(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Cobourg council voted at this week’s special meeting to approve an exception to its Emergency Care Establishment bylaw to allow Northumberland County to open a warming room this winter – on certain conditions.
Prior to debate, council heard from speakers Cindy Beman and Jordan Stevenson (Executive Director of the Integrated Homelessness and Addictions Response Centre), followed by Davidson Long, who described himself as homeless and a “former or current drug addict.”
He described his fellow homeless as “the sons and daughters of Cobourg. You can’t just push us under the carpet or put us on a bus.”
Long had been in last year’s warming room and recalls “when sleeping was taken from all of us. Can you imagine that?”
The result is “nowhere to sleep, nowhere to feel safe or to seek sanctuary. I am worried that someone could potentially die.”
He did allow that they bear some responsibility for the situation – “some of the store owners not feeling safe, some of the garbage in the street, some of the paraphernalia, people feeling not quite sure they can go out for a walk at night.”
Long offered to share some ideas that might tide things over, such as finding someplace where an encampment might be allowed temporarily, but Mayor Lucas Cleveland ultimately reminded him that the discussion at hand was on the bylaw amendment.
“Notwithstanding the wording above, the director may issue a third Emergency Care Establishment in the Town of Cobourg, permitted to be licensed, subject to the following provisions,” it said, listing several.
It’s only issued for the purpose of a winter seasonal warming shelter to be operated at the county at 555 Courthouse Rd.
The license will only be issued based on the Durham Warming Program Guidelines being submitted to staff as part of the application process.
The third – that the license is only valid from Dec. 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026 – occasioned lengthy debate.
Cobourg’s warming rooms have always opened in November, Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty said.
“I, in good conscience, can’t live with that knowing what the weather is outside.”
Beatty made a motion to amend the opening date to make it earlier but left it unspecified, knowing that the application process has to play out and that the county has work to do on its end to prepare the room for opening.
Cleveland said that the Dec. 1 opening was based on an analysis of other such operations, which almost uniformly open on Dec. 1 on the theory that – if they all open on the same date – no one community will get an influx of homeless by opening early.
Should the Northumberland one open early, he said, it’s conceivable that someone found homeless in Durham will be transported to the Northumberland shelter.
Without citing her source, Councillor Miriam Mutton said she supports the Dec. 1 date because the area already has “more than 200 vulnerable persons within a very short distance of the temporary warming room.”
As a retired firefighter, Councillor Brian Darling noted that every public place has fire-code regulations pertaining to capacity, and Committee Room A in the county building has a capacity limited to far fewer than 200.
Darling expressed hope that on-duty staff will show preference to Cobourg individuals in admitting people to the warming room, but Chief Administrative Officer Tracey Vaughan said that may not be realistic when it’s so easy to lose ID documents or have them stolen.
Cleveland called for a recorded vote on Beatty’s amendment allowing an earlier opening than Dec. 1, and he was joined only by Mutton in opposing it.
Following that vote, the amended motion passed.
The warming room can open when the town is satisfied that all conditions have been met and issues the license, and when the county has completed all the preparation work that is necessary.
