One City should be applauded

When the City of Peterborough committed to a test of small sleeping cabins for 50 chronically homeless people, it signed on to a second program that was, at the time, less controversial.

That was the Trinity Community Centre, which gets $900,000 a year from the city. It provides a daytime shelter with meals and counselling service for the homeless and limited overnight dropin space.

The Rubidge Street centre, in the former Trinity United Church building, is run by One City Peterborough with support from other non-profit social service agencies. The city’s contribution does not cover the entire cost so One City also relies on other funding, including federal government grants.

The decision to fund One City as the operator represents the end point of an evolution in the city’s relationship with the agency.

One City provides “low barrier” support for the homeless. It does not turn away clients who are intoxicated on drugs or alcohol, and allows drug use in its shelters.

At one point that cost One City its ability to get city funding and made it something of an outlier in the homelessness support field.

But the city came to recognize the value of One City’s approach. The sometimes dangerous tent city that grew up around the city’s failed downtown shelter had a lot to do with that change in attitude.

The city cleared out the tents on Wolfe Street site and replaced them with the 50 sleeping cabins and better kitchen, shower and counselling facilities.

But far more people were sleeping in tents than could be accommodated in the limited number of cabins. Many have addiction and trauma issues that make then unable, or uninterested, in using traditional shelters where drug use is banned.

The city had little choice. The remaining tent city inhabitants would scatter around the downtown area, spreading out public drug use and vandalism issues that plagued Wolfe Street area homeowners but not ending them.

Trinity Community Centre was a partial solution, both to provide care and support to the most chronically homeless and lessen their impact on neighbourhoods.

Now it is the centre of some controversy. Neighbouring businesses see public drug use, people sleeping on their lawns, litter and tents. Most recently, the Examiner detailed allegations from a former employee that the centre is allowing illegal, supervised drug use.

Those are loaded terms. Peterborough has a legal supervised drug site, but it closes at night. Addictions don’t sleep, so drug use continues unsupervised.

Rather than leave people to fend for themselves on the streets, One City allows drug use at the centre. That has led to accusations the city if funding illegal activity.

One City’s response is that it gets money from various sources, and city funds do not pay for the enclosed area where it allows people to do drugs overnight.

That seems fudgy, but so is the entire situation. There are provincially funded services to help people with chronic addiction issues, but not enough for everyone who needs them, when they need them. The Trinity centre fills the gap, to the extent that it can.

The city to some degree seems to look the other way on what is happening at Trinity, which given the lack of services available is good public policy.

One City has committed to minimizing the impact its clients have on the neighbourhood, and will need to meet that promise.

But without permanent care facilities to manage and treat addictions, the problems now centred around Trinity will continue to some degree. The centre makes them more manageable, not less, and One City deserves credit for the work it is doing.

One City provides ‘low barrier’ support for the homeless. It does not turn away clients who are intoxicated on drugs or alcohol, and allows drug use in its shelters