Plan requires clarity, details and rules
Peterborough city council approved plans to convert the Wolfe Street homeless overflow shelter into a better equipped care centre with modular housing in less than a month — record time for a controversial project.
The decision, made despite near unanimous opposition from neighbouring homeowners, demonstrates both the compassion that one city councillor referred to and acceptance that this is the best, although not perfect, solution to problems created by the tent city that appeared on the property a year ago.
Those problems are not just felt by the neighbours, who have been subjected to vandalism, theft, noise, and conspicuous drug use. Many of those living in tents are also fearful and unsure of what the future brings.
The plan for a more permanent shelter with better facilities is short on detail. While that concerns the neighbours, city staff were right in asking for approval before spending a lot of time working out details.
The remake is not expected to be complete until October so there is time to get the fine points right.
That process has to include consultation with both the neighbourhood and the homeless community. And it has to go deeper than a public meeting or two where people can get on a speakers list and voice there concerns.
The neighbours know one another and can select two or three representatives. The homeless community can do the same. Make them part of the process as plans develop. But first, give them some time to talk over the situation as it exists now and how things could improve for everyone. Familiarity could help move the conversation toward a point where they see the shelter and the neighbourhood more as a single community, less as two conflicting worlds.
The first conversation doesn’t have to be around rules, but that discussion should start on a general basis soon.
Rules are necessary for any common public space. The shelter residents need them as much as the neighbours do, maybe more.
The neighbours will need to get past insisting that drug and alcohol use be prohibited. That “high barrier” policy at cityoperated shelters has been one of the reasons tenting exists, not an answer to preventing it.
Addiction doesn’t go away when you ban addictive substances. The neighbours know that. What they also need to come to terms with is that banning drugs and alcohol from Wolfe Street will only move the people using them slightly farther away. And that the city and social agencies will have less control of the situation.
The experience of the past few years of growing opioid addiction has also shown the community problems flowing from people using drugs, homeless or otherwise, aren’t solved by criminal charges and court appearances.
A provision that rules be established was built into council’s approval of the new shelter and modular housing plan, along with a requirement that the centre stay at Wolfe Street for no longer than two years.
There was always going to be rules, but spelling that out will make neighbours feel more confident. And as one social agency leader who works with the homeless said, a time limit puts pressure on everyone in the system to make this work. That means helping homeless people prepare to live in permanent housing and having that housing available when they are ready.
The Wolfe Street neighbourhood is in for another disruptive summer, but starting a conversation now between them and the tenters should help in the short term, and is crucial to success for the new shelter model that will begin this fall.
What they also need to come to terms with is that banning drugs and alcohol from Wolfe Street will only move the people using them slightly farther away