The Ontario Humans Rights Commission is expressing concerns over a new bylaw in Cobourg that the town claims to provide basic standards at emergency shelters.
The town in late February approved an an emergency care establishment bylaw that essentially requires shelters to be licensed and provide 24-7 security, regular maintenance, insurance and require a 24/7 contact to respond to issues at the facility within an hour.
Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland says the bylaw — which went into effect on March 28 — helps maintain a standard level of service and care.
“We’ve created checklists to make sure that any emergency care establishment in Cobourg meets these very basic standards,” he said.
The bylaw came on the heels of Northumberland County buying a property on 310 Division St. near downtown Cobourg. Plans are to work with the county’s Transition House emergency shelter to develop a 35-bed shelter. The site used to house the Cobourg Retirement Residence.
However, the guidelines have the provincial watchdog voicing concerns.
In a letter addressed to Cleveland and to County Warden Brian Ostrander, ORHC chief commissioner Patricia DeGuire says while it understands the town is on the “frontlines” of a homelessness crisis, it’s concerned the new bylaw, may impose “unnecessary restrictions” on emergency and transitional housing.
The OHRC says the bylaw could have a “discriminatory impact” on people protected under the Ontario Human Rights Code (Code0 and that the bylaw could create barriers to housing vulnerable people.
“Certain people protected under the Code are more likely to require emergency and transitional housing,” the letter in part states. “Those include people living with disabilities, including mental health disabilities, substance use disorder and complex trauma, people who receive public assistance, Indigenous and racialized people, 2SLGBTQ+ people, youth, and women and children fleeing domestic violence.”
The OHRC says rules and requirements need to be “practical, narrowly tailored and manageable.”
“Licensing bylaws or agreements which prevent or delay a facility from opening, cause a facility to close or create barriers for individuals accessing the shelter reduce the availability of housing and lead to homelessness, raising human rights concerns,” the letter states. “As a result, municipalities have seen an increasing number of people relying on outdoor encampments for shelter. Courts have recognized a ‘right to shelter,’ allowing people to shelter in encampments with insufficient low-barrier and accessible shelter beds to meet the diverse needs of the homeless population in a community.”
Cleveland say the town was expecting the letter and responded immediately.
“We’ve ensured that when preparing and passing this bylaw, that we did not impose any unnecessary restrictions on emergency care establishments,” he said. “I want to be very clear — there’s some insinuations in this letter. We’ve been very clear in our response, that’s not accurate.”
Global News requested comments from shelters in the town including Transition House and the Cornerstone Family Violence Prevention Centre, however, neither organization granted an interview.
The town and the County continue to work on an operational agreement for the new Division Street shelter. Cleveland says the town will not agree to any terms requiring the municipality to repeal its emergency care establishment bylaw.
That could leave the future of the project in question.
“The bylaws are great — they are there if we need them, that’s fine,” he said. “What we’re focused on now is an agreement. Let’s come up with a great agreement between County and Cobourg about how this particular shelter is going to operate.”
Comments