London has a bold plan to tackle its deadly homeless crisis, involving up to 15 service hub shelters and 600 supported housing units. It came together with a whos who list of people listening and talking to one another. It all began with regret. Randy Richmond reports

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The apologies stunned.

The first thing she did was apologize.

I dont remember the exact words, she recalls in an interview with The London Free Press. I said that some of the things that have happened, policies and actions, have caused harm. And I apologized.

Other leaders at the summit, such as London Health Sciences Centre chief executive Jackie Schleifer Taylor, also acknowledged past mistakes.

The hospital had earned a reputation as a barrier to helping homeless people, and hadnt joined community efforts to solve Londons crisis.

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You might as well call it out, Schleifer Taylor says of her acknowledgement. Im just asking for the opportunity for LHSC to re-earn the trust of the community.

The acknowledgements of mistakes laid the groundwork for three successful summits that developed an entirely new system for homelessness in London, say the more than a dozen participants interviewed by The Free Press.

And they all point to Livingstone as the key to the success of the summits.

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Only a few months ago, few in the social service field would pick anyone from city hall as the person to bring about uniting them all.

Even before the pandemic, social organizations often worked in silos and had to compete for city, provincial and federal dollars in funding streams that still ignore how addiction, mental illness, poverty, homelessness and health care are connected.

COVID-19 interrupted plans for follow-up forums and coverage, as the newspaper focused on the pandemic.

Those pandemic years werent kind to city halls reputation on homelessness. In the fall of 2020, people living in tents downtown were directed by city officials to encampments along the Thames River, which advocates and residents considered isolated and unsafe.

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Advocates say there were a growing number of people sleeping and living rough outside, a contention city hall at first refuted.

In response to the coming winter, city hall and agencies worked together to build shelter and resting spaces. But by the next winter, the demand had grown and the city hall response building a shelter far from the core drew criticism.

I used to keep a sheet of paper on the wall in my office, and I would write peoples names down as we lost them, Dr. Andrea Sereda, a coalition leader and physician at London InterCommunity Health Centre (LIHC), says.

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Then the page got filled up and I added a second, and then I tore it all off, because I couldnt look at it anymore. There were just too many names.

The citys initial response to the hunger strike was dismissive, Sereda says.

We were written off, patted on the head: Awesome, you advocates for homeless people. Now go back and do your day job.

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But everyone could see the pandemic changed everything and now everything had to change, Livingstone says.

We werent seeing this number of folks struggling on the streets. We were not seeing this level of acuity before. I dont think anyone anticipated the boomerang impact . . . the explosion that the pandemic unleashed, she said.

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Just walk through our community, look at the suffering. That was the spark that something different needs to be done.

In the summer, Livingstone began inviting the leaders at Londons hospitals and public health unit to discuss homelessness.

This is not just a homelessness issue. This is a health and housing issue, she says. When you have something impossible to solve, the way you do it is you bring everybody together, because thats how you get to solutions. And Londons done that a million times.

Those discussions led to the creation of a fall summit, one that first appeared to be about hospital and city hall officials leading a discussion that community agencies were invited to join.

I thought, here we go again, Scott Courtice, LIHC executive director, recalls. Theres a crisis and the city needs to do some sort of large public relations exercise to show that theyre taking it seriously.

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Livingstone invited him to meet and chat one on one, Courtice says.

That really turned it around for me, because I really believe that she was thinking about doing something differently. The hunger strike earlier had created some tension and strain in our relationship as organizations and as leaders. It was a chance to talk about how that shook out and why it shook out in that way.

After an hour conversation, he committed full-out to the effort, Courtice says.

Livingstones apology at the summit made me really emotional because it had felt like so long that we were fighting this thing alone and like we were being gaslit, being told that actually youre not seeing what youre seeing with your eyes, holding peoples hands when theyre dying, he says.

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He had a similar response to Schleifer Taylors talk about LHSC, Courtice says.

With humility, acknowledging that theyve got a lot of work to do, and wanting to be part of the team, it felt like, I dont know, like I would run through fire for everybody in that room.

As the frontline doctor at LIHC, Sereda had been a vocal critic of city hall homelessness policies. She had long insisted that the health care the centre provided could only do so much as long as people couldnt find shelter.

Very quickly, the tone was set that this was very intentionally trying to be different, she says of the first summit.

For the first time, executives of hospitals and agencies sat side by side with frontline workers from other organizations, she says.

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We were actually able to talk face to face with with folks that weve never been able to communicate with before. And I think that humanizes both sides as a starting point, she says.

To a person, summit participants interviewed for this story say a key to the success of the effort was the chance to sit with different people and listen.

I felt like I was a sponge, sitting at tables with people . . . running shelters for families and kids and youth, just to hear them talk about their realities, says Roy Butler, chief executive at St. Josephs Health Care London.

Everybodys putting skin in the game. That cross-pollination starts to create relationships and knock down walls.

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The sheer number and range of participants inspired, says Chuck Lazenby, executive director of the Unity Project shelter.

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London Health Sciences Centre is a big player that weve wanted to add to the table in a genuine way for a very long time, she says.

Having business owners and developers at the table to participate in understanding what homelessness is in our community, and asking how they can help, that is inspiring.

Livingstone refuses to take personal credit for bringing so many people from so many different sectors to the summits, saying any city manager would have done the same, and it took a city hall team to organize.

As well, she emphasizes that the new system was developed by the 200 people at the summits, and is a community plan, not a city hall plan.

I think that the city had an important role to play in creating the space for this conversation to happen. The city has an important role to continue to play to support this work, Livingstone says.The city has been told, clearly, we need to look at our policies, we probably need to look at some bylaws. We need to maybe fund things in a different way.

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All she will say about praise from participants is: That is very, very kind of people to say, very nice.

She does acknowledge that it was daunting to stand up and acknowledge city mistakes in front of 200 leaders and frontline workers.

Yes, absolutely. But it was necessary, right? If were going to have a different outcome, we have to be different.

Clockwise from top left: Steve Williams, Marcus Plowright, Alex Summers, Brian Lester, Lynne Livingstone, and Chuck Lazenby

Jackie Schleifer Taylor, chief executive, London Health Sciences Centre: Some of our wonderful community partners need our help on the human resources side for support and education. They need us to work with them to harmonize policies where the transitions of patients from our emergency department arent smooth. How can we share our resources for all of our patients together? How can we ensure people get the best care where and when they need it?

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Roy Butler, chief executive, St. Josephs Health Care chief executive: Even though Im proud of the work weve done as an organization, if there are better ways to integrate, better ways to support hubs and networks that provide a continuum of housing, and be more preventative, were in to see how we can lead and participate.

Chuck Lazenby, executive director, Unity Project: A big part of the hubs is ensuring you have places for people to stay that are stable and accessible and diverse and have some choice and accommodate everyone, regardless of how they present. We are going to need options where couples can stay together, women only, single occupancy or shared space. What makes people feel safe and supported until theres a permanent solution?

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Scott Courtice, executive director, London InterCommunity Health Centre: Weve been organized like, if you were to build a hockey team, where youve got the goalie, the defence, the offence, all with different coaches, all practicing in different arenas, bringing them together and expecting them to win. Weve never had a head coach, weve never had a coordinated approach. And thats what we so sorely need.

Mike Wallace, executive director, London Development Institute, an umbrella group for developers: We were direct with Lynn Livingstone: In the next round, you need to start formulating. Where can we help? What is it you truly need? How many square feet? How many people (are) you holding? Whats the layout? Where do you want the hubs? When were sitting in front of the minister, or a bureaucrat, well be saying, These people have the expertise in providing the service but sitting beside them is the industry thats able to deliver the physical plant.

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Anne Armstrong, executive director, London Cares: I started to talk to my staff about some of the things that might be coming and how this direction is shifting. And you could just see their eyes light up. Hope will be the inoculation against the moral injury theyre suffering. Theyre so frustrated at banging their heads against a brick wall.

Dr, Alex Summers, the London areas chief medical officer of health: We have people who are on the streets who have nowhere to go. So we need to create spaces for them to go and services to support them once theyre there. We need to find ways to resource them adequately. The amount of housing we have in our community that is affordable for people, needs to be increased. The amount of social supports available through a disability cheque needs to be higher than it is. These are preventive components that we need to address, as well.

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Kapil Lakhotia, chief executive, London Economic Development Corp: We want to reduce (building) vacancy in our core, we want to bring more creative talent, more tech- and knowledge-based industries downtown. How are we going to fill the vacancies downtown until we achieve a certain level of vibrancy and safety? In order for us to continue sustainable economic growth in London, we have to build a strong foundation. The health and homelessness summit has clearly identified key issues that we need to rally around in order for that foundation to stay strong.

Marcus Plowright, realtor and donation organizer: We are at this enormous convergence of money and community engagement and brilliant solutions at the same moment in time. This is something enormously different to help people suffering and those frontline workers watching people die.

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London police chief Steve Williams: Quite often were the only 24/7 response. We can apply Band-aids to the immediate problem, but we cant really address the underlying issues. If we have another tool at our disposal, such as these hubs, then we can be more effective in handing individuals to the most appropriate service. There will be some training and education on our part to change our mindset, that were not alone.

Beth Mitchell, co-leader, Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services: We have to listen to what people say they need instead of saying this is what we have, and you have to lie there. During the pandemic, we had the opportunity to experiment with some things. That funding all ends. To have something we can create that is sustainable, that when we hire staff we can say, this is a permanent job, you can invest in your career, that would be a game-changer.

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From homelessness to hope: Anatomy of a London turnaround - The London Free Press