The Tecumseh Park Neighborhood Association has launched a petition asking the broader community to support its opposition to an emergency homeless shelter.
The online petition – created in the wake of council’s decision to locate an emergency shelter in a former school in the Tecumseh Park area – calls for a ban on homeless shelters in residential neighborhoods in Chatham-Kent. The petition also urges mayor and council to guarantee relevant community engagement prior to final municipal decision-making to ensure the voices of citizens are heard.
Charlene Wranich, who created the petition on behalf of the neighborhood association, said there’s a reason for how the petition is worded.
“I wanted to involve all of Chatham-Kent and say, ‘Look, basically without you having any say whatsoever, the council could have decided to move this to your neighborhood,’” she said.
Three other concerned citizens – Ishraq Saiyed, Jeff Piche and Mohammed Khaja – signed a letter delivered to council for Monday’s meeting that outlines their concerns over the lack of public consultation.
Saiyed, whose children attend the nearby Darul Uloom Canada private school, said they’re not against the idea of a homeless shelter but were disappointed was no communication with residents about this decision.
“They didn’t talk about anything, they didn’t tell any local person or they didn’t involve anybody. … They just come and say, ‘We’re going to put the shelter here.’”
Residents in this east Chatham neighborhood earlier rallied to present more than 20 deputations at council’s March 21 meeting, requesting a decision to locate an emergency shelter in the former Victoria Park public school building at 185 Murray St. be deferred. Residents were upset they had received no notice of the plan, only learning about the shelter proposal from media reports a few days before it came to council.
Council, however, decided not to defer and approved a staff recommendation to open the emergency shelter on Murray, citing tight timelines to have a shelter in place because the lease on the current emergency shelter at the Travelodge expires May 31.
The municipality was to hold the first of two public meetings on the planned shelter on Tuesday night in Studio One of the Chatham Cultural Center from 6 pm to 7 pm Another meeting is scheduled on April 6 for the same time at the same location.
Municipal officials earlier indicated these public sessions would be a chance for residents to have their say.
“We want residents in the area to be able to come to the meeting, provide input and ask questions about how the shelter will operate,” said Polly Smith, Chatham-Kent’s director of employment and social services, when the meetings were announced.
“We understand that the issue is moving quite rapidly, and we want to make sure people have the facts.”
Saiyed said the broader Chatham-Kent community needs to be involved in discussions on how to try to solve the problem of homelessness before final decisions are made.
“They did it the other way around. They decided and now they’re going to talk,” he said. “What kind of democracy is this?”
The online petition, posted on Change.org on Saturday afternoon, had garnered more than 300 signatures by Monday afternoon.
Wranich said the petition will remain active until April 5 so as to get as many signatures as possible by the April 6 public information session.
“We’re just trying to have our voices heard,” she said.