By Cecilia Nasmith/Northumberland 89.7 FM/Today’s Northumberland
With little debate and minimal discussion, Cobourg council passed a motion at Tuesday’s special meeting to call upon the county to “halt the expansion of emergency shelter capacity in Cobourg” until there is an “equitable distribution of emergency shelter beds and support services across all municipalities.”
Councillor Brian Darling questioned what numbers might be involved. For example, the capacity at the county shelter at 310 Division St. works out to two beds per 1,000 population – does that mean that a municipality with a population of 5,000 should have 10 beds?
Mayor Lucas Cleveland, who made the motion, said there was no intention to set such exact parameters at this time. The idea was to pass the motion, he said, and see what plans the county might have to implement it – “lead with an assumption of positive intentions,” as he explained.
Councillor Adam Bureau pointed out that he had made a similar motion that had already passed at council, but Cleveland pointed out that this motion called for a staff report that, as yet, has not been presented.
The motion notes that “the concentration of emergency shelter services in Cobourg has placed a disproportionate burden on the town’s resources, infrastructure and emergency services.”
It declares homelessness “a regional issue that requires a fair and equitable distribution of shelter beds and support services across all municipalities.” Therefore, “the County of Northumberland and its service providers must commit to not establishing an additional emergency shelter beds in the Town of Cobourg until such time as shelter beds and related support services are equitably distributed across all municipalities within the county.”
