At Temporary Homeless Shelter in A form exmouth Street Church is expected to be nEEDED UEED AT LEAST Year’s End, Lambton County’s Social Services General Manager Says.
At Temporary Homeless Shelter in A form exmouth Street Church is expected to be nEEDED UEED AT LEAST Year’s End, Lambton County’s Social Services General Manager Says.
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Valerie COLASANTI, Senior Manager for Sarnia-Area Homelessness Services, was responding wednesday to a call from neighbours of the temporary out of the cold shelter and a housing resource center at the training laurel-lea st. matthew’s presbyterian church, to shut down the site Within 90 Days.
“Ninety Days is noticable,” Colasanti Said. “Realistically. . . The Earliest Would Be the End of 2025. ”
Tony Gioiosa, Who Owns a Nearby Business Plaza, Spoke to County Count Wednesday on Behalf of About 55 Neighbourhood Residents and Business Owners About the Impact of the Shelter That Opened in March 2023.
“This past summer, Simply Put, was unbearable,” with open drug use, individuals defecating on deprivate property, violent behaviour, threatering altercations, theft and property damage, “zombie-like individuals walking the streets,” and grocery abandoned and sometimes Pushed Into Traffic, he Said.
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The Community was initially “Understanding of the need, Knowning the Arrangement was temporary,” Though information provided to neighbours about the facility has been “limited at best” and complain “Fell on Deaf Ears,” He Said.
The Neighbours Petitioned the County in the Fall for A Public Forum on the Site, Gioiosa Said. That wasn’t held, but they Did Eventually Meet with country and other officials in december.
Sarnia Police Took Part in the Meeting and Retrred to the Neighbourhood as A “Hot Spot” with 900 Calls Between January and December 2024, he Said.
Neighbours Left The Meeting Feeling Frustrated at The County’s Response, Gioiosa Said.
“The Community is at its Breaking Point,” He Said.
“The Facility is operating well beyond its original and has been permanently rooted,” he said. “It has gone on too long, and it has gone too far.”
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Intended as a Seasonal Shelter Open During the Colder Months, It Remaine Open Last Year to Provide Beds Amid Efforts to Clear Homeless Camps in the city. The County also Began Operating A Housing Resource Center in the Building, where Lambton’s Homelessness Prevention Team, and Other Local Agencies, Work to Connect Homeless People With Services.
A Once Quiet Neighbourhood is now “A Hot Spot of Unwanted Activity,” Gioiosa Said.
Sarnia Coun. Bill dennis’s motion to grant the neighbours’ Request that the country form a plan to close the shelter within 90 Days failed to attract a second.
COUCIL DID VOTE TO APPROCH Sarnia Police about HIRING AN OFF-DUTY Officer to watch the Site and to have County Staff Stay in Contact with Neighbourhood Representatives.
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Lambton Recently Received Provincial Funding for A Homelessness and Recovery Treatment Hub that will see the housing resource center at the form church move to a new rental, colasanti said.
But the 35-bed overflow shelter at the site is “almost at capacity,” she said. “We Still have Several Encox in Sarnia. If we do not have Beds available within a homeless shelter, we won’t have anyWhere for those individuals to go. ”
The Provincial Funding Also Will Cover More Transitional Addiction Beds, Helping Move More Individuals Into Housing, Colasanti Said.
“We’re really hoping with these additional services that will be starting by April of this year, we’ll be able to move more people to housing. . . (and) we won’t Need the Overflow Shelter, ”She Said.
LAMBTON ALSO GOT OTHER PROVINCIAL FUNDENCE RECENTLY TO MAY TO HOMELESS CAMPS THAT WILL BE ADD 10 BEDS, HALF OF THEM Permanent, AT SARNIA’S Good Shepherd’s LODGE Shelter, She Said.
County Officials Will “Continue to Try to Mitigate” Impacts on the Neighbourhood from the temporary exmouth street shelter, colasanti Said.
“It is a step forward,” Gioiosa Said after the Council Meeting. “It was nice that discussion was had that it will be closed. Our preference is Sooner Rather Than Later. ”
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