Chatham-Kent council approved a unique, albeit temporary solution, to deal with the community’s homeless problem.
At Monday’s council meeting, council voted unanimously to move forward in the process to construct an emergency transitional cabin program for people experiencing homelessness. The cabins will be built on a vacant municipally-owned corner lot located on Hyslop Street and Park Street in Chatham.
The program will consist of approximately 50 individual cabins and one shared communal building to assist Chatham-Kent’s homeless. There will be around-the-clock security and support staff on-site working with individuals to build life skills, access health care and obtain permanent housing.
Josh Myers, Chatham-Kent’s director of housing– operations, pointed to the success of communities such as Waterloo and Peterborough, which includes cabins and on-site supports to assist people dealing with homelessness.
“Their focus is on moving people out though. It’s not a community, it’s not trying to build a community…we want to provide them with the life skills that they need where they move forward.”
Chatham-Kent’s emergency homeless shelter has been located at the former Victoria Place elementary school for the past two years. The lease for the current building will be ending in May of 2025, necessitating a time crunch for a new location for emergency homeless housing in the municipality.
Chatham councillor Marjorie Crew, who has been a long-time advocate for the east-side of Chatham, said she hasn’t heard a lot of negative feedback about the Park Street location, noting she has talked to neighbours who are in favour of the cabin transitional housing project, but just want to be consulted on the development as it moves along.
“Our neighbourhood has dealt with a lot of things over the past 25 years, and when we people are down and out we don’t count them out, we help them out,” Crew said.
The proposed cabins will be behind Chatham’s animal shelter. The animal shelter is operated for the municipality by Pet and Wildlife Rescue (PAWR). PAWR’s operation manager Myriam Armstrong made a deputation against the housing program at the chosen site.
Armstrong said her staff and volunteers are concerned about having the cabins so close to their facility.
“Not only will security be a concern, but also garbage and discarded needles can easily be tossed over our fence,” Armstrong told council, noting there are worries of people loitering on the animal shelter property.
Information about the program will be featured on Chatham-Kent’s Let’s Talk page. This page will be continuously updated as the project moves forward.
