Documentary screening examines Brookside encampment

Though dismantled a year and a half ago, the year-long homeless encampment on the grounds of the former Brookside Youth Centre still provokes a multitude of questions – which the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario Cobourg-East Northumberland branch will explore Monday evening as they host a screening of the documentary about that encampment.

Home is a documentary that explores some of the human stories of homelessness as they played out in an historic location over many months.

It all began in August 2023 with a few tents on a beach in Cobourg. When the encampment was evicted off municipal land, they moved to a patch of lawn at the Northumberland County building at 600 William St. County council heard reports of hierarchies forming among the encampment members, and unease among county employees reporting to work and being observed as they exited their parked cars. Paramedics were disturbed to find members peering at them through windows in their garage doors and to hear them trying to break into the ambulances parked outside.

The county eventually moved to evict, and the encampment moved to provincially owned land at the site of the vacated Brookside Youth Centre. The province declined to ask the town to evict them off provincially owned property, so there they remained through the winter.

By late fall of 2024, the county had purchased the former Cobourg Retirement Residence to renovate as a shelter and in November – before a second encampment winter could begin – the encampment was dismantled.

On March 23, the local ACO welcomes you to a Cobourg screening at Victoria Hall (55 King St. W.) at 7 PM, followed by a panel discussion and light refreshments.

Doors open at 6:30 PM, and tickets are $10 for ACO members and $20 for non-members – available at the door or through the Victoria Hall Concert Hall box office or through e-transfer at info@acocen.ca