New options are being explored in Chatham-Kent to house the homeless as the lease on the current emergency housing provider at the Travelodge Hotel is set to expire at the end of May.
A proposal to expand the emergency homeless shelter to downtown Chatham‘s Hope Haven was sent back to municipal staff for further review Monday night after other options were brought forward late last week.
“This is significant for Chatham-Kent,” says Ward 1 Coun. Melissa Harrigan. “This is what I would call kind of new territory for our community.”
Harrigan worries the impending lease expiration will leave dozens of vulnerable people with nowhere to go, noting the homeless population has ballooned since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“It's a bit of a perfect storm, right? We have a housing crisis, a lack of low income or affordable housing for purchase or for rent. And then we have this COVID pandemic,” Harrigan explains. “I have concerns with the timing of everything because there are 50 individuals right now who if we do not have a solution in place by May, the expiration of the current contract, they will not have a place to sleep at night.”
Harrigan says a recent report revealed that on any given night there are roughly 200 people without a place to stay in Chatham-Kent, with about five households a week needing emergency housing for the first time.
“One in five of them are seniors or youth. So, I think that's important to consider as well when we're looking at the location,” Harrigan explains. “We're providing emergency shelter to families and we're providing emergency shelter to seniors. So we really need to consider accessibility when we're looking at options.”
Initially, administration recommended that Chatham-Kent partner with Hope Haven to run a 27-bed shelter in its already existing facility.
Over two dozen deputations on the matter were read out at Monday’s council meeting with many supporting the proposal, while others were opposed.
“We're really hoping there’s a solution that helps everybody and that it's adequate,” explains Andrew Thiel who owns a marketing company downtown. “You don't want to have a shelter for 27 people when the need is over 200. Doesn't make any sense.”
Thiel started an opposing online petition that said his business and safety had been impacted by some of the homeless.
“We saw a lot of problems like the building behind me here, there was a $30,000 fire that was starting the bathroom,” he says. “The patio right here to my right, they would undo the bulbs to make crack pipes out of. The building at the end of the street had 17 windows broken on it. So there's a lot of problems.”
Thiel tells CTV News there needs to be a solution for those less fortunate but believes the answer is not downtown.
“They're human beings we understand that, but in the downtown core is just not the right place for it,” he says.
Hope Haven’s general manager Loree Bailey worries the discussion is pitting community members against each other, stating the goal is to help the homeless. “Absolutely. It has become a war and it's not a war that Hope Haven wants to be part of,” Bailey adds. “The people that we're trying to help have enough struggle in their day-to-day every life. We don't need to add another thing to that. So we don't want to be part of a war, we really want to be part of a solution for everyone.”
Bailey explains that moving the emergency shelter to an expanded Hope Haven would not be a permanent solution.
“The only real solution for homelessness is affordable housing. And in the meantime, we just have to get from here to there,” she says.
Bailey adds she’s encouraged by the show of support from the community, noting Hope Haven has been in operation for five years.
“We heard a lot of really, really positive feedback from the community. Lots of people are really in support of finding a really good solution that works for everybody,” she says.
“We know that we're doing a great thing at Hope Haven, we know that our day program is really well attended. We know that the community is happy to have us there doing what we're doing. And I'm really happy for the people that we're trying to help that there's a whole team of people looking for the best for them.”
A new report is expected to be presented to Chatham-Kent council on or before April 4.