By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
People are going to die on the streets of Cobourg this winter, Integrated Homelessness and Addictions Response Centre Director Jordan Stevenson predicted at 2:30 a.m. Monday morning, as he stood watch over several homeless individuals in the CIBC lobby downtown.
At that time, Stevenson estimated, not only was the shelter at 310 Division St. full but there were 38 additional homeless individuals on the street.
As Northumberland County council gathers Tuesday afternoon to debate where a warming room might be located this winter, and Wednesday night’s Cobourg council agenda includes a notice of motion by Mayor Lucas Cleveland to locate the warming room in the newly constructed Golden Plough Lodge (which hasn’t even opened yet), Stevenson’s frustration was evident.
“It’s hard not to get so frustrated at a system that is supposed to help people become stable,” he said.
“It’s grinding people like Chris down and making them worse off than when they started.”
That would be 56-year-old Chris Sexsmith, who told Today’s Northumberland that he has a full-time job in Port Hope.
Sexsmith is actually a former homeowner in Port Hope. He wishes he could be in Port Hope.
“That’s where my job is, that’s where my doctor is, that’s where I’m from. It’s my home town,” he said wistfully.
Sexsmith has been in Transition House since July, getting to work, buying his own food, trying to keep it from being stolen, keeping to himself. He’s also been looking for real housing, an apartment or even a room to rent, “but apartments are just outrageous right now.”
And with a past eviction, the bad credit rating doesn’t help.
While Sexsmith has no issue with drugs, “I might have a few beers on the weekend, but I overdid it Saturday,” he admitted.
“I should have had more self-control and not drank as much as I did.”
Not being from Cobourg, Sexsmith got lost and ended up missing the midnight curfew. But he called them “more than twice, trying to let them know I’m trying to get back. They told me if I was back by 1, they would let me in.”
He was “nine or 10 minutes” later than that, and was told he was “discharged.”
“I kind of freaked out a little bit. It’s cold as hell out,” he stated.
“I was told this morning I disrespected the staff. I attacked myself more than I attacked them, because I threatened to kill myself.
“I might have been a bit disrespectful, but when you’re told you’ve got to get out into the cold, what’s your normal reaction? You’re going to be pissed. And I wasn’t just pissed. Depression hit. Boom!
Depression hit me big-time.”
The episode ended with the police being called.
“They put me in cuffs, put me in the car, took me to the hospital,” he reported – though he didn’t stay there long.
“The doctor said, ‘I don’t think there’s any mental problems here. He’s just pissed off.’”
While Transition House offers case-management services, Sexsmith has found the Help Centre more helpful.
“I did screw up last night, but you don’t do that to people – kick them out in the cold,” he insisted.
For whatever reason, he finds that Port Hope doesn’t have homeless out in the open as Cobourg does.
Whenever he left Transition House in the morning, the homeless were everywhere to be seen.
“My eyes were closed to this until it happened to me,” he stated.
“It’s like something’s not right when people can’t get a roof over their head. This isn’t right, and it’s getting worse. It appears to be getting worse. We shouldn’t be sleeping in a goddamn bank.”
And if not for a bank vestibule, he added, “I would probably end up with hypothermia tonight.”
Looking ahead, he said, “I was told they would hold my bed until tomorrow, so I’ve got to get there tomorrow morning.”
Stevenson is awaiting the week’s developments with interest.
“We are not facing the issue, and now there’s the possibility we don’t even have a warming room. And so, as a community – and county council specifically – is deciding they would like to fix this problem by killing people.
“And I think we, as a broader community, should understand the tactics that are in play.”
Referring to Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland’s notice of motion about a warming room in the county’s old-age home, Stevenson alleged it is “only done to sandbag and just say he’s done his part.
“That is absolutely stone categorically false. It’s only being done so that nothing happens. The other county councillors don’t see the issues, so they don’t care.”
The old solutions aren’t working, Stevenson said.
“We need to come together as a community and figure this out properly instead of relegating people to actually die on the streets.”
Even though overnight temperatures are only beginning to approach the zero mark, Stevenson added, the situation is already beyond critical. Glancing inside the lobby at the individuals taking shelter there, he predicted, “two of those, I can guarantee, will not survive the winter. The man in there sleeping will not survive the winter.
“Doing more of the same will result in people’s deaths, and I hope that weighs on people’s minds as you go to sleep in your house,” he commented.
“There will be deaths – multiple deaths.”
Meanwhile, there will also be costs, such as those incurred by the health system as he sends people to the hospital with cold-weather injuries. And the costs will be borne in other ways as well.
“The paramedics – WSIB claims are through the roof. Police are burning out. Bylaw (officers) are burning out. All these people, front-line workers, are burning out because they are left to deal with all the damage overnight. They are the ones who clean up the mess. Not the politicians, not Lucas sleeping in his bed.
“Don’t get me wrong. I am friends with Lucas, I appreciate him as a person,” he said, referring to Cobourg’s mayor.
“But I think this whole politicization of this issue is just disgusting. We are playing with people’s lives like it’s just a game at recess.”
