County alters homeless shelter plan
Province blamed for not funding mental health care, downloading on municipalities
Two weeks from now the homeless people in Cobourg will be, well, homeless, much as they were a year ago when dozens lived in tent encampments.
Facing pressure from Cobourg residents and businesses that have seen the neighbourhood around Northumberland County’s shelter at 310 Division Street turned into an inner-city streetscape with sidewalks fouled by urine and feces, used needles, open drug use, and violence and thefts, the county has pulled the plug on the shelter it opened with fanfare last November.
Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland said the serious problems have been caused by 25 to 30 individuals who engage in criminal activity. Cobourg police have stepped up their response, but Cleveland noted that many of the people have complex mental health and addiction issues that the existing centre cannot handle.
Councillor Mandy Martin, mayor of Cramhe Township, said she was reluctant to shut down the hub that anyone can access 24 hours a day.
“Why are we so quietly acquiescing to the downloading of a health-care issue?” Martin asked.
“We should not be dealing with housing and homelessness,” agreed Warden Brian Ostrander, mayor of Brighton. “It is a provincial responsibility.”
The shelter, financed by the province and the county, was set up in November to provide a warming, or cooling centre for anyone 24 hours a day, as well as rooms for 47 residents who were transitioning into housing. From the beginning, some Cobourg residents had complaints about the plan.
Those complaints swelled over the winter and hit a crescendo last Tuesday when Cobourg council heard from about 35 delegations in a meeting room packed with about 300 people.
On Wednesday, county council responded by deciding to shut down the 24-hour facility on July 4 and restricting who gets into the other space soon.
Cobourg Mayor Cleveland has been pushing for months for other municipalities to provide a space for homeless individuals. The county motion directs staff to develop options in other communities for a hub.
Several councillors argued that more than half the homeless people served by 310 Division said they were from Cobourg and many need medical and social services that are only available in the town.
Cleveland argued that people will go where they can get a free bed. He insists that many of the shelter users in recent weeks have been coming from away but have been told to claim they are from Cobourg.
County staff said they will meet with users of the current shelter over the next 10 days to help them find accommodation but warned that most will have no where else to go.
Council also decided that the rooms on the second and third floors of 310 Division should only be open to people with fewer problems and those who can abide by stricter rules.
The council directed staff to prepare a report by July 30 on how to increase the barriers for shelter users and ensure it serves individuals with low-to-moderate complexity of needs.
There is no plan or space for anyone with more severe mental or addiction issues. Cleveland suggested that council needed to be realistic and admit it can’t care for such individuals. He argued that as a society we simply can’t afford to help those people.
“These decisions were not made easily,” Ostrander said. “Council has listened over the past seven months to a broad range of perspectives from across the community, on both the benefits the modernized shelter has delivered to date, as well as the challenges. We remain deeply committed to supporting individuals experiencing homelessness. We also recognize the need to respond to concerns raised by the broader community, in particular neighbours and business owners near 310 Division Street.
“The situation in Northumberland lays bare that addiction, mental illness, and housing affordability are intersecting crises impacting communities across Canada—not just large urban centres,” Ostrander said. “The reality is that small and rural municipalities like ours are increasingly on the front lines, with limited resources and limited authority to address what is fundamentally a health and housing crisis.”
The province has introduced laws that make is easier for municipalities to close down encampments such as the one that had been located on provincial property in Cobourg. But it hasn’t done much to create homes for those tent dwellers to move into.
“We urgently need meaningful provincial investments in addiction treatment, detox, supportive housing, and mental health care,” Ostrander said.
Between November 14, 2024, and May 25, 203 individuals accessed the 310 Hub, operated by Transition House Shelter, a county report says. Of these, 76 per cent visited more than once, and an average of 28 unique individuals accessed the Hub each day. Half of Hub users were experiencing chronic homelessness. Most were single adults (91%), and the gender breakdown was 60% men and 40% women. Mental health and/or substance use concerns were the most common reasons people reported for their homelessness (24%).
Most Hub clients reported their home community as Northumberland County (75%), with Cobourg (54%) and Port Hope (11%) reporting the highest subset. Only four said they were from Trent Hills.
A business pulse survey in the neighbourhood conducted in April identified loitering, substance use, and noise as the most frequent concerns reported by nearby commercial tenants.
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