Report on 310 Division St. brought more than statistics

The Warming Centre at the emergency shelter at 310 Division St. Cobourg. Photo by Dan Northumberland 89.7 FM News, LJI

By: Cecilia Nasmith, Northumberland 89.7 FM News

Cobourg

Northumberland County council's Social Services Committee got more than statistics from a report at their March meeting about the first few months at the new homeless shelter.

The report on the first few months of operations for Northumberland County's homeless shelter at 310 Division St. in Cobourg provoked discussion about more than statistics when presented at county council's Social Services Committee Wednesday.

Since its opening in November, an average of 28 clients per day have taken advantage of services at the Hub, as the shelter is called in the report. To date, 77% of users have been from Northumberland County. Of those, 72% are from Cobourg, with the next-highest percentage (15%) from Port Hope.

The committee received the report and its statistics for information, but committee members were more interested in a discussion of how these first few weeks have been going from an on-the-ground perspective.

Although it is a challenge to operate under the conditions of Cobourg's new Emergency Care Establishments bylaw, Homelessness Services Manager Bill Smith said, “the alternative is encampments, people living rough, people living in housing that is not safe or adequate.”

Having a centralized source, not only for housing but for the services they need, is vital to people for whom transportation is an issue.

Smith has been surprised at one effect of the bylaw, which has been to make people feel they have no place in Cobourg when (for example) they are standing in front of a building and get told to move along as a result of a call to the ECE phone number. Housing and Homelessness Associate Director Rebecca Carman has seen this same thing, sometimes with people who were born in Cobourg and have lived there all their lives.

Still, there are successes like the clients who feel safe and have an added measure of dignity from having a warm place to sleep and the ability to take a shower and do some laundry.

But making sure this happens is hard work for the people on the front lines, Carman said.

“The thing that keeps me up at night is concern for people working in that situation and the ability to continue doing this hard work within that environment.”