Sudbury city council will revisit a members' motion on Nov. 24 to provide a warm place to eat for the city's downtown homeless throughout the winter months.
Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc and Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan brought a motion forward on Nov. 10 that would provide trailers across the street from the Samaritan Centre nine hours a day until April 30, 2021.
The motion directs staff to work to establish warming stations at a cost not to exceed $175,000, and provide space for up to 66 people to have meals twice a day. The motion also calls for on-site social services, on-site security and appropriate washroom facilities with a cleaning regimen that reflect public health guidelines.
Council discussed the motion at the Nov. 10 meeting, but in voting against extending the meeting beyond 9 p.m. the motion was shelved and will be brought forward once again on Nov. 24.
"That was a sad moment by council because they showed no respect to the vulnerable population — these people need a warm place to eat," said Leduc. "This was a simple solution to a problem that's out there and still exists. We don't control the weather and the winter weather is approaching fast, temperatures are dropping and who wants to eat their meals on the side of the road?"
Steps have already been put in place to provide warming shelters seven nights a week in the city, thanks to direction given to staff by the finance and administration committee on Nov. 4, however Leduc feels that there is still more that needs to be done.
Leduc found himself on the front lines a month ago when 15 homeless people were removed from Memorial Park by the city's bylaw enforcement, without the foreknowledge of city council the Ward 11 councillor said.
"It was an unfortunate situation that the homeless people were dispersed out of Memorial Park, but we as a city had nobody there to make arrangements for these people," said Leduc, who approached Independent Living Sudbury Manitoulin to find a temporary solution.
With the help of Independent Living and some local businesses, 15 people were fed for the evening and eight stayed the night at the Independent Living office.
"Councillor Leduc knocked on my door and asked if we could set up an emergency shelter for the night, explaining that group of homeless individuals had been removed from the park and had nowhere to go," said Rob DiMeglio, executive director, Independent Living Sudbury Manitoulin.
Canadian Tire on Barrydowne donated a number of air mattresses for people to sleep on and the Sudbury Food Bank provided food for meals.
"The Samaritan Centre helped give us some guidance that night and we had many volunteers," said DiMeglio.
"We had 15 for dinner and eight stayed the night. This proposal from Coun. Leduc is offering a hand up and a warm place to eat that's across the street from the Samaritan Centre. There's so many different supports in Sudbury and we can connect these homeless people with these services."
Leduc said he's reached out to all of his fellow councillors and is hoping for support on the motion, but he has some concerns over other options that are being explored by staff, including opening the ParkSide Centre to the city's homeless as a place to stay warm while they eat.
"Staff is presently looking at ParkSide with the YMCA to open it up for an eating station so it would only run for two hours at lunch and two hours at dinner," said Leduc.
"The difficulty I have with that is the YMCA is open to the general public from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and there's a daycare that runs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and we're moving this vulnerable population over to where a daycare is located.
“As a city, we'd never approve a supervised injection site within 300 meters of a school or daycare, (so) why would we even consider moving this population over that way where we're exposing our youngest population to the possibility of an overdose or people doing drugs."
DiMeglio and Leduc have applied for a $50,000 donation from United Way, and that donation has been included in the motion that will be discussed on Nov. 24. The $50,000 will be used to fund the warming trailers, subject to the provision of a letter from the city acknowledging the donation.
Under Leduc’s motion, the balance of the funds, $125,000, would be provided by the Tax Rate Stabilization Fund.
"On Nov. 24 council has to make a decision as to whether they want to support the trailers or not," said Leduc. "If we're not going to support the trailers, then I hope that we have an alternative that's going to address the needs of our most vulnerable population."
DiMeglio is hopeful the motion will be passed, though he says that it is by no means a permanent solution and hopes that it's a step in the direction of a bricks and mortar location for the city's homeless population to eat during cold weather months.
"It seems like homelessness has grown since the pandemic, I don't know why but it seems like there's more," said DiMeglio.
"The Sudbury Arena would've been the ultimate spot and they used it in the summer, but the only thing I can think of is it needs to be near the Samaritan Centre. We can clean the place and sanitize between meals, but we just have less places for people to go now. My wish is that people call their ward councillors and ask them to support this project. To be honest this project is a Band-Aid and having these warm places to eat is great, but we need bricks and mortar and places where people can shower and things like that, but this project is what we've got this year and it's a good start."
