Beyond April 1, people who are homeless in Sudbury will not be able to set up in Memorial Park.
“We will be messaging very publicly that that's no longer an option going forward,” Tyler Campbell, the city’s director of children and social services, told Sudbury.com. “We will be messaging, very publicly, in regards to the use of parks.”
With an increasing number of service providers reopening after the pandemic, the City of Greater Sudbury is moving forward with plans to close two hotbeds of the homelessness crisis: the 199 Larch Street Warming Centre and the encampment in Memorial Park. Both plans align with already established strategies, said city representatives, based on funding, need, and the Greater Sudbury Encampment Response Guide.
On April 1st at noon, the municipal law enforcement officers will begin the planned dismantling of the Memorial Park encampment, and they will enforce the removal of those who plan to set up a tent or structure in the park. The City of Greater Sudbury posted signs in the park area on March 15 to announce the date and time, as per the encampment guide. The announcement also included the closure of the encampment on the grounds of 199 Larch St, near the warming centre.
Campbell told Sudbury.com there are three people still residing in the park, which is one of several encampments in the city. As of March 28, there were 128 people still on the by-name list waiting for housing, but Campbell adds that only 14 of those on the list are staying in an encampment. The rest are using the shelters or are provisionally accommodated, “meaning that at least they're sheltered on a temporary basis,” said Campbell, which is commonly known as couch-surfing.
There was also a good response to bridge housing, said Campbell, a plan that would see those living in an encampment stay in a provincially funded hotel room while waiting for housing.
“We have seven people in bridge housing currently,” said Campbell. “And 25 people have gone through that system.”
Campbell also confirmed that there are four people who have lost their housing. “To date, we've had four individuals on the By-Name List that have been housed and then have since lost their housing, and we'll continue to see that,” he said.
Lack of housing supports could be a factor in this. Evie Ali of the Go Give Project told Sudbury.com previously that “people are getting housed, yes, but the supports are still not in place, so we are seeing them slowly trickle back out.”
Isolation is also a factor, and many newly housed people head back to the streets in search of support systems and friends.
“The lack of support is causing them to trickle right back onto the streets and the fact of the matter is, they are at risk on the streets during the night.”
The decision to close the encampment was based on directives in the encampment guide created for the city by Iain De Jong.
One of the considerations for closing the encampment, according to the guide, considerations for closure include the “refusal of three or more offers of service by remaining encampment residents.”
Gail Spencer, the city’s co-ordinator of shelters and homelessness, told Sudbury.com previously that if someone has declined the services being offered, like a stay at the shelter, which she said usually has at least 20 beds open, that is fine.
However, “at this point, now, they just can't remain in the park,” Spencer said. “They can make choices to move elsewhere, if that's what they want to do, they don't have to accept services. But we have documented that we know we've reached out to them, at least we've offered it to them.
“We know that we've had those conversations, and so we feel confident that making this next step in the strategy is with full confidence that we've really tried to help everybody that we could.
A report to the Community Service Committee recently confirmed the plan closure of the warming centre at 199 Larch Street, but also that no additional replacement of a warming or cooling centre would be put in place.
Prior to the pandemic, the city did not operate a warming/cooling centre, as existing services appeared to meet the need, said Campbell, but capacity limitations, staff shortages and a host of other issues created the demand for a refuge from the elements.
Since April of 2020, the city has hosted warming or cooling centres at the Sudbury Arena, YMCA, Centre de santé communautaire du Grand Sudbury and the 199 Larch Street provincial boardrooms. Those will be discontinued as supports like the Samaritan Centre, Elgin Street Mission and Blue Door Soup Kitchen reopen.
As well, resource centres and the Greater Sudbury Public Library branches are noted within the presentation as now accepting in-person visitors and they continue to “offer services to the public and provide a space where individuals can go and access computer resources, washrooms and shelter from the elements.”
For services to access overnight, the city states there is space available at the shelters, including Off the Street Shelter at 200 Larch, as well as the new Elizabeth Fry Society-run women’s shelter.
Though the opening of the temporary safe consumption site has been pushed back by construction delays, the report states the target opening date is “spring 2022.” Operated by Réseau ACCESS Network, the site will be available to clients from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.
The warming centre is set to close on May 31, with staff working with the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth (SACY) to reduce daytime programming in March before closing completely ahead of city staff returning to work, as well as the end of existing funding.
There are also plans to perform repair and remediation work at the park, said Campbell, echoing comments from general manager of community development, Steve Jacques.
In response to a question from Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer, Jacques spoke to the shelter capacity still available, an average of 17 beds, said Campbell, as well as restoring Memorial Park.
“We understand what the individual's needs are, and we can continue to address them; so at this point, I would say that the monitoring of the park by the MLEOs (Municipal Law Enforcement Officers) will continue for a long period of time,” said Jacques. He told the committee that “moving forward, once the snow clears,” the park would be repaired and brought “back to the grandeur that it deserves being a Memorial park, as it should be to our fallen veterans.”
Jacques said significant repair work would begin to get the park “ready for reuse by our residents, reuse by businesses who want to hold events in the park.”
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com. She covers the diverse communities of Sudbury, especially the vulnerable or marginalized, including the Black, Indigenous, newcomer and Francophone communities, as well as 2SLGBTQ+ and issues of the downtown core.
