County social services prepares for Brookside sale

By Cecilia Nasmith

Northumberland County Manager of Homelessness Services Bill Smith told county council at its August meeting that they will be ready, should the rumours of the Brookside property in Cobourg being sold prove true and its encampment members evicted.

Smith said they are already working with individuals, as they become aware of them, who want to attain something more substantial than a tent on the provincially owned property vacated by the Brookside Youth Centre.

“Should the sale proceed and individuals are removed from the site, the County will work with Infrastructure Ontario to seek notification of timing for this removal and will convene system partners in planning a response on-site and in the community to support diversion, shelter admittance and other services required by those at Brookside,” according to the report he prepared for council's Wednesday meeting.

Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland applauded this work, but found the planning not as complete as he would have liked – especially given that, as he noted, announcement of a sale “could be as soon as a week from now.

“We know that Cobourg council has their own encampment response plan, which is no-encampments-in-Cobourg,” Cleveland said.

“I don't understand what the plan is from this level of government.”

“The plan is to continue to provide a response,” Associate Director of Housing and Homelessness Rebecca Carman said.

“People have to lead their housing journeys. People get to make their choice where they may want to go. Our plan is to open up 310 Division as soon as possible so that we can increase our capacity to serve more people,” Carman added, referring to the prospective shelter they are preparing to open in Cobourg.

In the event they learn of the sale of the Brookside property, she continued, “We will work alongside folks at the encampment to navigate housing options and shelter options for them to move on.”

“Of course, there would be more immediacy if everyone was evicted at the same time, and we would respond accordingly,” Smith added.

“Our policy is not a clearing-of-encampment policy – it's a supporting-people-who-are-living-rough policy, as I understand it,” Warden Brian Ostrander commented.

“I would have anticipated that the property owner would have sought to try to deal with this issue in advance of wanting to sell their property, but that is not a county responsibility. The property is owned by, currently, the province of Ontario, and we will have to see what the new property owner chooses to do, I suppose. And we will be there to help serve people who are displaced as best we can.”

Cleveland insisted there are “10 to 15 individuals” at the site whose drug and cognitive issues ensure they cannot be trusted either to make their own decisions or live safely in an independent manner – what about them, he wondered.

“Some of those considerations of who can and cannot make decisions on their own is not for us to make – we are not health professionals,” Carman said.

“We respect privacy, we respect the dignity of the individual. There will not be a plan that says, 'Here are the people who know about and this is what we will do.'”

That said, she continued, there are options with specialized considerations, such as adaptations for disabilities, and they do what they can to advocate for those with special needs.

Cramahe Mayor Mandy Martin was offended by such talk, and accused Cleveland of crossing a line.

“Frankly, sir, you do not have the health credentials to declare who's who at the zoo,” Martin said.

Cleveland said he had been to the encampment three times that week and challenged her to make a visit and see it for herself.

“Sir, I have,” Martin said.

Cleveland said he lays the blame for the situation at the feet of the seven county councillors, failing to change with changing times, continuing with policies that did not work and funding formulas that no longer suffice.

Ostrander said that this level of funding comes primarily from the province, “so we really do need to seek our friends at the province to assist,” he urged.

“Blaming the property taxpayer for not being able to fund this particular social service is, frankly, inappropriate, when we all know property taxes were never intended to fund these levels of social services.”

Citing budgetary expenditures such as a $2-million item for new windows at the Golden Plough Lodge, Cleveland insisted that surely the county has some ability at least to reprioritize some funds to allow “opportunities to make sure vulnerable individuals have an actual chance at a better life.”

Ostrander characterized such an endeavour as “the shell game of the dollars.

“The more we take on from a property-tax perspective, the more it becomes an accepted download from the province. And I will not sit here and accept that funding download to social services that belongs to the province.”

“How many 16-year-olds have to overdose until the time is that we actually take steps in the right direction?” Cleveland retorted.

“Well, one would hope none, Councillor Cleveland, and I understand one did,” Ostrander replied.

“But I also understand that that overdose walked to the ambulance and was treated well by local health care. And no, I don't think it's acceptable that a 16-year-old should have to live rough. I don't think it's acceptable that anyone should have to live unhoused. 

“But that is the world, unfortunately, that we find ourselves in, and we are doing our very best with the limited resources we have to assist people who are living rough on a day-to-day basis, and I appreciate the work that the staff is doing and the work that this council does around the table.”