The city is moving forward with providing warm spaces to eat for its most vulnerable citizens.
But for the second time in as many council meetings, a members' motion brought forward by councillors Robert Kirwan and Bill Leduc was deferred, and may end up being rendered redundant by the time council reconvenes on Dec. 15.
Leduc and Kirwan were seeking to have a pair of warming trailers set up across from the Samaritan Centre on Elgin Street, as a means of providing a warm place for the city's homeless to eat their meals.
Since a Nov. 3 meeting of the finance and administration committee, the city has been plowing forward on improving service levels for the homeless population, opening the YMCA and Sudbury Action Centre for Youth (SACY) seven nights a week from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
In the meantime, discussions have been ongoing between the city and the ParkSide Centre for using space within the building for those who rely on the Blue Door Soup Kitchen for their meals as a place to warm up while they eat.
"We are working with our community partners as a result of direction from council to find opportunities for our vulnerable population to have a warm place to eat. We are working with ParkSide and with the YMCA to make that happen," said Steve Jacques, general manager of community development.
"There will be a provision moving forward for 50 spaces indoors within the YMCA. We've done considerable consultation over the last two weeks with the various tenants and with the YMCA as well as the ParkSide Centre, and we've addressed the concerns they have and they're supportive of being able to host that event to host our vulnerable population."
This will create space for 50 people to eat in addition to the 31 spaces that are available at Centre de Santé.
Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc had raised some safety concerns with using the ParkSide Centre as a place for the city's homeless to warm up and eat their meals. The councillor made note of the daycare that operates in the building during the daytime hours and the concerns with the possibility of exposing young children to drug use and violence.
The proposed hours at the ParkSide Centre are from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for lunch and 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. for dinner from Monday to Friday, in conjunction with meal times at the Blue Door Soup Kitchen. Meals will be delivered by the Blue Door and/or the Elgin Street Mission.
Weekend meal hours will be from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m for brunch.
Council was being asked to ratify the decision that had been approved at finance and administration on Nov. 3 that would see them move forward with pursuing the partnership with the YMCA, ParkSide Centre and SACY.
Costs associated with the project are $175,000 towards a youth warming centre at SACY, with funding coming from Phase Two of the provincial Social Services Relief Fund, while $200,000 will come from the Provincial Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative and Federal Reaching Home funding initiative for the YMCA to provide overnight warming shelters seven nights a week. The services are being offered at no direct charge to city taxpayers.
Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan raised similar concerns to those of Leduc, noting the number of youth sports organizations that utilize the YMCA during the week and on weekends.
"My concern is that when we have 50 people gathering for lunch, and there's really no place for them to go, chances are they're going to stay in that vicinity until dinner and there's only 20 spaces overnight, and we're going to end up with quite a crowded area, in an area where there will be a lot of young children," said Kirwan. "The covered parking becomes an excellent shelter during cold weather. I think we're setting things up for a disaster and we heard tonight from (Bob) Johnston that 50 per cent of the homeless people have an addiction problem, and I believe that setting something like this up at the YMCA is not in the best interest of not only our homeless, but also our residents who use that building."
Jacques explained that there has been ongoing dialogue with the YMCA and that security staff at the building have been working with the individuals who have been using the overnight warming centre and the interactions have been very respectful.
"They've been respectful in moving along when the daycare families are dropping their children off and they've been able to manage it very well," said Jacques.
"We've addressed their concerns and the YMCA is comfortable that this does not pose a great issue for their tenants or users of their facilities. We're still working with the YMCA and the ParkSide Centre on the logistics of the setup to ensure that we're able to provide proper security or restriction of access to areas of the building where we do not want people from the public to enter or people who are using the meal station to access without permission."
When questioned by Coun. Leduc if there had been any incidents at the YMCA in the two weeks it had been operating as a warming centre, the city's director of social services Tyler Campbell said that he had not heard of any police interactions or calls to Sudbury EMS.
"Apparently this past Saturday night police had to attend the YMCA and that involved two homeless individuals," said Leduc. "At the same time, there were also unfortunately three homeless people laying outside on the street right in front of the YMCA in close proximity to the door and security from across the street happened to notice them out there and brought them blankets because they thought they were going to freeze to death."
Leduc's proposal for a pair of trailers on Elgin Street comes in at a cost of $175,000, and the councillor questioned what the costs associated with using the ParkSide Centre would be.
"This $200,000 that we're going to approve for the YMCA, does this include the eating station or is the eating station at the YMCA an added cost over this $200,000?" asked Leduc.
Campbell explained that the $200,000 earmarked for the YMCA is specifically for the overnight warming centre and that costs associated with running the meal station were above and beyond that.
"We are working with the YMCA to finalize a final budget, we anticipate that it would be upwards of the $200,000 that was put forward similar to the warming station," said Campbell.
Council voted in favour of ratifying the finance and administration committee resolution, with only Leduc and Kirwan voting in opposition.
When it came time for Leduc to make his pitch for the warming trailers, the councillor laid out the plans to have it not only be a warm place to eat, but an access point to social services for the city's vulnerable citizens. Leduc's motion includes two trained social service workers on-site for nine hours a day at a cost of $18 an hour, or roughly $65,000 from Nov. 23 to April 30.
The motion also includes security staff on-site for nine hours a day at $20 an hour at a cost of around $36,000 until April 30. The councillor also presented a lengthy list of letters of support, including funding commitments from an array of organizations.
After Leduc’s presentation, Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh took the opportunity to poke holes in his plan, indicating that some of the figures and facts presented were misleading, specifically a $3,000 funding commitment the Ward 11 councillor said came from St. Andrew's United Church.
"I have the letter right in front of me from St. Andrew's United Church,” McIntosh said. “At no place in this letter did they make a contribution of $3,000 and I just want to be clear about that; they offer their support and are asking for a warm place for people to eat a meal, but at no time did they offer any cash."
"In the last week I've spoken twice with the executive director of Independent Living (Rob DiMeglio). It was through speaking with him that I learned he had drafted this proposal on the table and he was unaware that council had not seen it. He sent me a copy of his original proposal, part of the proposal includes $65,000 to include social services staffing for five months. This would duplicate those social services already being provided at the Centre de Santé and the Homelessness Network."
Ward 4 Coun. Geoff McCausland raised an eyebrow at what direction Leduc was taking, commenting on the fact that Leduc voted in opposition to the motion that had been passed earlier in the evening to fund SACY and the YMCA to provide warming centres.
"I'm a bit confused by this presentation, Councillor Leduc. You said this goes back to the finance and administration committee resolution when we approved $375,000, which you said was great and yet you just voted tonight against that same resolution," said McCausland.
"You also said you'd need to ask Steve Jacques about this and there might some other funding, and to not know how we're going to fund this and to just use tax rate stabilization is somewhat concerning. Two weeks ago you said much of the funding would be covered by community donations and after two weeks it appears that you've secured approximately $3,000, or less than two per cent of the actual budget. To me, this is a Band-Aid solution and there are a number of issues with the plan."
For the second time that the motion hit the council table, no decision was made as council ran for four hours Tuesday night and councillors didn’t vote unanimously to proceed past four hours, stopping the motion in its tracks once again.
Mayor Brian Bigger made note that by the time council returns on Dec. 15, Leduc's motion could well become redundant as the city will be moving forward with plans to use the ParkSide Centre.
"Under the emergency legislation, I have the ability to give direction to staff and so upon hearing all of the information presented here tonight, I'm directing staff … to work with our existing service providers, which includes the YMCA and the ParkSide Centre, to provide dining space for vulnerable individuals who are collecting a takeout meal from service providers, including the Elgin Street Mission and Blue Door Kitchen," said Bigger.
"That should be put in operation as soon as possible. The next council meeting is Dec. 15. There's no reason to delay. I would also direct staff to work with the Elgin Street Mission and Centre de Santé to provide meal delivery service as soon as possible and those services should continue until April 30, 2021.
“Under the emergency provision, I'm able to require that the funds for this agreement be provided by the Provincial Safe Restart funding, so staff have now been directed to provide the food services, the delivery of food and so the food challenge has been resolved as of this meeting."
