310 Division Street: Modernizing shelter services to address community need

Shelteres serve people who are without housing who are unable to immediately resolve their homelessness. Some individuals are living in their car, in parks and forested areas, or couch surfing. People accessing a shelter are seeking emergency accommodations, and require support services to access long-term housing.

How does Transition House Shelter choose who can stay at this site?

Emergency shelter is for people who require a place to sleep and to work towards housing goals. Transition House follows a standardized intake process.

The human rights code prevents the County or the community from choosing who lives in the neighbourhood, however, there will be measures in place to keep staff, occupants and community safe.

310 Division Street will help address our community’s urgent need for homelessness solutions by providing approximately 35 shelter beds with wraparound supports. Wrap-around supports are services that meet the individual needs of those accessing the shelter. This can include, counselling, financial services, life skills programming.

The County has a mandate to help provide shelter and support for vulnerable populations. This site is an ideal location to support people experiencing homelessness because:

• It is centrally located close to transit, health care services and pharmacies, employment and counselling services, food options for groceries, and other general supports that are available to any member of the community.
• It is zoned to fit the intended use.
• It has a good foundation to improve quickly for occupancy:
  • Toilets, showers and hygiene-related requirements exist.
  • Allows for retrofitting to align with varied types of housing, such as temporary shelter and transitional housing.
  • Has a mix of multipurpose and living space that will allow for safe shelter and housing options with onsite services to support people in meeting their life stabilization goals.
• It offers space for people to sleep and space for services such as health, employment, and food security.

In the short term, 310 Division Street will help address our community’s immediate needs. Longer term, it has the potential to also offer transitional housing that supports people, creates a sense of belonging, and meets individual needs, offering a pathway out of homelessness.

This goal is relocation and enhancement of existing shelter services.

Services provided by Transition House Shelter at their 10 Chapel Street, Cobourg location will be relocated to this new property (310 Division Street in Cobourg) in 2024. Upon relocation, operations will conclude at 10 Chapel Street.

Why not keep operations going in the original location at 10 Chapel Street as well to increase the number of spaces available?

In 2023, the County commissioned a third-party review of our local shelter system to identify recommendations tailored to community need. The review recommended a minimum of 25 shelter spaces for adults, in addition to the creation of supportive and transitional housing spaces.

Approximately 35 emergency shelter spaces at 310 Division Street location will address immediate need and, over the longer-term, transitional housing accommodations and other services will create pathways out of homelessness.

Many communities in Ontario and across Canada have also been experiencing an increase in chronic homelessness. It is a complex issue and is due to many factors including:

• Inadequate social assistance rates
• Housing affordability crisis
• Rental vacancies crisis
• Increasingly complex needs of individuals – mental health, physical health, substance use disorders
• COVID-19 pandemic impacts on employment, access to health care and mental health care, and housing affordability
• Systemic oppression impacting those identifying as African, Black, Indigenous and racialized

Resolving this crisis requires continued support from all levels of government — municipal, Provincial and Federal — as well as a coordinated community-focused approach that addresses the root causes of homelessness.

Northumberland County is making strategic investments in housing and homelessness supports to address local need, and continues to work closely with our government and community partners to work on this very complex issue.

Throughout Northumberland, there is growing demand for housing and homelessness services. At a glance, as of December 2023:

• At any given time, there are 75-80 people on Northumberland’s By-Name list — a list of people currently experiencing homelessness, who provide consent to receive supports, and are engaged with the support system.
• Northumberland residents face one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in Ontario at just 1%
• Community members are dealing with higher rental cost compared to neighbouring communities.
• The County provided close to 1,100 shelter and housing benefits to homeless or at-risk residents in 2023.
• The waitlist for subsidized housing has surged to more than 1,000 households, with 391 names added in the last year alone.

Transition House is Northumberland’s only emergency shelter for adults experiencing homelessness. With escalating demand for services, staff have increasingly been grappling with the limitations of the current century-home facility.

• The current facility located at 10 Chapel Street in Cobourg has just 4 rooms equipped with bunk beds, which can accommodate a maximum of 22 individuals.
• Staff can further accommodate up to 7 individuals through arrangements with local motels, as an overflow measure.

The purchase of 310 Division Street will enable Transition House to consolidate operations to a single site, ensuring consistent wrap-around services for all clients.

The 310 Division Street facility is centrally located, allowing people to actively engage in the community. It is close to transit, health care services and pharmacies, employment and counselling services, social services, food options for groceries, and other general supports that are available to any member of the community.

In addition to the potential for future transitional housing on the site, the planned shelter spaces will meet the demands within Northumberland’s homelessness system. Services such as street outreach and coordinated shelter access are in place. Appropriate spaces that allow for indoor services and sleep space are important to maintaining safety and wellness for service users and community members.

Have any studies been conducted to assess potential impacts on property values in the area?

Property values can be influenced by many factors. There are no specific studies that confirm property values will decrease because of a new shelter.

A petition is a formal written request presented by members of the public to Northumberland County Council with respect to a particular issue relevant to a County service and within the authority of Council.

Northumberland County is committed to citizen engagement and supports petitions as a tool for members of the public to participate in municipal government and provide input to Council, enhancing Council’s decision-making process. The Council Procedural By-law 39-2023 outlines petition requirements in order to ensure the legitimacy of information being provided to County Council for decision making.

Petition requirements include:

• Petitions may be submitted to the Clerk and will include a minimum of two (2) persons including their respective addresses and on each page a clear statement of purpose for the Petition;
• Only petitions relevant to County Services will be presented to Council;
• The County is not accountable for the accuracy or reliability of petitions that are submitted;
• Petitions must contain original signatures only, written directly on the petition;
• The petition must clearly disclose on each page that it will be considered a public document;
• All petitions that meet the above standards will be presented to Council or to a Standing Committee at the next regular meeting, or the meeting at which the subject of the petition is to be discussed; and
• All petitions, unless otherwise disposed of by Council, be referred to the appropriate staff member without any motion or debate unless otherwise ordered by Council.
• Correspondence, including petitions, form part of the public record. For this reason, petitions are required to include a telephone number or email address for each signer to allow for confirmation, as outlined in the Council Procedural By-law.

Upon receipt of a petition, the Clerk will evaluate the petition to ensure that all requirements are met. The Clerk is available to assist members of the public with developing a petition that meets the requirements outlined in the Council Procedural By-law.

Petitions that adhere to the Council Procedural By-law will be reviewed at a public meeting of Committee / Council, and the petition will be placed entirely on a public meeting agenda, including contact information of each signer.

Are the requirements outlined in the Council Procedural By-Law new requirements?

The petition requirements outlined in the Council Procedural By-law have been in place for a number of years now, to ensure petitions follow best practices for documentation and informed decision-making.

The Council Procedural By-Law was recently amended to limit electronic participation of Committee / Council Members at Standing Committee and County Council meetings, however no changes were made regarding the requirements for petitions.

Why doesn’t the County accept electronic petitions?

While staff will be bringing a report to County Council in late 2024 on opportunities to enhance the Procedural By-law pertaining to petition requirements to include provisions for electronic submissions, the by-law currently requires that “petitions must contain original signatures only, written directly on the petition”. Thus, the County does not accept digital signatures on petitions.

The Procedural By-Law was established to ensure the integrity of Council proceedings and the legitimacy of information which County Council can rely on for decision making.

Many municipalities do not accept petitions from third-party petition websites, as they may pose the following concerns regarding legitimacy, consent and privacy:

• Individuals and organizations from anywhere in the world can start petitions on a designated third-party website, and petitions are electronically signed by anyone with access to the website.
• Third-party petition websites lack identify verification, and controls to prevent against false names and contact information being submitted, duplicate signatures, and defamatory statements / comments.
• Third-party petition websites do not allow for oversight or regulation to validate signatures as independent, verifiable signatories. Due to the lack of verification and security controls, third-party platforms can create issues with the integrity of the information being presented in the petition.
• There is a risk of the number of signatories on a third-party petition site being inflated by people who are not from the local community, or people who are not affected by the matter being petitioned for.
• The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act also restricts institutions from collecting personal information indirectly. While the act permits an individual to authorize another manner of collection, this poses a problem with respect to petitions from a third-party petition site, as these sites do not typically include specific authorizations, and do not provide the notices required under the Legislation.

If residents would like to share comments or feedback regarding a consultation, through an online format, we encourage residents to use the tools provided through our Join In Northumberland platform or reach out to staff via email to provide their feedback.

Why do we need a disclosure on each page to indicate the petition will be considered a public document?

The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) applies to local government, and municipalities are required to ensure compliance with MFIPPA and the protection of personal privacy. Petitions include personal information, including an individual’s name, address, telephone number, and the personal opinions or views of the individual. It is a critical requirement that petitions contain a disclosure on each page of the petition to indicate that it will be considered a public document, as signatories to a petition waive all expectation of privacy.

Area residents are not notified in advance of a pending real estate transactions made by Northumberland County. These negotiations involve confidential financial details. They therefore need to remain that way.

The County and Transition House will be hosting community information and engagement sessions for residents in the coming weeks. Residents will be invited to share their feedback, ask questions, and provide input that will help positively shape the integration of this new hub within the broader community. Details on date, time, and location will be shared as they become available.