Ariel Troster Argues For Sprung Housing

This is an excerpt from a newsletter of Somerset Councillor Ariel Troster concerning her support for sprung housing.

You may have heard in the media about the Integrated Transition to Housing strategy and the purchase of “sprung structures” to eventually turn into welcoming centres for refugees and asylum seekers in suburban neighbourhoods. There are hundreds of newcomers sleeping in bunk beds in re-purposed community centres in Heron Gate and Vanier. Both are low-income communities with a high proportion of racialized residents – which means some of our city’s most vulnerable people have been left without access to gym facilities for years. This is unacceptable.

What we are seeing right now in our city’s shelter system is unlike any other time in our history. The global migration crisis and wars in several major regions mean that more are coming to our city to seek safety and rebuild their lives. Demands for shelter are higher than ever and right now nearly 80 per cent of people in the system are newcomers.

As part of the Emergency Shelter Crisis Taskforce, I worked with city staff to help prevent the development of large semi-permanent tent encampments by ensuring that we had enough indoor sleeping spaces for anyone who needed one. But we need a better solution that no longer forces communities to choose between accessing recreation and providing shelter.

That is why I spoke at council in favour of the sprung structures and the rest of the Transition to Housing strategy. Downtown communities are already doing more than our fair share to help vulnerable neighbours. We host safe consumption sites, low-barrier day centres, shelters and rooming houses. We will also open host a new transitional housing facility and welcome centre in a converted office building on Queen Street in the fall. Simply put: we need more space for people and we need other communities, particularly in the suburbs, to do their part.

You can watch some of my comments at council on the urgency for every community in the city to welcome services, housing and support for people in need. Homelessness is a city-wide problem, and we need everyone to take part in advancing solutions.

Warmly,

Ariel

Here’s the problem with Troster’s argument above.

It’s not about whether sprung housing is a good or bad idea. No, it’s about turning this issue into a suburban versus inner-city issue.

Troster is right about the downtown wards carrying the burden of disadvantaged people of all sorts. That’s a historical reality as long as cities have existed, it’s probably not right and it’s unlikely to change. But the difficulty is that disadvantaged people are not very mobile.

The most important item a homeless person has is functional shoes. An issue in shelters is that shoes get stolen. It’s hard enough imagining living on the streets, particularly in winter. Worse is walking the streets without proper footwear. A working pair of shoes is priceless.

But back to the point. If people are not mobile, how do they get to the services they need? If you are living in Barrhaven or Alta Vista, how do you travel to health clinics and the like designed for the homeless?  You can’t. Give them a free bus pass you say? These are people who can’t hold onto their health card. So the homeless suffer because they can’t or won’t travel. That’s why you keep such services in one place. It’s not entirely a NIMBY issue but rather a funtionality question as well.

Downtown residents don’t want to hear that. It’s a NIMBY issue for them as well. The disadvantaged will always be there. That’s just reality. Sadly, it’s part of the human condition. This city hall, and particularly this city council, will not come even remotely close to solving this problem. They might, if we are lucky, carve off a precious small part of the sharp, ugly edges.

One other thing. Temporary housing for refugees and the homeless using sprung housing is difficult to erect politically. More difficult will be dismantling them if and when that time comes. Sprung housing is an easy solution but not a permanent one. But the city has glitzy, popular things to do and lobbyists to satisfy (not necessarily the average person). So developers want a football stadium, the cycling lobby wants the Commanda Bridge and more bike paths and a certain mayor’s ego had to be salved by building a bricks-and-mortar new central library monument in the internet age.

Sprung housing will get patched, dirty and disfunctional. That said, it is easy. Trendy, easy and fun are much more popular at Ottawa City Hall than what’s vital and right.

Get used to sprung housing. Not because it is right but because it is easy and city hall’s priorities reside at such places as Lansdowne, not providing adequate support for those who need it.

That said, one of the pluses is that refugees, good people, will want to get out of those dumps as soon as possible to build real lives.

The people who will stay will be the persons who can’t leave.

One other point. If former president Donald Trump wins in November, he has promised to rid the U.S. of immigrants. Where will they be forced to go? Mexico? Not likely. Canada is the easiest and best option.

You think we have a refugee problem now? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Ken Gray

The excerpt above is courtesy of the city-wide community group Your Applewood Acres (And Beyond) Neighbours

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