August 2024: City of Peterborough Receives Municipal Innovation Award
Ottawa, Ontario, August 20, 2024 – The Peter J. Marshall Innovation Award Jury presented its highest award to the City of Peterborough for its Modular Bridge Housing Community project. The award was presented to Mayor Jeff Leal at the 2024 AMO Conference in Ottawa.
The transitional housing project was spearheaded by the City in May 2023 to address a long-term encampment in downtown Peterborough. In just six months, the City built 50 modular homes, shared washroom facilities, and a central service hub, thanks to funding through the provincial Homelessness Prevention Program.
Engagement with encampment residents was key to the project’s success. Community outreach workers gathered input from 75 people who lived in the encampment to ensure the modular home community would fit their needs. Considerations included everything from site design and location to security, operations and pet policies.
The Peterborough Modular Bridge Housing Community was built at the original encampment site. During construction residents were moved to a vacant parking lot across the street to the City’s first temporary sanctioned encampment.
By November of 2023, the first residents moved into their new modular homes. The community had a 98 per cent move-in rate for the first 50 people who were offered units. This is not typical for transitional housing programs, which normally see a 40 to 60 per cent move-in rate.
Within the first six months of operation, four people acquired jobs, one person moved into permanent housing, and there was a 90 per cent reduction in emergency service calls compared to when the site operated as an encampment. Staff have also reported significant improvements in the mental and physical health of the residents.
“I am incredibly proud that Peterborough’s transitional housing project has been recognized with the prestigious Peter J. Marshall 2024 Municipal Innovation Award. This award is a testament to our city's commitment to addressing homelessness with compassion, creativity, and a focus on practical solutions. As a Council, we knew we had to move beyond the natural tendency to stop when faced with an overwhelmingly complex challenge like homelessness. We knew we had to pick a lane. We learned from the experiences of others and our professional staff delivered this project with urgency and expertise.
Municipalities have shown they can innovate to create lasting positive change in our communities. I’m proud of the decisive, bold, caring approach that we have taken."
- Peterborough Mayor Jeff Leal
“The modular home program at Wolfe St. is a great example of a municipality thinking outside of the box to properly use the Homelessness Prevention Program to reduce homelessness in Peterborough’s vulnerable community.”
- Dave Smith, Member of Provincial Parliament for Peterborough-Kawartha
The P.J. Marshall Award is an annual competition to acknowledge municipalities who have had creativity and success in implementing new, innovative ways of serving the public. It is sponsored by AMO, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks & Treasurers of Ontario, the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships, the Municipal Finance Officers’ Association, and the Ontario Municipal Administrators’ Association.
https://www.amo.on.ca/policy/city-peterborough-receives-municipal-innovation-award
