policy (the Procurement Bylaw) sets out processes for how the City approaches purchasing and signing contracts. Depending on what is being purchased or how complex a contract is, these processes can take months to prepare, issue, review and award.
On April 1, 2025, Council delegated authority to the Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Financial Officer or their delegates to proceed directly to the non-standard procurement method identified in the Procurement Bylaw. This delegated authority helps the City open new shelter services as soon as possible by expediting purchases associated with shelter developments such as service contracts with trades, renovation materials, temporary structures, and furniture.
Staff will report back on contracts awarded as part of the monthly Delegation of Authority information report to Council.
Future Plans and Property Acquisition
Acknowledging the pressures associated with larger shelter sites, as well as recognizing people can experience homelessness in all areas of the community, t he City is actively reviewing property options with the understanding that any acquired or leased property will require renovations, additional servicing or infrastructure needs, or temporary structures.
Property acquisitions themselves must still be approved by Council and are not included in the delegated authority approved by Council on April 1, 2025.
For all property acquisitions, the City follows Section 239(2)(c) of the Municipal Act, 2001 (the Act) which provides that a meeting may be closed to the public if the subject matter being considered is a proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by the municipality or local board. This is the process the City has followed for all its affordable, transitional, and supportive housing and other property acquisitions.
To learn more about how the City of Kingston is expanding housing options and working to improve service to people who are unhoused or precariously housed, visit our Strategic Priorities.