Region will help address issues at Bridges shelter

CAMBRIDGE — The Bridges has asked for the region’s help to deal with issues linked to the Cambridge shelter that are causing concern for residents and businesses.

Sticking to the original limit on the number of people allowed to stay there is part of the plan. There have been times when the number of people staying in the shelter topped 100 — well above the cap of 78 that was set when the shelter was opened in Galt’s core.

The region is offering support and funding where possible, and will continue to work with the Cambridge Shelter Corporation.

“We’ve left a wide-open invitation,” said Douglas Bartholomew-Saunders, the region’s commissioner of social services. “We’ll be happy to do what we can, when we can.”

Bartholomew-Saunders discussed the Bridges at a Tuesday regional committee meeting and is confident that the region’s help will make a difference.

“These measures will go a long way to resolving the issues,” he said.

Those include behavioural issues in the shelter and the surrounding area, such as loitering in nearby public spaces, including the library and unsafe syringe disposal.

“The local businesspeople and townspeople are developing a bit of fear,” Bartholomew-Saunders said.

There was a change in senior management at the shelter last fall, and there also were staffing shortages and questions about appropriate oversight in the shelter.

While “some of these things do overlap,” Bartholomew-Saunders said the issues are not just a Cambridge problem.

The same things are happening near other shelters, but it’s talked about more in Cambridge, where discussions about homelessness and syringe litter inevitably turn to the Bridges.

“I’m not exactly sure what it is about the Bridges,” he said. “The behaviours and issues are not specific to Cambridge.”

Once the Bridges reaches its cap of 78 — 58 men and 20 women — newcomers will be placed first in other shelters where space is available, and then in motels.

The region provides funding to local shelters including the Bridges, and Bartholomew-Saunders characterized this new arrangement as “extending a broader hand of partnership.”

“They’re doing a lot of good work,” he said of the shelter.