By Cecilia Nasmith/Northumberland 87.9 FM/Today’s Northumberland
Northumberland County council’s Social Services Committee heard statistics on the use of its new homeless shelter at 310 Division St., Cobourg, at this week’s meeting.
Looking at numbers from its first few weeks, 60% of the clients have been men and 61% had been homeless six months or more. While 79% are on OW or ODSP, 2% were employed.
In terms of demographics, 13% were Indigenous, 1% were veterans, 3% were persons of colour, 31% were persons with disabilities, and 10% had a recent stay in a provincial institution.
As for origin, 82% report a Northumberland County location as their upper-tier location affiliation.
Within the county, 82% claim Cobourg as their lower-tier location affiliation, with 4% from Cramahe Township, 3% from Port Hope, 2% from the Township of Alnwick-Haldimand, and 1% from each of the other municipalities.
In November, 20 concerns were reported, rising to 27 in December. Of that number, 13 were related to waste, 10 to behaviour, seven each to loitering and substance use, five to unwanted persons, three to security and two to abandoned property.
In its first month of operations, there were 11 paramedic responses for things like health or behavioural concerns, pain and general symptoms – only one was related to an overdose.
Director of Health and Human Services Glenn Dees said the county is working with the Town of Cobourg to get the best data to guide decision making, going forward.
Asked how these individuals make their way to the shelter, Manager of Homelessness Services Bill Smith agreed that transportation is typically an issue. Y drive has come to Cobourg, he said, “and the OPP, Cobourg and Port Hope police have been very helpful when they come across folks who are living outside, to transport these individuals to 310.”
Asked about “service restrictions” in place, Dees replied that these typically carry penalties of up to seven days’ ban from the premises.
“These are operational decisions for Transition House on what those restrictions should look like going forward,” he said, with an eye toward the safety of the offender, the surrounding community and the requirements under the town’s Emergency Care Establishments bylaw.
Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland, who sat in on the meeting, asked how the concerns of neighbouring residents and businesses are being addressed.
Associate Director of Housing and Homelessness Rebecca Carman said they have established a telephone number (1-877-770-2564) that is open and answered by a person around the clock. This person immediately relays concerns to the mobile security officer on-site to be addressed.
“Those concerns are addressed within a few minutes of those concerns being reported,” Carman stated.
Cleveland declaimed insistently on the importance of making the service agreement – under which Transition House operates the county-owned shelter – public, at least in part so that costs can be monitored.
Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Moore said that, while the agreement can be made available – and indeed is the subject of a current Freedom of Information request – the agreements the county makes with its various service providers (from construction contracts to child-care service agreements) are not routinely made public.
“I understand it is a fairly standard agreement,” Moore said.
“It’s not prohibited from being shared in any way.”
“Is it standard to grow charges from a $1-million contract to $4-million without going to an RFP first?” Cleveland asked.
Moore pointed out that the process of the agreement was supported by council at every step, and that the county’s purchasing bylaw does not require an RFP in this instance.
Carman said that the contract had not grown by nearly that factor, adding that any increases could be attributed to the addition of the ground-floor warming hub and the costs of compliance with the town’s new Emergency Care Establishments bylaw.
