Stéphane Giguère, CEO of Ottawa Community Housing, appears before city council on Wednesday. Coun. Theresa Kavanagh, right, chairs the housing provider's board of directors. Ottawa Community Housing is working on ways to provide help for tenants waiting to get into supportive housing and at risk of falling back into homelessness, its CEO Stéphane Giguère told city councillors on Wednesday.
That could mean having a primary care clinic on a building's main floor, for which OCH is hoping to receive provincial funding, or housing some residents on secure floors to ensure their safety and the safety of others.Giguère said OCH began looking into solutions six to seven years ago, when it noted that tenants were ending up in emergency rooms more often than they should, and for the "wrong reasons."When you have the support at home, you succeed.
"I couldn't agree more," said Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper. "I think most of the councillors who sit around this table have been in meetings with tenants about the effects that problematic behaviours among some tenants in the building are creating."