KEY QUESTIONS ABOUT VANIER ‘MEGA SHELTER’
Community felt blindsided by the failure of the Salvation Army to hold early public meetings on the multi-purpose facility on Montreal Road, writes Matthew Pearson.
Fierce debate has swirled in Vanier and beyond ever since the Salvation Army announced plans in late June to build a new multi-purpose facility — which opponents call a “mega-shelter” — on Montreal Road.
The plan calls for a 9,600-squaremetre hub that includes an emergency shelter, day programs, medical care, addiction services and administrative space. It would replace the Concorde Motel beside the current Salvation Army thrift store. A house on Ste. Anne Avenue would be demolished to provide a secondary access to the property.
In its 10-Year Housing and Homelessness plan, the city set ambitious goals — eliminate chronic homelessness and reduce emergency shelter stays to fewer than 30 days by 2024.
It also embraced the housing-first model, based on the premise of ensuring everyone has a safe, stable place to call home and providing additional supports as needed to help people stay off the street.
As the city’s hottest planning file continues to simmer, the Citizen stirred the pot to get answers to some key questions.
Q Why are people opposed to the Salvation Army’s proposal?
A Aside from what many see as a lack of meaningful consultation, among the most common concerns expressed is the fear that crime and drug use associated with the George Street shelter will be imported to Vanier at a time when the community is trying to improve its image and reinvent Montreal Road as an attractive, thriving main street.
Drew Dobson, who owns a pub a few doors down from the Montreal Road site, is afraid new businesses won’t be drawn to the area if there’s uncertainty over what’s going to happen when the shelter opens in several years, while established businesses will move out, creating more vacant storefronts.
“We want to grow business along Montreal Road and we want to grow the type of businesses that are consistent with traditional main streets,” he said.
The site’s unusual shape also means the future centre would be surrounded by homes on three sides.
Then there’s the issue of size — some think it’s just too big.
“If you put 40, 50 people in an alcohol or drug-treatment program and you integrate in the community, you have a much greater chance of success than you do when you build one of these megashelters,” Dobson said.
Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury advocates for providing services at smaller sites, which is something Shepherds of Good Hope, Maison Fraternité and the John Howard Society all do already. Such sites are easier to manage and integrate clients into the community, and often have a local point of contact in the event of an issue.
A one-stop shop, even if it’s in a handsome new building, will replicate the Salvation Army’s current model, which hasn’t worked, he said.
Concerns about drugs, booze and loitering outside of the George Street shelter have dogged the facility.
Violence, too. Last fall, 30-year-old Kayla Sullivan was stabbed outside the building and later died. An Ottawa man was charged with first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter in May.
Other complaints include intravenous drug use, fights and people peeing on cars in the parking lot west of the shelter.
Q Where do Salvation Army clients come from?
A Initial reports — including quotes attributed to Mayor Jim Watson — stated that 70 per cent of the Salvation Army’s clients come from the Vanier area.
But taken at face value, the figure is misleading.
In fact, 52 per cent of clients who access the Salvation Army’s community and family services department — one of the many programs the charity would offer in its new centre — are from the K1K, K1L and K1N postal codes, according to the addresses provided.
Only K1L is Vanier, but it also includes the McKay Lake area north of Beechwood Avenue.
The other postal codes represent a wide swath of neighbourhoods, from Lowertown and ByWard Market to Overbrook and Manor Park.
Homeless clients who can’t provide an address make up an additional 15-20 per cent, and come from within a 30-minute walk from the downtown core, Salvation Army spokesman Glenn van Gulik explained.
The two figures combined exceed 70 per cent, but the catchment area is wider than the “Vanier area” might reasonably suggest. The rest of the Salvation Army’s clients come from other parts of the city. A Likely in September, said van Gulik. Details will hopefully be finalized next week. But several community meetings have already been hosted by Fleury, the Vanier Community Association and the Quartier Vanier Business Improvement Association.
Meanwhile, the city is collecting feedback on the application until the fall, when the item will likely be considered by the planning committee.
“We want residents to come out to the consultation and we want those consultations to be meaningful, so for them to be meaningful and transparent, it’s important that city staff be able to report on that in their report submission (to the planning committee),” Fleury said.
Q Why didn’t the Salvation Army consult the community sooner?
A This is a sticking point.
Van Gulik says the Salvation Army had been discussing its plan with Fleury and city officials for more than two years, but was never directly asked — and didn’t take the initiative — to hold a public meeting.
“If there had been a request to engage the BIA, the VCA or the public, we certainly would have done that, but we really felt truly and honestly that we were doing good engagement by speaking with the councillor, who represents those people,” van Gulik said.
But residents and neighbours, according to Dobson, leader of the SOS Vanier group, feel duped. There may still have been resistance, but people wouldn’t be left with the feeling that it’s a fait accompli.
“One big, big mistake, and maybe it wouldn’t have mattered, but the community was blindsided,” he said. “And that’s caused more of a backlash than might have happened if they’d known it was coming.”