Transition House and neighbours clash

By Cecilia Nasmith

Transition House was a good neighbour for 17 years – but that relationship with the Chapel Street community where it is located changed when its core mission changed.

Representing the Good Neighbours Coalition Cobourg, Alyson King and Grace Lovekin appeared at Monday's committee-of-the-whole council meeting to describe the result and appeal for help.

King said their group is an ad hoc committee of residents – and, because Chapel Street is so close to King Street, some downtown-business owners – who are concerned about locating an emergency shelter in a residential community.

Transition House was for many years a transitional housing program designed for relatively stable people having difficulty transitioning into more permanent housing situations. It closed for some months in 2018 and reopened as a low-barrier emergency shelter.

They understand the need, King said. The report they provided to council indicated that perhaps as many as 100 people in Northumberland County are homeless. Meanwhile, the 22 beds for adults at Transition House and the 17 to 22 beds for women and children at Cornerstone Family Violence Prevention Centre are continuously full.

This creates an overflow situation where homeless people have been known to congregate on the sheltered stairway at Trinity United Church, across the street from Transition House, making the situation more acute in that vicinity.

Since the reopening of Transition House in its new form, King said, the neighbourhood has experienced round-the-clock disruptions, verbal abuse and intimidate, even theft and break-ins.

In the first nine months of this year, she pointed out, emergency services have been called to Transition House almost 200 times – which amounts to almost-daily disruptions.

They have met with representatives from Transition House and Northumberland County but came away without any suggestions of what might be done to address the situation.

Meanwhile, Lovekin recounted some of the conditions the community's residents (including children and vulnerable seniors) encountered over a recent 10-day period as factions from Trinity United Church and Transition House argued back and forth and even pursued some turf wars at the corner of Division and Chapel streets.

People are finding terrible things on the front lawns where their children play, including feces, debris from shooting up illegal drugs, even (one one case) a gun and a knife.

Downtown, people have been running into businesses demanding to use the phone. Customers are asking to be escorted to their cars and employees are threatening to quit.

“Police are doing the best they can with the resources that they have, but we need more than simply just policing,” Lovekin stated.

“We are asking the town to focus on community safety and well-being to ensure the shelters serving high-needs clientele are appropriately located, away from families,” King added.

The low-barrier emergency shelter model has proven its value for the homeless in big cities, she said, “but introducing it into a small town changes the dynamic.”

They are not the experts, she allowed.

“All we can speak to is the impact on our neighbourhood and ask that Transition House be re-evaluated with the broader impact on the community in mind.”

People in crisis situations do need shelter, King said, but long-time residents also need to be considered.

“We are frustrated. We are angry. We are depressed,” she said.

“We want to know what can be done right now to ensure everybody in the community feels safe,” she added, referring to the We Don't Feel Safe buttons the group distributed among the gallery at the council meeting.

“I acknowledge and hear the emotion and frustration in your voice,” Councillor Nicole Beatty said.

“I also hear the compassion for the vulnerable and your concerns for community safety,”

Beatty urged the group to make a presentation for county council and the Cobourg Police Services Board.

“We are not asking that shelters be removed completely, but I think you need to take into consideration where they are located,” King said.

“I understand fully what that neighbourhood is going through – my dad lives in that neighbourhood,” Councillor Brian Darling said.

“He's an 83-year-old man who lives close to what was just described as a drug house.

“But we have to go to the county. We can't put these people out in the street again, because then it's just going to get worse.”

Council passed a motion to draw the situation to the attention of key players and to dig deeper into the situation behind it. Actions include asking for information on crime and disruption in this area from the police, and on the change in Transition House from the county.

The county's Affordable Housing Committee will also be asked for input and analysis on the recommendations put forth by the delegation.

Meanwhile, the coalition has set up a website at goodneighbourscoalition.org, which includes an on-line petition.