(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland/Northumberland 89.7
A letter from a former small business in Cobourg kicked off a lengthy discussion of Northumberland County’s homeless shelter at 310 Division St. at Wednesday’s meeting of county council’s Social Services Committee.
Vault Mental Health Services owner Jessica O’Connor chose Cobourg for a location because that’s where her parents lived, and she’d been a frequent visitor to a community in which she felt safe and comfortable. The 304 Division St. location, however, became untenable within a month due to its proximity to the shelter.
O’Connor had lost both staff and clients as a result of “loud disruptions and concerning behaviour from individuals who are clearly unwell” – smoking crack on the building’s steps, for example, and following therapists to their cars.
She is now satisfactorily relocated to 11 Mill St. in Port Hope.
“It is my hope that the town and its community can come together to provide real solutions – not simply to place people, but to care for and support them in meaningful ways,” she wrote.
“Small businesses should not bear the burden of managing this complex issue alone.”
While council sometimes simply accepts such letters for information, Deputy Warden Olena Hankivsky said the matter warrants more discussion.
“We are relentless in our efforts to make improvements and problem-solve,” Associate Director of Housing and Homelessness Rebecca Carman stated, detailing meetings with neighbouring residents and businesses, as well as their on-going partnership with the Cobourg Police Service – who attended one such meeting recently and made recommendations and offered suggestions to these neighbours.
Further community engagement is done through the Community Liaison Committee, Carman added.
“One of the challenges here is that we acknowledge this is very complicated. There’s not an easy answer to this and to the challenges we are facing.
“I think part of the challenge is, every time we talk with a business or neighbour, we ask what would a resource for you look like – how can we make this better for you. Sometimes we don’t get concrete answers, because everyone acknowledges this is a very complex and complicated situation.”
Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland – who is not on the committee but sat in on the meeting – was outraged.
Cleveland urged council to invite some of these business owners to council to hear first-hand about the assaults they experience and the abandoned needles and feces they must clean up.
In fact, Warden Brian Ostrander said, the opening of 310 has helped improve the situation in downtown Cobourg.
“We know this to be true,” Ostrander said.
But the results aren’t perfect, he added.
“We want to make sure the community understands we take these concerns extremely seriously, but also to make sure the downtown business neighbourhood feels comfortable operating their businesses in that community.”
Cleveland has heard first-hand from residents of 310 that people bring in drugs, store them in lockers on the premises, then – because drug use is not allowed on the premises – take the drugs across the street or down the block to use them.
Ostrander expressed his opinion that all partners, from the staff to members of the Cobourg Police Service, are aware of the problems and doing what they can to address the situation. But even if a search could be made, Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Moore said, staff do not have the authority to seize contraband.
Cleveland said that, in any case, simple drug possession is no longer a criminal offence. This is a shortcoming the Federal government must address, he said – along with the province’s making sure that enough health-care dollars are allocated to address issues of addiction and mental-health concerns.
Cleveland reiterated his call for business owners to address council personally, rather than hear “filtered” statistics from staff. Director of Health and Human Services Glenn Dees objected to that characterization, saying the collection of data is done by very well-qualified professionals who “work under a framework of very strong ethics. They have provided fairly extensive quantitative data, considering the short time the facility has been open.
“Their ability to provide this data is not filtered in any fashion,” Dees stated.
Cleveland then alleged that business owners and residents were directly told by county staff not to call police when problems arise with residents and clients of 310 Division St.
“I have trouble believing our staff have told anyone not to call police,” Ostrander said.
“If I was told by anyone not to call police, I would ignore that advice if I saw criminal behaviour.”
As the staffer who would probably be the subject of such accusations, Carman said, “I can tell council that has never been the direction I have given. My response has always been, if you see something that’s a crime, you need to call the police.”
The motion by Hankivsky called for a monthly survey of surrounding businesses. Among the questions will be how many points of contact have been made with county staff or their agents (such as security and Transition House personnel who have been contracted in connection with the operation of the shelter), as well as what opportunities they were extended to direct their concerns and resolve their issues.
The monthly nature of the survey, she noted, allows staff to track trends and follow how concerns are being addressed.
