There may be hope for 310 Division St. — Northumberland County’s newly proposed shelter hub — to finally open its doors.
Or at least that’s how Warden Brian Ostrander sees it following a second special council meeting dedicated solely to tackling shelter services and related issues in the last week or so.
The latest special council meeting (Nov. 6) kicked off with an in-camera session before council returned with a lengthy, intricate motion in open — it was passed unanimously and without any discussion around the table. In short, it points to adherence with the Town of Cobourg’s emergency care establishment (ECE) bylaw, directing staff to take the necessary steps to achieve compliance, although subject to conditional exemptions earlier approved by the town on Oct. 7.
Ostrander shared he is hopeful given the latest direction that there is a path forward.
“The reality is we’ve fought the good fight and we’re at a point now where the temperatures are going to dip,” continued Ostrander. “People need to get in out of the cold and we have a responsibility from a social services perspective and a homelessness co-ordination perspective to get the facility that we’ve put a ton of money into — both county and provincial money into — up and running.”
Ostrander provides a simple translation of how council hopes to achieve this.
It was about a year ago now that the community learned of Northumberland County and Transition House’s shelter plan after a $2.4-million purchase of the property formerly known as the Cobourg Retirement Residence. The vision shared at this time was to transform the 47-bedroom complex into a modern, 35-bed emergency shelter hub, which was originally slated to open in spring and then fall of this year. The emphasis was on creating a better homelessness and shelter system, with space to accommodate warming room services, emergency beds and transitional housing.
Advocates spoke of a multi-purpose place with wraparound supports that could offer residents dignity with their own space — versus the current four-bedroom, 150-year-old historic home on Chapel Street, operating as a 22-bed emergency shelter with bunk beds at that time. The vision shared was to create a space where people could get the help they needed and learn to live again, instead of solely surviving.
At the same time, there were a plethora of worries expressed by area residents amid increasing concerns about disorderly behaviours in the neighbourhood, challenges attributed to issues such as a raging opioid epidemic, and more.
Much has changed since those initial plans were unveiled — and the project quickly became the centre of far-reaching ongoing debate and contention.
The introduction of Cobourg’s ECE bylaw followed, and in short, it means any such facilities require a licence from the town to operate within its jurisdiction.
According to the town, among some of the licensing system intentions range from ensuring a code of conduct to having a local contact available at all times to respond to issues (i.e. think mobile security) and addressing issues related to public health safety (i.e. think waste disposal/debris), consumer protection, nuisance control, and the general well–being of persons, to name a few.
In recent months, Cobourg officials have also been vocal about concerns such as swelling costs related to social service delivery in the community — from policing to fire calls, et cetera.
In the town and county case, in recent meetings, county staff described much back-and-forth around certain requirements and proposed exemptions. An administrative review was previously requested by county council less than a month ago (on Oct. 16), giving the impression of a possible deadlock. The largest outstanding issue seemed to be legal/liability-related concerns.
According to county staff, their original ECE application had about two dozen exemption requests, though staff managed shortly after to reduce those asks to four.
At the previous special meeting, which spanned an entire day back on Oct. 29, after hearing about a 12-bed shelter reduction at 10 Chapel St., options to declare an emergency and set up at an area community centre, or foot the bill for hotel stays ($40,000 was approved as an interim measure) in light of shelter reductions; how no warming room services are operating currently (an ECE licence is required), and how several residents living at the Brookside encampment are ready to pursue shelter services (with the bulk said to call Cobourg home according to county reports) council backed a resolution directing county staff to look again at ways to comply with the town’s ECE, calling for resolution within five business days. (The last information regarding a potential sale of the Brookside property points to a Nov. 13 closing date.)
Ostrander admits this has been a complicated undertaking.
Still, he believes there is an avenue left to pursue that also protects people living rough — an avenue that gets them out of the cold and can provide a safe space for both individuals needing these services and the community.
Come Wednesday, Nov. 6 — lining up with that five-day timeline — council gathered again.
Before heading into the in-camera session, Ostrander sounded off the reasons for the closed session, noting provisions under the Municipal Act, and explaining the closed session was necessary to address matters pertaining to the security of the property of the municipality, litigation or potential litigation, including matters before administrative tribunals affecting the municipality; advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose, and confidential negotiations specific to 310 Division St.
As council returned to open session, Ostrander, as chair, said council obtained legal advice about options for compliance with the town bylaw, as well as associated risks and costs to mitigate those risks. He also noted that based on the advice received, council had provided some confidential direction to staff, and had determined a further resolution be considered publicly.
The motion, which was subsequently read aloud, was moved by Deputy Warden Olena Hankivsky, seconded by Coun. Mandy Martin, and carried unanimously. As detailed earlier, in addition to directing staff to take the necessary steps to achieve compliance with Cobourg’s ECE bylaw, the resolution also authorized staff to withdraw the previous request for the Nov. 25 administrative review relating to the county’s requests for exemptions.
Further, council directed staff to pursue steps to mitigate risks associated with compliance, including exploring obtaining a joint general liability insurance policy with the town to insure against the town and county’s risks, concerning the operations of the proposed shelter, “for which the county would agree to be responsible for the full premium,” reads the motion.
Additionally, council charged staff with updating the county’s indemnification bylaw to ensure full indemnification of councillors, officers and employees for personal liability and administrative penalties under the bylaw.
As part of the resolution, council also tasked staff with collecting shelter operations data and authorized staff to submit a revised ECE exemption request if warranted based on the collection of that data, reads the motion. Follow-up inquiries indicated the referenced data is compliance-rated.
“At the end of the day, we don’t know what we don’t know,” noted Ostrander.
Finally, through the resolution, council also OK’d up to $587,700 for costs associated with compliance (i.e. this is the estimated cost to achieve compliance, to help with legal, insurance, security, compliance co-ordination, data gathering, et cetera.)
“What we have essentially said is in broad strokes we’re willing to comply with the parameters of the bylaw, and what council did was put money forward, so that we could make sure that we are in fact complying with the bylaw; by making sure we’re cleaning up the area, and that we are providing security and monitoring of the area so that we can be sure that there are no concerns about whether the clientele from 310 Division St. area causing any issues in the neighbourhood,” summarized Ostrander.
When asked about whether any obstacles remain, Ostrander responded: “At this stage, the belief is, from both the conservations between Cobourg staff and county staff, and the report we received (Wednesday,) that by passing this motion and providing this direction to staff, that when we start going down this road and staff start providing the information that we’ve directed them to, that we will check all the boxes that Cobourg has asked us to do.”
However, the town ultimately has the final say under building inspections and ECE licensing, which are required to open the doors.
Previous county staff reports indicated the first-floor warming hub is ready now and has an occupancy permit. The upper floors, which will house emergency beds and transitional housing spaces, are still undergoing construction but should be ready in early December. (Building permits were received earlier.) However, none of these services can open without an ECE licence.
At press deadline, there were no concrete details on a possible revised timeline, but Ostrander said they’re hopeful.
According to Northumberland County’s 2023 housing and homelessness annual report, the average rent for an available private market one-bedroom is so high that a household needs to make upwards of $70,000 to be able to afford it — and this far exceeds the median income of $40,000 for this demographic. The report also highlights how the rental market in Northumberland is characterized by high rents and low vacancy/availability rates. Weekly rental listings compiled by the Help Centre enforce such messages as availability dwindles.
In 2023, Northumberland’s vacancy rate — although still considered limited in its reliability with data only from three municipalities — was up slightly, to 1.3 per cent, closer to the 1.7 per cent provincial rate. However, in many recent years, Northumberland has had one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in Ontario at under 1 per cent. These aren’t considered healthy vacancy rates.
Northumberland County often reports its waitlist for subsidized housing exceeds 1,000 households, with hundreds of names added yearly. Another 1,100 shelter and housing benefits to people experiencing homelessness or who are at-risk of homelessness were provided in 2023 alone. These figures do not capture all of the families across Northumberland who are precariously housed or living rough.
Wait-times for the county’s rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units can vary due to several factors, including geography and locations, but can reach up to 10 years, specifically in Cobourg and Port Hope.
In other areas, such as Brighton, it’s up to a six-year wait for a one-bedroom, which is similar to Campbellford with a wait-time of up to seven years. In other areas such as Colborne, Hastings and Warkworth, it’s up to three/four years for one-bedrooms.
(Written by: Sarah Hyatt)
