Will wait until 'the people that live and breathe this' have a chance to come up with a proposal

The city has pulled the reins on a potential harm reduction housing site on Beaumont Crescent until the experts have a chance to come up with a plan of action.

The empty city-owned lot in the city’s east end had been named as a potential location for 10 converted shipping containers to house vulnerable and homeless people.

But it became abundantly clear during a three-and-a-half hour discussion at council Monday night that the city isn’t the one to build or operate such a project.

“We are not housing experts at all,” Deputy CAO Colleen Clack told council.

The County of Wellington provides social housing for the city and it has shown no inclination to build this or any other project right now.

Eventually Mayor Cam Guthrie stepped in, telling council that the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness was reconvening in January and that there was a move afoot to get this done by the agencies and organizations who are the experts.

“These people that live and breathe this stuff every day are going to be convening under a task force,” Guthrie said.

He said there is “momentum, buy-in and direction” to create a harm reduction housing project.

“Let the experts figure out a collaborative way of actually getting this done … The right people are already moving behind the scenes,” Guthrie told council.

“Our heart is in the right place, but we’re not the experts on this. So let the experts champion this.”

Council voted 12-1 in favour of a motion to bring the issue back to council in April after the task force has had a chance to weigh in.

Coun. Bob Bell was the only ‘nay’ vote. He felt that it was pushing the timeline back even further, commenting that delaying action until then means “next year just sailed.”

Right now there is no proponent who has actually stepped forward to build and run any type of harm reduction housing.

Other potential sites could be brought forward, but Beaumont Crescent remains an identified underutilized city property that would be suitable.

“We need to have a solution, on the ground, within a year,” coun. Mike Salisbury said earlier in the night.

Coun. Phil All said that he thinks it would be a “minimum of two years, maybe three, because of all the hoops and hurdles we must jump over” before a harm reduction housing project becomes a reality.

“We have a planning process for which we must go through, including appeals,” Allt said.

Statistically there 127 homeless people in Guelph, although it makes sense that number may be higher, given that not all are counted.

Councillor Rodrigo Goller put forth a motion for staff to “Investigate options for harm reduction housing on Beaumont Crescent and report back by January 2020” but that was shot down.

Clack said “there really is very, very little we could do by January.”

Clack said there is a proposed land use study for the neighbourhood planned, which would encompass much more than a proposed harm reduction site on Beaumont. Staff would like to see that land use study completed so it could help inform the decision.

“There’s no harm in getting more information. I think the harm is lack of information,” coun. Cathy Downer said early in the evening.

Several residents of the Beaumont Crescent area delegated at council Monday.

“We are a community that cares,” said area resident Bryan McPherson, but added that “we feel we are being targeted because we live on the periphery of the city.”

He called for an improved process in choosing a site for harm reduction housing, not just selecting Beaumont Crescent because it’s city-owned land.

He called for a city-wide initiative looking at various housing models rather than “fast tracking” the current plan.

Denese Renaud felt proper process wasn’t followed, including a lack of engagement with the neighbourhood.

“I don’t think that was very fair. I think the ball was dropped on that,” Renaud said.

“We need to look at better places, we need to look at more places,” she said.

Lesley Pharoah, “a very frustrated homeowner” in the area, said the city is “segregating our neighbourhood with low-income, no-income and now homeless.”

She said the city is putting neighbourhood children at risk.

“It’s a quiet, secure neighbourhood,” Pharoah said. “Please don’t take this away from the 87 families living here.”

A pair of delegates spoke in favour of the need for harm reduction housing.

Kinnery Chaparrel, who said she has been marginally housed in the past and works with homeless people.

“I hope that these housing initiatives will be throughout the city,” Chaparrel said.

“This is integration if you welcome your new neighbours,” she said. “People are not going to get healthy if they don’t have a healthy place to live.

“Homeless people are not a problem to be dealt with, they are members of our community and they deserve our support.”

Lily Bent, part of the new Downtown Guelph Friends group, spoke in favour of Beaumont Place being part of the strategy to address the issue of harm reduction housing.

She spoke of the unfair misconceptions surrounding the people that would be living there. That homeless people are more likely to have a crime committed against them than they are to commit one.