SHELTERS: A Homelessness Emergency: TROSTER
I don’t know how many times we have to remind ourselves that we are in the midst of an actual emergency.
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These are the remarks by Somerset Councillor Ariel Troster at Wednesday’s planning committee meeting.
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Our latest homelessness point in time count showed more than 3,000 people experiencing homelessness, and as I have said before and I will say again, we need to empower staff to act in the face of an emergency. We would not make them come back to Council or to go to a zoning bylaw review meeting if they suddenly needed to set up a shelter from another storm, or another derecho.
This is the same as far as I am concerned. And if you want to know how bad the crisis is, I am happy to take you on a tour of my community. As Councillor Leiper, Chair, has said many times, we don’t do people zoning. This is an archaic piece of the old zoning bylaw that is discriminatory in nature; it forces a rezoning process simply because of the kinds of people that are in a shelter. Let’s be really, really honest here. I don’t think it’s dishonest, and I also think Chair Leiper brought this forward because of the emergency we’re in now and because we need staff to be able to move swiftly.
“That means if there is a piece of land for sale, they need to be able to buy it. If there is a building that can be converted, they need to be able to convert it. That doesn’t mean that housing staff aren’t doing consultation with the community. They are incredibly engaged with the community. And I trust that they are smart enough to understand what would be ideal or not an ideal location for a shelter of this nature.
“So let’s not forget that a lot of these shelters provide three meals a day. So some of the concerns about there not having services nearby, a lot of these models involve in-house services. And so the more that we allow communities to politicize a decision that I believe is one of an emergency nature, I think we are creating a false expectation of what people deserve to be consulted about. We don’t consult on who comes into our community. That is fundamentally discriminatory. So I am really glad to see this come forward and I’ll be voting for it.”
This transcript is courtesy of the city-wide community group Your Applewood Acres (And Beyond) Neighbours
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– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
Is what appears to be spreading the problem around to other wards in the city actually solving the problem?
John, Troster’s ‘solution’ is the opposite of intensification – dilution.
I wonder if Ms Troster had her epiphany while filming the latest episode of “Ariel gets ready for work” in front of her iPhone. The city doesn’t have a homeless emergency, the city has a problem that has continued to grow because for many years city hall has done nothing to resolve it.
If most of those homeless were women the shelters would be built PDQ. As someone who has spent times on the streets at 2 AM as a properly trained volunteer the majority of the disenfranchised are men. Perhaps they should start identifying as women insist their sexual orientation is lesbian. Talk with Jamaican accents and put a red dot in the middle of their forehead… your first class accommodations await. #sarcoff but how many women’s only shelters are there compared to men. How about building those temporary shelters for our homeless first… just saying.
Hey sisco farraro:
Ottawa has a municipal government emergency and like all the other emergencies declared in Ottawa… nothing will be done about it.