By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Transition House at 310 Division St., Cobourg, will soon be changing how it operates following a Tuesday-night Town Hall meeting and a lengthy Northumberland County council discussion the following morning.
The motion for this change, passed after four and a half hours of debate and discussion, calls for the 24/7 warming and cooling hub to be closed by July 4, with a staff report to be made to the July 30 Social Services Committee meeting on transitioning the shelter to one that serves a low- to medium-acuity clientele – timeline, budget, operational expectations.
The move will also necessitate notice given to Transition House as operators of the shelter and some renegotiations.
As for the hub, Associate Director of Housing and Homelessness Rebecca Carman warned that alternatives to this service do not exist so that, as of July 4, some of these clients may have nowhere to go. Part of the motion was for staff to investigate the feasibility of setting up another hub. Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland succeeded in getting into the motion that this service cannot be set up within the town unless it is on county or hospital property (adding the suggestion that the Golden Plough Lodge building, once vacated when the new one opens, might serve).
The motion wrapped up lengthy presentations and discussions that had begun at Tuesday night’s Town Hall meeting at the Cobourg Community Centre. It was not announced there, but Warden Brian Ostrander said that every member of county council (except Port Hope Mayor Olena Hankivsky) was present. And while they were offered seats alongside Cobourg council, they chose to disperse themselves among the audience.
“I am certain we all heard the concerns of the community and the concerns of those who are clients of 310 Division St., and will consider those pieces of information well,” he said at the beginning of the council meeting.
“I did get up super-early today and watch,” Hankivsky added.
Four options were set out in the staff report before council – the current high-access sheltering housing-focused hub, a moderate-access shelter only, a low-access shelter only and a sober-living facility with funding implications for each. A chart summed up for each option the target population, primary mandate, approach to service, investment, funding source, and ability to meet the needs of clients currently served by 310 Division St. The report also listed five areas to be considered during decision-making – access to basic needs and housing pathways, visibility of unsheltered homelessness, pressure on adjacent systems, alignment with local housing goals, and neighbourhood relations and long-term integration.
The choice in the end proved to be none of the above, but some hybrid of the second and third options yet to be fleshed out. The motion passed did specify that the shelter in whatever form would continue to accept pets and couples.
Prior to council determinations, four individuals made presentations to county council.
Senior Director Amanda DiFalco of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness said she understands the pressure created by rising visible homelessness, community frustration, public safety concerns and business disruptions – but said that making 310 Division St. a sober-living environment is not the solution.
DiFalco said she has seen Cobourg’s scenario play out in many Canadian communities, and those that have opted for sober-living status assume that those left unserved will simply relocate – possibly to another community with better access to housing.
This simply does not happen, she stated.
The police will be called more frequently, emergency services will be stretched further, communities will deteriorate more rapidly.
She cited the example of St. Thomas as a community that took another road with a housing-first approach. The end result is that homelessness was cut by 30% and calls to police for drug-related behaviour decreased by 60%.
Cleveland cited new provincial directions of a $10,000 fine and possible jail term for living rough in questioning what choice communities have. DiFalco insisted municipalities still have the authority to make their own bylaws.
Two users of the shelter also addressed council, one of them – Lara Robertson – having spoken the night before at the Cobourg Town Hall meeting. She repeated her presentation, urging safe-consumption sites with distinctive and different locations that keep them away from those trying to recover.
Dave Scott apologized for his appearance because he hadn’t slept the night before. And this is the problem, he said – the ban on sleeping in the warming hub.
“The two things the homeless need are sleep and food, and not always in that order,” Scott said.
“Not being able to do that at 310 is pushing people back out into the street to find someplace to sleep.”
Being able to sleep is also important to those trying to recover, he added.
These speakers followed the first presenter, Jeff Wheeldon, a former Transition House board member.
“Many residents feel their concerns have not been heard or that nothing has been done. Politicians and staff are often like ducks – you often don’t see how fast their little legs are moving under the water,” Wheeldon said.
“I want to make it clear to residents that staff see everything that you see, and much, much more.”
They are also increasingly the subject of harassment and attacks from members of the public inflamed by the political climate.
“Using drugs is not allowed in Transition House and never has been. When they do, they get service restrictions, which is to say they get kicked out.” The unintentional side effect is that they use in public places – the 500-metre radius cited in the town’s Emergency Care Establishment bylaw often means they get far away and deeper into the community to do so. And when they are banned from the shelter anyway, they might as well do it in the public.
To make it a sober-living facility “would exclude residents from the support they need to survive. They will not just sober up or disappear,” he said.
“We cannot wish them away or arrest them away. We know from decades of experience forced drug treatment doesn’t work.”
We can’t solve the drug problem, he said, because we can’t get rid of drugs. The alternative must be a safe place to do drugs. Every person doing drugs in a safe designated area is one not seen doing it outside.
“We cannot keep pushing people out of the shelter, and then blame the shelter for their being on the street.”
Mayor Lucas Cleveland debated the chicken-vs.-the-egg dilemma – are people drawn to Cobourg because the services are based there, or are the services based there because the need is there.”
It’s a county-funded service, Wheeldon replied. And to put a single shelter in an outlying community would mean a double-digit tax increase to every member municipality.
He cited the example of a single homeless individual in Brighton living on the streets. He has been offered help at the shelter, but refuses and continues to live on the street. The county can’t stretch its budget to any significant degree to serve this man, but then he has made his choice.
Following presentations, staff adjourned for an hour for in-camera discussions that included legal advice.
The resumption of the meeting was postponed a further half-hour due to the staff-appreciation barbecue that would offer councillors the opportunity to begin spreading some word of what moves were contemplated.
