By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Northumberland Associate Director of Housing and Homelessness Rebecca Carman is asking to change the monthly report on the homeless shelter at 310 Division St., Cobourg, to a quarterly one, “recognizing that the data is kind of stabilized – we have seen the same type of information.”
Carman made the request at Wednesday’s meeting of county council’s Social Services Committee.
Another consideration is staff time. From her own internal audit, she estimates they could save at least 40 hours per quarter with this move.
Committee chair John Logel was interested in one metric of the report.
“I’m noticing that loitering is still one of the biggest challenges, although that has been reduced substantially – and I appreciate that,” Logel said.
“But out of the 39 different complaints since July, 33 or about 85% are to do with loitering and trespassing. Is there any thing we can do working together with the other different groups to reduce that?”
“Often what we are seeing is, when those complaints are coming in, it’s more about the fact that someone has seen someone who appears to be homeless, and they are looking for that person to be not where they are,” Carman said.
“However, if there’s nowhere for folks to go, it’s challenging for us to move people along without premises for them to go to.”
Nevertheless, they can have security staff talk to these individuals. Or, in some cases, they may suggest the caller might more appropriately approach police or the town bylaw officials.
“It’s really that they have seen someone existing, and they would like that person to be moved along,” Carman said.
