.png;w=960)
Strong words from Coun. Ed Valenti prompted a discussion on how the District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board plans to deal with members of the vulnerable sector of the population shipped to North Bay to access services.
Valenti's statement came during Tuesday's regular meeting of North Bay City Council. It was part of the discussion about a motion in support of a DNSSAB request for operating funding for its transitional housing project on Chippewa Street West — now known as the Gateway House — and soon to be officially renamed.
See related: North facing a three-pronged crisis of homelessness, addiction and mental health, municipal groups say
Coun. Mark King, who also serves as the Chair of the DNSSAB board acknowledged the province's capital investments to date for the transitional housing project. Now, with pandemic funding drying up, DNSSAB is requesting operating funding through the Ministry of Housing and Health Supports totalling $7.13 million annually for the Chippewa campus ($4.03 million for staffing), community programs such as nurse practitioner-led clinics plus street and encampment outreach (approximately $2 million), and $1.28 million for Indigenous transitional housing.
See also: Funding for homeless shelter 'huge news' says King
And: New Transitional Housing expected to be a 'Game Changer'
Valenti alluded to individuals having relocated to North Bay, essentially leaving one social services board for another, perhaps at the behest of the organizations in other locales.
"I would assume these associations [are governed] by ethics in everything they do," observed Valenti. "I think this crosses the line...we should be doing something about that. If that entails a legal process, I would be in favour of that kind of thing."
He continued, saying the situation is "difficult in North Bay. I don't mind that we're handling individuals from northern Ontario coming to the city but when they're coming here from Waterloo and Guelph, I don't think that's a situation we should be responsible for. And, it is affecting us as a city."
King, who tabled the motion seeking the operating funding from the province, responded to Valenti's stance.
King told the group the point-in-time (PiT) count system used to track the homeless population with the goal of connecting individuals to the services they need now includes a "by-name" list with data collected on where, for instance, the 300 identified as experiencing homelessness in 2021 came from.
See also: Survey counts 300 experiencing homelessness in district over 24-hour period
For more information, see the Nipissing Counts 2021 Infographic.
"We know there have been circumstances where penitentiaries in the south moved people into the North Bay area," advised King, "because they phoned before they sent them to see if there was room at the low-barrier shelter to accommodate them."
DNSSAB has been wrestling with solutions to this very issue, said King.
"Many of the homeless are transient. They move," said King, noting there are people in the Chippewa Street campus from Hamilton and Sudbury right now. "The facility is a good facility and they are getting support."
See also: Near North Board and DNSSAB say homeless are not a threat to students
And: Security staff hired to keep the homeless out of area high school
King added, "the DNSSAB board will hear back from staff at its next meeting about a new policy that will be implemented," at that Chippewa Street campus, "to avoid that transient traffic from coming into the city," strictly to access services. "I suspect the recommendation from staff will look at the individual having to have lived in the City of North Bay for a three-month period.
"That would alleviate much of the transient traffic coming through. But, by and large, it is tough to solve that problem and that's how we're going to do it at the DNSSAB level, by their names and following where they've come from and making sure we're providing services to the people of this district first."
See also: Social services board members air frustrations over homelessness response
Earlier, Coun. George Maroosis pointed out the system has failed since the shuttering of the psychiatric hospital in North Bay and the downward slide has continued, no matter the government in power.
"Every political party has been in power over that period of time," he said, "and they have met with the mayor and council of this city and promised supportive housing, treatment centres, and out-patient clinics and all the rest of it and they have not delivered."
Maroosis, a former chair of the DNSSAB board, added the creation of the social services boards and subsequent downloading of the social housing deficit onto the municipalities by the province has led to a shortfall of 245 rental units.
"If the province had come through and supported the DSSABs, we would be in a much better position," Maroosis said. "Even when the psychiatric hospital was here, there was always a spillover of people who came for treatment and stayed. I know that we need treatment centres but because we are one of the major northern centres, many people will migrate from smaller municipalities in the northeast — and even now from southern Ontario where people were feeling unsafe from COVID-19 — and would move up."
King also referenced the Business Retention & Expansion report included in the recent growth update from City of North Bay staff.
"Certainly, that issue of transient traffic and homelessness in the business corridor is really having a net impact on what we look like as a city," said King. "We're trying to get it off the street and get it out of the police department, get it out of the fire department, and EMS."
Maroosis observed the reality of the situation is "a citizen of this country and of this province cannot be refused health and social services, regardless of where you go. As much as we'd like to pack them all in a bus and send them back or send them to Sudbury — and let them deal with them — that's not reality and that's not the way the system works."
King noted he is against levying the municipality for the operating funding but "we have to find the operating dollars to make this work. The only other option would be to turn these people back out onto the street and that's really not an option."
