Emotions run raw at public meeting for proposed Summerside men’s shelter

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — For 3 hours on Tuesday, Nov. 1, Summerside metropolis council heard determined pleas from residents and advocates for one thing – something – to be carried out in regards to the metropolis’s housing disaster and what some stated is the true chance of Islanders dying of publicity this winter if long-term shelter areas can’t be discovered on this neighborhood.

“The numbers listed here are staggering,” stated Chris Clay, a housing program co-ordinator for the Native Council of P.E.I. “As we see these numbers rise within the province, my concern is we’re going to hit a winter the place we’re going to have folks freeze to demise. We have to handle this difficulty now.”

The emotional dialogue stemmed from an software by the Native Council of P.E.I., in partnership with the Division of Social Improvement and Housing, to open a six-bed emergency shelter for males at 287 Winter St.

The house in query was beforehand owned by Group Connections and operated for years as a bunch house for a few of that group’s purchasers. It was bought to the province in March with the intention of it getting used as a males’s shelter.

For the undertaking to proceed, the proponents want a restricted-use allow for the constructing and that requires approval from metropolis council. Tuesday’s assembly was the general public’s alternative to ask questions and listen to instantly from the province and Native Council.

The proposed facility can be staffed day and night time by about eight staff and would supply residents a number of companies within the areas of well being, habit, psychological well being counselling, long-term housing help and sizzling meals. Purchasers can be allowed to remain as much as 90 days whereas they kind out their private affairs.

Council heard that the ability would function very similar to the LifeHouse shelter for girls, which opened in Summerside earlier this 12 months and is managed by the Summerside Boys and Women Membership.

Ivy Inkpen, a retired social employee who has been volunteering her time over the previous few months to assist the world’s homeless and housing-insecure inhabitants, informed council her educated estimate of the individuals who fall into these classes is upwards of 750 folks within the Summerside space – dozens of whom are tenting in public parks, of their vehicles, in gazebos and wherever else they’ll discover a area out of the climate.

“My coronary heart’s with the property house owners within the neighbourhood, I perceive the place they’re coming from. There’s no straightforward resolution to this. But when we don’t act quickly, we’re going to have actual issues. The very last thing I need to see is somebody die … I don’t need to take into consideration that,” stated Inkpen.

Inkpen was referring to the considerations put ahead by some companies and owners within the space round 287 Winter St. who both spoke on the assembly or despatched messages to councillors. All of these residents expressed help for a males’s shelter being opened in Summerside, however all expressed concern of what such a facility would do to their very own lives – their property values, the viability of the companies they’ve spent years constructing and probably even their private security.

The shelter has been proposed as a “low-barrier” facility, which implies there are few stipulations, corresponding to sobriety or clear prison information, for males searching for companies.

George Dalton, an area historian and veteran’s advocate, who spent his profession as an addictions counsellor with the Canadian Armed Forces, additionally lives instantly behind the proposed facility.

He stated he sees each side of this difficulty, and pressured that each one the viewpoints and considerations expressed have been legitimate – together with those that questioned why the province selected this specific property for such a facility.

The query ought to be requested as as to if different empty buildings on this metropolis must also have been thought of and which might have probably helped and housed much more folks, he stated.

“I believe we now have to say tonight there is no such thing as a proper or fallacious, all people’s purpose for talking is true,” stated Dalton.

Rev. Colin Nicolle of Summerside’s St. Mary’s Church, in addition to president of the Summerside Christian Council, shared his personal parish’s expertise coping with this difficulty, saying the necessity has by no means been higher and extra folks than ever live on the sting of poverty.

He additionally warned towards the stigmatization of the boys who may have using the shelter.

“I believe this comes up very often once we’re speaking about this obscure form of intangible group, ‘the poor, them, the not us.’ The criminalization of them in our imaginations. Plenty of what I’m listening to tonight appears to imagine that the entire folks, the six folks, who will use this shelter are all criminals, thieves, burglars, pedophiles. You identify it,” stated Nicolle.

“The truth that we’re assuming the worst of those folks earlier than the planning is even by means of is totally ludicrous.”

Additionally in attendance have been a number of residents of the Causeway Bay Lodge, who’ve been combating a public battle to remain of their rented residences there. They’re dealing with a mass eviction, although they’re interesting that order to the Island Regulator and Appeals Fee and a listening to has been set for Nov. 7.

A type of residents, April Wall, made a tearful enchantment and warning.

“In 12 days we’re all going to be homeless. There are a minimum of 25 folks on the Causeway Bay Lodge proper now with nowhere to go,” stated Wall who paused for a number of moments to compose herself. “Homelessness could be very, very onerous, and we do not know what we’re going to do. I simply wished to state the truth that it is rather invisible. Do I appear like I’m a homeless individual?

“I’m not a homeless individual, however I’m going to be – in 12 days.”

Council will make a last resolution on whether or not or to not grant the restricted use allow at its Nov. 21 assembly.

Group assembly

A neighborhood assembly is being organized by a number of native organizations to debate homelessness and housing insecurity in Summerside.

• When: Nov. 12
• What time: 1 to three p.m.
• The place: Summerside Rotary Library
• Contact: Ivy Inkpen – 902-960-0248

Colin MacLean is a reporter with the SaltWire Community in Prince Edward Island. He will be reached by electronic mail at [email protected] and adopted on Twitter @JournalPMacLean.