A proposed encampment committee, transitional and supportive housing and an update on the tiny cabins all came before council Sept. 8 in various forms.
Jodi Guilmette, general manager of health and human services, provided council with an update on Pathways on Park, the tiny cabin property located on Park Street at Hyslop Street in Chatham.
“It’s been a couple of weeks now since the cabins have been operational,” she said. “I think the transition has been really successful. All cabins are occupied.”
Thirty-seven people moved from the now-closed Victoria Park Place shelter, while nine people who were “living rough” in the homeless encampment on Grand Avenue have also moved in, Guilmette said.
“There’s a real sense of community, a real sense of gratefulness for individuals staying there,” she said. “One individual who hadn’t had access to cooking facilities for a long time made a pot of chilli and shared it with others.”
Guilmette said Pathways on Park has a waiting list of about 15 people.
On the topic of encampments, Chatham Coun. Michael Bondy brought forward a notice of motion to be heard Sept. 25 for an encampment executive committee to be formed.
He said the committee should be comprised of “all invested groups – councillors, residents of the encampment area, area business owners and (C-K) administrative personnel.”
Chatham Coun. Brock McGregor received unanimous support in a motion to have administration report back on options to expand current emergency housing availability.
He said that could include expanding the tiny cabin project.
McGregor also asked that administration look at other municipal transitional and supportive housing projects in other parts of Ontario, including funding formulas and models.
Examining the potential use of current municipally owned assets for supportive housing is also part of the request.
“I appreciate the input from community members over the last couple of months. We can’t remove encampments in Chatham-Kent and we don’t have adequate shelter spaces and housing,” McGregor said, explaining the reasoning for his request. “We’ve seen other communities, like Waterloo, take these steps. And I understand a lot of this work is already ongoing.”
He said the homeless issue is to the point where “we need to have all the options on the table, and understand what those solutions would look like.”
Council hopes to hear back from administration by the end of the year.
No mention about mental health or drug abuse assistance?
Response by the end of the year? What a joke. It’s easy stop immigration send home temporary workers and offer jobs to the Canadians here. If they are homeless and don’t want to work. Put them in a facility where they have no choice but to follow the rules. If they can’t work for medical reasons then we help them. Being lazy or addicted to drugs or don’t want to follow the rules is not a good enough reason to not work or be productive in society. Get rid of bad homeless and immigration policies.
Expansion?, possibly a good idea but with the success of Pathways on Park word is going to spread quickly and the next thing ( problem ) that will arise will be Pathways will be attracting newcomers likely not from Chatham- Kent….now what do we do ?