Chatham-Kent council has voted in favour of establishing an emergency homeless shelter at the former Victoria Park elementary school located in a residential east Chatham neighbourhood.
There was opposition to the homeless shelter location from neighbours. A total of 23 deputations about the emergency shelter location were presented prior to the decision being made by council at Monday night’s virtual meeting.
Many neighbours said they only heard about the proposal over the past couple of days and they wanted council to take more time to make the decision about the emergency homeless shelter location so they could have their concerns addressed.
Councillor Michael Bondy made a motion to defer the decision and gather more public feedback and consultation, but the motion failed, as time was a factor, as the present homeless shelter, located at the Travelodge, will no longer be used as an emergency homeless shelter as of the end of May.
There were fears that if no emergency shelter location was in place by the end of May, there would be over 50 people living on the streets
