It was a critical talking point throughout this year’s municipal election campaign.
But homelessness and, in particular, its impact on the downtown core has been a front-burner issue now for several years.
To kick off the city council meeting this past Monday (Nov. 7) Danielle Neilson, the city’s Homelessness Prevention and Housing Programs Coordinator initiated a deep dive into the lives of homeless individuals in St. Thomas and Elgin.
Her presentation and subsequent Q & A consumed a good 30 minutes.
She kicked off her information session with a reminder, “I would like to start by acknowledging that the complexity, humanity and tragedy of the impact of homelessness on people’s lives in St. Thomas are no different from what people are experiencing across all of Canada today.”
She continued, “Experiences of homelessness today are the result of deep, historic, system-level errors that have accumulated over decades.
“Such as colonialism and divestments in affordable housing. These combined with other social inequities such as deep poverty, unresolved inter-generational trauma, an inflated and unaffordable housing market, the current cost of living crisis, the impacts of the pandemic – and these are just to name a few – have cumulatively increased housing instability, including occurrences of homelessness at a higher rate than we have ever seen historically before.
“As you can imagine, surviving these often co-occurring experiences is not easy. Surviving often means compromising one’s physical or mental health and sometimes it leads to a dependency on life-altering, highly addictive substances to numb these realities.
“And, this is the reality of some of the experiences of people in our community who we see on our streets today.
“As you likely will recall, prior to January of this year, The Inn Out of the Cold operated overnight in the basement of a local church and, more often than not, on any given night there was capacity for people who needed overnight shelter.”
She continued, “In January of this year, The Inn relocated to its new address where it could operate 24/7 to better meet the needs of our most vulnerable.
“Since making this move, and being better positioned to meet these needs, the demand for shelter beds in St. Thomas has steadily increased.”
Neilsen then cast a light on a rumour that has been circulating in the city for some time.
“I want to reassure council this is not because other communities are dropping off small or large groups of people experiencing homelessness onto the streets of St. Thomas.
“For example, when The Inn operated in the basement of the church it provided overnight shelter only. For people experiencing homelessness, they may not have attended simply because they don’t sleep at night. When you are experiencing homelessness, sleeping at night can increase your vulnerabilities and change your sleeping patterns.”
“We have measures in place on the ground to support anyone arriving from other communities to help return them to their home communities.
“Typically they end up here from other communities of their own accord and, more often than not, they want the support to return home.
“For example, I can share with you that in September, The Inn supported four people who are not from St. Thomas. Of the four people, three were successfully diverted back to their home communities.
“The increase we are seeing in the shelter is the result of many factors, including the social inequities that have already been stated and others that may be less obvious.
“For example, when The Inn operated in the basement of the church it provided overnight shelter only. For people experiencing homelessness, they may not have attended simply because they don’t sleep at night.
“When you are experiencing homelessness, sleeping at night can increase your vulnerabilities and change your sleeping patterns.
“Now that the shelter operates 24/7, it is better equipped to meet these needs.
“Sometimes there is a lack of trust or a sense of insecurity in accessing emergency shelters. And there are times when shelter restrictions are provided, typically in response to a safety concern supporting someone.”
“Additionally, we have worked very hard as a community to identify and set up touchpoints in multiple areas through our local housing service providers to assist and identify people experiencing homelessness, including hidden homelessness and being better prepared to identify those individuals and match them to supports as needed.
“And, I can assure you the vast majority of people accessing our emergency shelter are our neighbours, our friends and our family.
“With regard to unsheltered homelessness, this is not only the result of increased demands on our emergency shelter beds, some of my firsthand experiences with people living unsheltered in St. Thomas revealed other factors as well.
“Such as needing lower barrier supports that are matched more appropriately to someone’s mental health or addiction challenges that may result in unpredictable behaviours.
“Having personal belongings or accumulating personal belongings at a rate that exceeds the shelter’s ability to store them.
“Having a complete desire to live unsheltered, even when housing options are available.
“Sometimes there is a lack of trust or a sense of insecurity in accessing emergency shelters. And there are times when shelter restrictions are provided, typically in response to a safety concern supporting someone.
“People may build a makeshift shelter or what we refer to as an encampment on public or private land in order to protect themselves and their belongings from elements or for other reasons.”
“While these are important elements, in our current work today to respond to homelessness in St. Thomas, we need to ensure we continue prioritizing and expediting the building and operating of housing as the ultimate solution to solving homelessness.”
Neilsen stressed these encampments are not always large areas as seen in bigger urban centres.
“In St. Thomas, we’re often talking about one or two tents with one or two occupants.”
Last week we touched on the protocols to be put in place to deal with these encampments on public land. You can read about it here.
In an update to last week’s item, Neilsen advised, once cleanup of the encampment begins, “No personal belongings are removed from encampments by city staff unless help is requested by the people living in the encampment or if the items are abandoned.”
She continued, “In the event people refuse to leave the area after notice has been given, police may be contacted to respond as a trespassing issue.”
As of July 2020, 410 unique people have been identified as homeless, 244 have been housed, 50 went inactive which means they haven’t touched the system in more than three months and 116 remain active today with 100 in St. Thomas and the remainder in Elgin county.
Neilsen added, “Each month approximately 10 to 12 people move from the list into housing.”
She moved on to document what is being done to move the dial forward on homelessness, starting with the Railway City Lofts downtown which just celebrated its one-year anniversary.
An undertaking in partnership with Indwell.
“After one year of operating, we now know that it works . . . not only in housing stability but with the quality of life for the people it serves.
“This spring we look forward to opening the doors on Indwell’s second build (on Queen Street) . . . with further milestone reductions being achieved.
“But more importantly, it will result in real solutions for ending homelessness in the lives of our most vulnerable neighbours, family and friends.
“I would like to close by emphasizing the solution to homelessness is housing and housing with supports. It is not an emergency shelter or responding to reports of encampments.
“While these are important elements, in our current work today to respond to homelessness in St. Thomas, we need to ensure we continue prioritizing and expediting the building and operating of housing as the ultimate solution to solving homelessness.”
AN ‘EXCITING’ STEP FORWARD DOWNTOWN
More than two years after the creation of the downtown greenspace was announced, work is now underway on what is to become Westlake-Evans Civic Park.
The much-needed recreational space is courtesy of a $500,000 gift from the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell.
More on this community-minded individual who passed away exactly three years ago in the following item.
Estate consultant Andrew Gunn stood on the site of the former Colin McGregor Justice Building in June 2020 to announce the financial gift.
We talked with him this week for an update on the park.
“The goal is to create an urban park, a space in the downtown for people of all ages.
“There’s a playground area, an outdoor learning environment, there are a couple of ping-pong tables and then there is a unique music performance stage.”
In October, city council approved an expenditure of $515,000 to begin the transformation of the vacant lot into an imaginative park.
Key to the creation of the civic park is its location.
“The library is right next door and that is a busy spot that parents bring their kids to.
“More and more of these improvements in the downtown are important. Each time that happens it seems to spark more economic and cultural investment in the area.”
“And then also, with the new childcare centre going in across the street (now under construction on St. Catherine Street) that was really important in our mind that the space be a positive spot that can be used by staff members to bring kids over to use the park.”
Westlake-Evans Civic Park is expected to be available for use next spring.
“The main elements of the park will be in place by the end of the year but there are finishing touches they will have to do when the weather warms up again in the spring.
“My understanding is this should be ready in the spring and we’re just thrilled to see how the neighbourhood and the community as a whole will respond to it.”
That prospect of a downtown community hub is something Gunn calls “exciting.”
“More and more of these improvements in the downtown are important. Each time that happens it seems to spark more economic and cultural investment in the area.
“It’s exciting to see this happen.”
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SO NOW YOU KNOW
Her family’s legacy is now clearly evident in St. Thomas and other locations in Elgin county. So who was Donna Vera Evans Bushell?
We put that to Andrew Gunn this week. He is the consultant to her Estate.
She died on Nov. 9, 2019, in her 100th year, the last of her family.
According to Gunn, her passion was to plant trees and reminisce about her ancestors and friends.
Her sister, Doris Evans, taught music as a church organist.
Her oldest sister, Thelma Joiner, taught elementary school in the Aylmer area for 45 years and researched life in North Yarmouth.
All three sisters shared a love of their heritage as descendants of the pioneer Westlake, Penhale and Gilbert families who settled along North Edgeware Road in Yarmouth Township.
Gunn advises their collected historical papers are to be deposited in the Elgin County Archives.
The Bushell Estate has provided funding to the Catfish Creek Conservation Authority to construct the environmentally friendly Evans Sisters Stage at Springwater Conservation Area.
Money was also donated to the Kettle Creek Conservation Authority to establish the Evans Sisters Water Trail at Dalewood Conservation Area.
The Estate has also contributed toward the enhancement of St. Thomas Elevated Park and provided funding to the St. Thomas Elgin Public Art Centre for their Art, Trees & Trails project.
A NEW DOOR OPENING IN THE CITY
The announcement was made last month. Alliance Door Products is expanding its operations into St. Thomas.
An industry leader in Western Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest, they will occupy a 60,000 sq. ft. plant at 85 Dennis Road.
They are a family-owned and operated business distributing residential, commercial, and architectural doors along with related door and millwork products.
The foundation of the business is rooted in upholding Christian values.
This week we talked with Hardy Rahn, Director of Sales for Canada, who explained why they settled on St. Thomas.
“We were looking for a building that would meet our needs and this one happened to be under construction and the timeline worked out excellent.
“So that kind of led to a path of decision-making. It is very central to the base of customers we want to serve in southwestern Ontario.”
The St. Thomas operation is set to open the first week in January and Rahn explains where their products can be found.
“Our primary business is serving the lumber yard and home-building centres. We don’t do any big box stores like Home Depot or Loew’s.
“Basically we deal with privately held or corporately owned lumber yards, building or home centres.”
Initially, the plant will employ around 25 workers and hiring will begin shortly.
“The first week in January, we want to be fully operational. We already have four staff in place in St. Thomas and we will be doing more hiring in the next couple of weeks.”
Company president John Ridder advises opening a location in St. Thomas is “The next natural step for us in Ontario.”
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