One of the city’s recently approved homeless hubs in London, Ont., has been discarded “due to circumstances beyond control,” according to the organization that was to operate the hub.
The Canadian Mental Health Association Thames Valley announced on Monday that it withdrew the proposal for the hub focused on serving women and female-identifying individuals, citing “great disappointment.”
“Our proposal for a Hub was driven by a sincere desire to assist the most vulnerable members of our community,” the organization wrote in a statement. “We believe this project aligned with our core values, and we were fully committed to making it a reality. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are no longer able to proceed with the execution of our proposal.”
The proposed multi-site hub was to include both transitional and respite beds at 705 Fanshawe Park Rd. W. and 566 Dundas St., with 10 respite beds previously set to be operational at the My Sisters Place location by December.
“We are actively exploring alternative options to host respite beds this winter,” CMHA Thames Valley said.
The Lighthouse Inn hub site was initially planned to provide an additional 20 transition rooms, but the controversial location sparked a number of rising concerns from the community.
Speaking with Global News following the announcement, Pam Hill, regional director for CMHA Thames Valley, said that those concerns were behind the decision to revoke their proposal.
“We heard rumblings that there were people living there who were long-term residents,” she said. “We’ve been trying to ascertain what the magnitude of that is, how many people, and how precarious their housing is there.”
Hill cited conversations the organization also had with Ward 7 Coun. Corrine Rahman after she received nearly 600 emails from constituents in the days after the location was revealed.
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“They wanted an opportunity to better understand the information that was being put forward. And think about those impacts,” Rahman told Global News on Monday. “My conversations with CMHA really began after council’s decision, and I have to give them the utmost credit and respect because they engaged in open dialogue with me about what I was hearing and seeing.”
“It appeared to us that there are people who would truly be at risk of not being adequately housed if we proceeded with this,” she said. “We were unaware that they were not interested in leaving or didn’t have places to go.
“We couldn’t displace some people for the benefit of others.”
She added that due to the timeframe previously approved through the proposal in implementing the initial stages of the hub, CMHA Thames Valley ultimately decided to take a step back.
“It would have tied up resources that might be able to be used in some other ways to more quickly address issues of people who are living rough now,” Hill said.
The organization said that it informed city hall of its decision on Friday.
“What they are doing here is absolutely the right thing to do,” Mayor Josh Morgan said. “They said, ‘We’re in the business of helping people, not making other people homeless,’ and that’s why they had to withdraw their proposal.”
Last month’s approval of the first three proposed sites marked the next step in the implementation of the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community Response that has been underway since November 2022, which was created by more than 200 people from about 70 organizations across the region.
24-7 services will be available at the hubs to those experiencing homelessness, with the goal of giving someone a bed while transitioning to more permanent housing.
According to city staff, all three hub locations were set to provide 73 beds by mid-2024.
“New information has come to their (CMHA Thames Valley’s) attention, and (I think) they’re making a very quick and very decisive decision,” he added. “We’ll go through the next steps together.”
Hill said that they’re currently in conversations with city staff in looking for alternative avenues to “continue to support the Whole of Community Response now and in the future.”
“We’re committed to trying to work together to make sure that we can use the actual physical space that is available to move ahead,” she said. “This couldn’t be tied to the old hub proposal. We need to go down another path.”
Going back to Rahman, she stressed that for “the folks that that are living at the Lighthouse Inn, this is their home.”
“They are part of our community and we owe them that same level of respect and dignity to allow them to live where they are,” she said. “I think it’s really important that we also recognize that as a community, we have to do our best to support people that are living precariously and consider all people that are impacted through this process.”
“We know that in time, there will be hubs in every area of the city…. At this point, we just want to say that everyone has come to the table on this in good faith. We’ve all tried to work together on this but it was not a viable option at this time,” Hill added. “We’ll be looking for solutions and we are very committed to being strong partners in the Whole of Community Response.”
As outlined in the city’s homelessness response plan, the city hopes to open a total of 15 hubs across London, as well as 600 support housing units.
Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) confirmed in an email to Global News that its hubs plan is “moving ahead.” No changes have been announced for the hub set to be operated by Atlohsa Family Healing Services either.
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