A Response from Transition House
Re: “In My Opinion – One Day in 16 Months: Questions Mount Over Organizations Listed at 310 Division Street” (Today’s Northumberland, August 12, 2026)
Transition House operates the shelter at 310 Division Street, and we wanted to add some context to this week’s opinion piece about the County’s service-provider report. We think the questions raised deserve a fuller answer than a security log alone can offer, and we’re glad to provide it.
We would have welcomed the chance to speak with the reporter before publication, and we’d still welcome that conversation — we think it would give readers a much more complete picture of how services at 310 actually work.
Security sign-in records tell only part of the story. The article rightly notes that its own numbers don’t capture phone calls, off-site outreach, advocacy, or people served elsewhere in the community. We’d add that this isn’t a minor caveat — it’s central to understanding how homelessness and housing services actually operate. Much of the most important work happens outside our walls, in ways a building’s entry log was never designed to track.
Green Wood Coalition is a good example of this. Since County Council’s decision last July to close the 24 hr warming/cooling hub on our main floor, Green Wood has stepped up to offer meals and drop in space twice a week for the community, many of whom relied on that hub. That’s a meaningful, ongoing commitment that many people in the shelter and living outdoors depend on — one that a single onsite visit count doesn’t reflect. The same is true for Fourcast and the other organizations named, each of which has its own way of reaching people that may not run through our front door.
We work as a network, not a competition. Northumberland’s housing and homelessness crisis is shaped by decisions made well above any one agency’s control, and the organizations working on it rely heavily on each other — sharing referrals, covering gaps, and supporting residents together. We’d hate to see that collaboration undermined by a metric that wasn’t built to measure it.
310 Division Street is not, and can no longer be, the hub for everyone experiencing homelessness in our community. We think this is an important piece of context that’s easy to miss. When County Council made the decision to close the 24-hour hub on our main floor and to raise the barrier level for access to the shelter, it changed our mandate.
We are no longer able to be the single point of access we once were. Today, we provide essential services to the 46 residents of our building — but we are not permitted to support the many other individuals in our community who are experiencing homelessness.
That’s exactly why organizations offering services off-site — Green Wood Coalition, the HELP Centre, Fourcast, Northumberland Community Legal Centre, United Way, and many others — are so essential. They reach both the people who access our services and the many who don’t. The variety of organizations offering a variety of programming in a variety of locations is a gift to this community. It’s something to be celebrated, not measured against a single building’s sign-in sheet. A security log at 310 Division Street was never designed to capture that reach, and it shouldn’t be read as though it does.
We appreciate that Today’s Northumberland is paying attention to the work at 310 Division Street and other homelessness services. We just think the fullest, fairest version of that story includes direct input from the organizations involved. We’re happy to be part of that conversation any time.
-Transition House, 310 Division Street
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
