The city of Kingston has an expensive storage problem – what to do with the 10 small “sleeping cabins” used to accommodate about a dozen people experiencing homelessness during one winter season.
The 10 beige little barracks – which together cost $ 185,000 to build and another $ 72,000 ($ 1,800 a month) that will run from January to April – are scheduled to be removed from their temporary location in a local port by mid-mid in May.
According to an interim report released on Tuesday, the city has turned to “a wide variety of community partners” in search of a new facility for cabins that do not have bathrooms or running water, but do not have one yet.
“They play with our lives”
Barry Shea, one of the 10 residents of the huts, says the city’s insecurity is disappointing.
“Starting all these cabins the way they did, and then taking them away … that’s something I don’t understand,” said Shea, a 57-year-old retired PSW. “They’re playing with our lives.”
As a wheelchair user, Shea said traditional shelters were not accessible to him. He worries that if the dormitory project is completed, he may find himself on the streets again.
Barry Shea, 57, says getting a sleeping cabin saved his life. (CBC / Michelle Allen)
He credited the cabins to save his life. “I lost 10 friends on the street this winter … I almost died from the cold.”
Shea said he didn’t understand why there were no permanent decisions at the table.
Critics of the pilot project, led by a non-profit group called Our Livable Solutions, say it is a misuse of tax dollars and donations and that the money could be better spent on shelter beds or permanent housing.
“We generally pay market rent for these cabins,” Coon said. Peter Stroud, who voted against the project from the beginning. “Why don’t we just put them in apartments right now?”
The project is advertised as an innovative solution
The project was approved by Kingston City Council in October, and the cabins were unveiled three months later at the Portsmouth Olympic Port with great fanfare.
By mid-January, residents had moved into the cabins.
At the time, it was touted as an innovative solution to the city’s chronic homelessness problem.
The council earmarked $ 407,000 for the program, and a local woman later donated an additional $ 100,000 to United Way to be used to purchase the city’s cabins.
The city has approximately $ 250,000 left over from the project.
These remaining funds will be used to support former cabin tenants during the transition, which includes motel options, according to the interim report.
Preserving cabins at the Olympic Port of Portsmouth is not an option, as the Canadian Olympic Training Regatta Kingston (CORK) needs a venue for its annual summer sailing festival.
The creator of our living decisions, Crystal Wilson, said she was concerned about the possibility of participants being on the streets again.
“We have managed to stabilize people who have not otherwise been involved in traditional maintenance housing,” she told the council on Tuesday. “They would slide back when they left.”
Stroud was one of five city councilors who voted against the bill. He said that while support for homeless people is much needed, he believes the small cabin project is destined to fail.
“We just accepted the offer. It was the only offer we had to say yes or no,” he said, adding that he thought it was unwise to fund something that lasted only four months.
“We need more socially supported housing, and it needs to be larger than a few cabins,” Stroud said. “We all need to work together for ever better solutions.”
Mixed cab reviews
The booths received mixed reviews from Kingston’s homeless population, advocates and experts.
The limited space and capacity of each cabin also meant that only about 10 people were accommodated at a time.
Others point to safety issues as another drawback.
“We essentially support inadequate housing solutions for people who are deeply marginalized in our communities,” said Carrie Ann Marshall, director of the Western University’s Social Justice and Mental Health Research Laboratory, which also conducts homelessness research in the Kingston area.
WATCH Sleeping cabins are not the right use of funding, says the critic
The cabins provide “months” of stability for the homeless
Joan Boris of Kingston says sleeping cabins offer some stability for those experiencing homelessness while staff try to help people with different needs and challenges. 0:52
“There’s a reason we have laws about what conditions need to be provided in a housing unit,” Marshall said, referring to freeing the project from aspects of the Ontario Building Code.
Marshall said that despite the good intentions behind the sleeping cabin programs, she was concerned about their safety and efficiency. Buildings without plumbing less than 10 square meters are usually exempt from the Ontario Building Code.
“For $ 407,000, the city of Kingston could provide rent supplements of $ 500 a month for 67 to 68 people for a period of one year, as opposed to temporary housing and maintenance for 10 people for 3.5 months.
Not just for money
The Kingston housing administrator said it was not just about the money.
“There are many barriers for people who are homeless or chronically homeless,” said Joan Boris. “Unfortunately, this is not as easy as it could be for you and me to go out and talk to the landlord and take an apartment and then be able to maintain and maintain this apartment.
One of the 13 different people left in the cabins now has a permanent home, and one has found a paid job, according to Boris.
WATCH The cabins provide “months” of stability for the homeless
Sleeping cabins are not the right use of funding, says the critic
Professor and researcher Carrie Ann Marshall says the money should go to a permanent solution to help those who are homeless, not to an experimental solution that avoids important housing laws. 0:48
She said the program was useful, although most participants had not yet found a stable job or accommodation.
“It’s a community environment for these people, where they gain life skills and support as they move [through their] a trip home, ”Boris said, adding that the program also helped participants prepare for work.
“We had a lot of volunteers, so it’s not always paid for a lot of people.”
The city will keep the cabins in their current location until May 17, hoping to gain some time to find a permanent place.
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