Barrhaven Considered For Tent City: COUNCILLOR

This is an excerpt from Barrhaven West Councillor David Hill’s ward newsletter:

—

Recently councillors Wilson Lo, Catherine Kitts and I highlighted our concern at Ottawa City Council about the current plan to put refugees, asylum seekers and our homeless residents across the city in “sprung shelters.”

The homelessness crisis we face as a city is such a complex and difficult situation that we find ourselves in and first and foremost, we need to treat this situation with the utmost compassion while addressing the immediacy of the issue in a responsible manner. That’s why I oppose the city’s current plan. I firmly believe we can provide dignity for those in need in a sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective way. The current proposal falls far short of that on all fronts …

I know people are wondering where these communal shelters could be going.  A final decision has not been made by the city, but I do know Barrhaven is an option from the list that staff is considering. When I have something more concrete, you will know it.

What is a sprung structure? A sprung structure is a large tent-like structure with a fabric membrane over metal frames. Typically, they’ll include cement sub-floors and can be customized to include heating, water and sewage systems and some cubicle walls. I understand these structures more so than others as I have routinely lived in them throughout my military career – from the badlands of Yuma, Arizona to Petawawa in the winter. No matter how much you spruce it up, it is communal living.  When a child cries, when someone gets sick, when a crime is committed, when someone turns on a light in the night, when the toilet overflows, when the fabric tears in a windstorm … it affects everyone.

It is a fact that over the past five years our shelter system has been put under tremendous strain with COVID and our federal immigration policies making it worse. But the solution is not to build more communal shelters all across the city, especially non-permanent sprung shelters. Adding communal shelters does not address the root cause and to quote Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, “it is like managing a flood with a bucket instead of turning off the tap.” This is Ottawa, a winter city and the tens of millions it will cost to invest in tent-like structures would be better spent on factory mass-produced housing. Factory housing is built to be like Legos in a Lego set and then shipped to the site for construction in weeks. Using this technology, a four-storey women’s shelter in Waterloo was assembled onsite in less than a month. This is the future of low-income housing support – both temporary and permanent …

This excerpt is courtesy of the city-wide community group Your Applewood Neighbours.

For You:

E-BUSES: Confed Line-Type Fiasco With Little Payback

Wellington St. Work Ends in November

City Hall Creates New Transportation Nightmare: BENN