Group seeks supportive housing money, momentum

Their “unofficial” goal is to start five supportive housing projects in five years.

“So you haven’t heard the end of us,” said John DeGroot, who’s part of a four-member group pushing since December for supportive housing in Sarnia-Lambton.

He was speaking at an invitation-only $5,000-a-table, 24-table awareness and fundraising event July 15, where 192 politicians, bureaucrats, social service representatives and others gathered for a champagne breakfast in Point Edward.

The event was held as sailboat crews in the nearby St. Clair River readied for the annual Bayfield Mackinac Raceand Rotary Club of Sarnia members held their annual pancake breakfast fundraiser under the Blue Water Bridge.

“We saw an opportunity to do something a little bit different and a little bit more to bring the money people to the table,” said Rotarian Heather Martin, another housing group member, of the champagne breakfast.

Hopes were to raise $100,000 for seed money “for organizations that need a little bit of financial support to get (social housing projects) going,” she said. “That’s why we’re here.”

There was no trouble selling out the event, even with about a week’s notice, Martin said, noting First Hussars honorary Lieutenant-Colonel Tania Lee provided the venue.

Military equipment was also on display amid the sounds of the militia unit’s pipe band.

The group of four, which includes members of the Rotary club and the Wellington Ridge Development affordable housing group, recently convinced the city of Sarnia to donate at least part of a downtown parking lot lot for a hoped-for social housing project, and Lambton County — which is responsible for housing in the two-tier municipal system — to declare shelter and affordable housing its top priority.

Sarnia’s Victoria Street parking lot is one of three or four sites looking “very promising” for builds, Martin said.

“We’re not at a point where we can say anything about that yet, but it won’t be long before . . .we can say we’ve got some more partners that are looking to do good things,” she said of the other sites.

Finding partners to take the lead on projects and fundraising is the next step, she said.

Graham Cubitt, of the Hamilton-based Christian charity Indwell, told invitees about its supportive housing projects across southern Ontario that have helped get people living in tents and ravines into shelter, keep people housed in the longer term and reduce police calls.

“I just want to really encourage you,” he said, noting getting anything built requires all levels of government, local agencies and community residents to work together.

The breakfast was a sort of kick-off to making that happen in Sarnia-Lambton, he said.

“You’re on the right track,” he said.

He spoke with Lambton County Warden Kevin Marriott and others in county social services Saturday, and plans were to continue talking to “come up with a community strategy. . . to actually help holistically address the issue of homelessness,” he said.

St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston also spoke about efforts in his community to build supportive housing, and noted St. Thomas isn’t alone.

“Talking to Mayor (Josh) Morgan from London this week and other mayors in southern Ontario, we all seem to have adopted this (priority of addressing homelessness by providing housing),” he said.

“It’s a success for all of us in southern Ontario,” he continued. “We will be a better place when we are successful.”

Just providing walls and a roof isn’t enough, he said, as St. Thomas learned while working to build supportive housing over the last four years.

“We learned we had to ask. . . people who were coming inside for perhaps the first time in a long while (that they needed), the ways and means with which to become house-able in the future.”

Sarnia-Lambton has about 900 affordable housing units, mostly scattered in Sarnia, but little supportive housing, DeGroot said.

“If we build 45 units (on Victoria Street) and if the county has identified that there are nearly 3,000 people on the homeless waiting list, these 45 units will represent one and a half per cent of our need,” he said.

Community fundraising traditionally also comprised about 10 per cent of any project, he added. “So we have a big challenge.”

The idea in St. Thomas has been to “graduate” people from supportive housing to affordable housing, to regular housing and jobs, Preston said.

“As much as you see a pothole in the street and as the mayor you want to fix it, or you see a place where a park could be and you want to fix it, housing the homeless in your community has to be the No. 1 that a council is looking at,” he said.