Closure of family shelter adds to growing housing ‘crisis’

City councillors say the decision by city staff to shut down the aging Forward Avenue Family Shelter — which they learned of Thursday ahead of a Dec. 15 closure — only increases the mounting need to address a “crisis” in family housing and homelessness. Councillors Catherine McKenney and Jeff Leiper said in a statement that they and fellow councillors Diane Deans and Mark Taylor pressed for protections for the displaced families at an emergency meeting with staff Friday morning. They’ve been assured the 14 families living in the Mechanicsville shelter, which was until recently under renovation, will be offered accommodation in a new transitional housing development near South Keys. They’ve also asked that the families be housed if they want to stay in the neighbourhood where their kids are the midst of the school year and that they get “critical” help from agencies, including the Somerset West Community Health Centre and Parkdale Food Centre. According to Janice Burelle, the city’s general manager of community and social services, the affected families were informed of the shelter’s pending closure Thursday, with three of the 14 families confirming offers of rent-gearedto-income housing for Dec. 1. The Forward Avenue shelter, housed in a former school built in 1955, has been open since August 1985, while a third floor was added in 1990. According to Burelle, the building doesn’t meet accessibility requirements, nor “barrier-free design” requirements provided for in the provincial building code. It was projected that repairs to the building over the next four years would have cost at least $2.3 million. “The decision to cease operations involved careful consideration,” her memo states, “and our primary goal is to ensure families continue to receive housing and shelter services in a safe, adequate, and suitable environment.” In March, Taylor (as the mayor’s special liaison for housing and homelessness) called on governments to pitch in to replace the city’s two family shelters — the other is on Carling Avenue and both are repurposed motels “in a state of degradation” — with a $16 million family centre. In an interview Friday, McKenney said she recognizes that the Forward Avenue facility was at the end of its lifespan and had to be repaired or closed, but was shocked by the short timeline and dismayed about losing capacity in an already overladen system. McKenney questioned the move at a time when the number of families staying in shelters rose by a third between 2014 and 2017. There were, on average, 182 families housed nightly in motels in 2017, according to the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa. “We need to have this discussion in public as a council,” she said. “People in this city are realizing that we have a real affordable housing crisis and a homelessness crisis. “We need to have these discussions in the open in public and we have to ensure we do what we’re meant to do as leaders and as elected representatives in this city to build our capacity in terms of housing.” Burrell’s memo states that the city’s focus “is on supporting all family members and minimizing the disruption associated with the closure.” Additionally, she says, shelter staff are working with families to explore available options, including housing allowances — $250 for the head of the household and $50 for each additional family member — to secure private-market rental, as well as referrals to other agencies and community-based services. McKenney and Leiper had pointed to anecdotes about the crisis in family housing in their wards, such as a family that turned to a faith community for help after living in their car and a mother and young child sleeping outside. Both had been turned away from family shelters.

People in this city are realizing that we have a real affordable housing crisis and a homelessness crisis.