(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Warming room user Chance Brown addressed Wednesday’s meeting of Northumberland County council’s Social Services Committee to repeat a plea he has made before – let people sleep.
The first few nights of the warming room have been appreciated, Brown said, offering warmth, light refreshments and “respectful interactions.”
However, security staff must keep them awake. This is denial of a necessity of life, he maintained.
“I have probably had six or seven hours in the past three days,” he said including a few hours over a grate.
“Sleep deprivation is harm, and it’s trauma, and it’s happening for the second winter in a row.”
County council has heard on previous occasions that the fire code differentiates between places where sleep is allowed and places where it is not allowed.
The warming room opened last Thursday and will remain open through March 31. Hours are 8 p,m. To 8 a.m., and it is staffed by two security guards – though Associate Director of Housing and Homelessness Rebecca Carman noted that county staff are always available should a situation arise where such a response is required.
Brown wondered aloud how many problems attributed to the homeless have some basis in sleep deprivation.
“I have seen people cry because they haven’t slept in days,” he said – and he’s also seen guilt in the faces of security staff waking people up.
“The harm is no longer theoretical, but real. It happens nightly.
“When people cannot sleep, they do not stabilize. They do not recover, and they remain homeless.”
All he’s asking, Brown said, is to allow people to sleep.
“Let someone lean their head down and close their eyes uninterrupted.”
He also asked for a night-time outreach team made up of peers of the homeless population.
“It’s not political or controversial. It’s just human,” Brown said.
“When we get displaced in the morning and someone has had a bad morning, that person is now in the town.”
The motion was made to accept Brown’s presentation for information – though the vote on that motion was interrupted by Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland (not a committee member but sitting in on the meeting) who wanted to clarify a point.
Brown had blamed the town’s Emergency Care Bylaw as one of the parties that bans sleep.
Such rules are based on provincial building standards, fire standards, safety standards,” Cleveland listed, saying the bylaw is just a means to enforce those rules.
The vote then proceeded to receive the presentation for information.
Later in the meeting, Cleveland alleged that he had – the previous day – received an email from Carman requesting that they allow people to sleep in the warming room. County in-house legal counsel, however, said he was unaware of any request having been made to permit any contravention of any provincial law.
The allegation arose during Carman’s report that the They are applying for a Federal Emergency Treatment Fund grant, with the hope of expanding the county’s Community Paramedic Street Outreach Services that they launched in September, fielding services to the homeless from wound care to basic necessities for homeless individuals.
Currently working four hours Tuesdays and four hours Fridays, they hope to expand the services to a 12-hours-a-day-seven-days-a-week one, applying for $1.35-million to make it possible.
To date, they have served 195 unique individuals, often connecting them with health services and other wellness supports.
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
