New home sought for Carol’s Place
Carol’s Place, a gathering place in Peterborough Square for marginalized and homeless people, is looking for a new location now that it has been evicted from Peterborough Square — but as of Monday, one organizer said, they had no good leads.
“We’ve been scrambling to find another space where we can be,” said Jason Hartwick, one of the key volunteers for Carol’s Place. “In the meantime, our friends are out in the cold.”
Carol’s Place closed in Peterborough Square; it opened there in August.
It is named after the late Carol Winter, a tireless advocate for the homeless and marginalized who died at age 75 in October 2017. For years Dan Hennessey advocated for Carol’s Place to be open.
It opened after the Social Planning Council vacated and the space in the summer; it was offered then to Carol’s Place.
Hartwick described it on Monday as a volunteer-run gathering place for people that was open in the morning and early evening, in the hours when local hot-meal programs and overnight shelters were closed.
Up to 100 people a day would gather at Carol’s Place, on its busiest days, he said.
Hartwick said they were paying rent through donations and fundraising (they sold snacks at last year’s ReFrame film festival, for instance).
But Carol’s Place had been
operating just a few months when they received a letter from mall management saying their space would no longer be available as of Dec. 31.
The letter stated, however, that another space at the mall would be made available in the new year. But then on Saturday they were evicted with no other space offered, after all.
Cheryl McQueen, the manager of the mall, couldn’t be reached for comment on Monday.
Hartwick said the issue was people at Carol’s Place having “bad mental health days” at the mall.
One man kicked in a glass door in the mall after a fight with his girlfriend that happened at Carol’s Place, Hartwick said, and other people were “aggressively” trying to bum cigarettes from mall patrons.
Paramedics were called twice to deal with overdoses at Carol’s Place, Hartwick added.
He said he understands how this can all be “unpleasant” for mall shoppers — but he didn’t think the issues were insurmountable.
Now Hartwick said organizers are looking for a space downtown or within walking distance. The rent must be inexpensive, he said.
He said Monday he’s concerned about some of the people who frequented Carol’s Place who used to wander the streets awake all night and then come and doze at Carol’s the next morning.
When the overnight shelters were full, he said, some of these people had no other choice.
Mayor Diane Therrien said on Monday she was already working to try to find a new location for Carol’s Place.
“It’s a much-needed service — they do really good work,” she said. “They know everyone on the street in Peterborough and their circumstances — it’s a community.”
NOTE: Anyone who wants to get in touch with Carol’s Place organizers through the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ carolsplace247