April’s meeting of the Wellington County Social Services Committee has three items on the agenda covering daycare, housing, and social spending. Not the biggest agenda, but one with a lot of information if you’re interested in how child care in Guelph and Wellington works, plus the number of units and types of housing currently in the region’s social housing stock. Let’s learn more…

NOTE: This meeting takes place at 1 pm in Guthrie Room at the Wellington County Administration Centre on Woolwich Street.

Overview of the Children’s Early Years Division Presentation – This information report will provide committee with an overview of the roles and responsibilities of the Children’s Early Years Division, otherwise known as the County’s daycare system. There are over 10,000 kids age 4 and under  in Wellington County, including nearly 6,000 in Guelph alone, plus another 25,000 kids age 4 to 12 including almost 15,000 in Guelph, so childcare is a big deal and is becoming an even bigger deal every year.*

Housing Services Status and Activity Report: 2022 Q3 and Q4 – The report covers all aspects of the “Housing Continuum” courtesy of the Consolidated Municipal Service Manager, aka: Wellington County. The report breaks down the numbers according to emergency shelter spaces (including the current state of the by-name list), transitional housing, supportive housing, rent-geared-to-income housing, and affordable housing. There’s also updated numbers for the waiting list where there are 3,377 households currently looking for accommodation, which is a jump of 171 from the same time in 2021.

100 Per Cent Municipally Funded Discretionary Benefits: 2022 Annual Report – Every year, the Social Services committee is provided with this report that describes how these funds are dispersed. To quote the report, ” In exceptional circumstances, OW and ODSP recipients may be assisted with costs for a necessary item that is not eligible for coverage by the province or another source of funding. These investments are focused on the immediate medical and emergency needs of low-income individuals in our community and are a vital component of our local community support system.”

In 2022, $271,754 was spent in health-related expenditures from 1,300 total requests; 83 per cent of all requests came from retirement home residents and were usually to cover funeral costs or incontinence supplies. Riding medical transportation costs were also a driver for the funding this year, which had increased 34 per cent year-over-year. There was also an increase in the number of households that receive Market Bucks vouchers were used on $9,240 worth of farm goods and produce.

CLOSED MEETING – This agenda was not included in the open meeting materials.

SEE THE COMPLETE AGENDA ON THE Wellington County WEBSITE HERE.

*A previous version of this article incorrectly attributes these numbers as the total number of children enrolled in childcare and not as the total number of children in the region.