The Napanee man who has been housing homeless people in trailers on his property is appealing to town council to disregard zoning bylaws in the name of a good cause.
Last week, Scott Drader said, someone from Napanee’s planning committee told him that if he didn’t clear the five trailers on his property on Dairy Avenue by Monday, they would be evicted by the municipality.
Around 15 people gathered at Napanee’s town hall on Monday to show support for what Drader calls his “stepping stone homeless shelter.”
Like Drader, they were under the impression that as of 8:30 a.m. Monday, trucks would be sent to the makeshift trailer park to remove the trailers.
But Marg Isbester, Mayor of Napanee, says that wasn’t the case.
“The park is open today (Monday). Will it stay open forever? I’m not going to promise that,” Isbester said.
The town has once again served notice to Drader that he is in violation of a zoning bylaw by having people living in trailers on his property.
Drader initially started running his pop-up trailer park in 2018 for people in need of housing, many of whom were teens without lodging.
He says he’s spent roughly $11,000 on the mobile homes and charges $450 a month to cover expenses like electricity and heat.
When asked why he thought he was receiving rigorous pushback from the town, Drader said it all had to do with appearances.
“It makes the town look ugly; they don’t want that,” Drader said.
“They don’t want homeless people living in their backyard.”
In late 2018, after a contentious back-and-forth with the town, Drader says he was forced to move five trailers on an adjoining property that did not belong to him.
Now, the town says Drader is running a trailer park without the proper zoning. Drader says he would need 10 acres to get a trailer park zoning, but he only has a third of an acre.
On Tuesday, Drader is going to council to ask that the town wave the conditions of the zoning bylaw, and allow him to eventually replace the trailers with five tiny homes on his property.
“The trailers were never meant to be permanent,” he told Global News.
When asked which way council might vote, Isbester says she is only one vote on Napanee’s town council, so she couldn’t speak on behalf of councillors.
“These things don’t happen overnight and unfortunately, of course, there’s a cost,” Isbester said.
“It’s not a minor variance. It’s a zoning change as well as an official plan amendment.”
Drader is hoping the fact that he’s helping those in need will sway the councillors.
“It’s either they’re going to give me more time, or unfortunately it will go to the courts,” he said.
One of those people is Dylan Waters, who was relieved to hear on Monday he would still have a roof over his head.
“Feeling pretty good knowing that I still have a home, somewhere to stay for the moment,” Waters told Global News.
Waters says he is searching for an apartment, but in the meantime, Drader’s trailer is the only thing he can afford.
“Everyone’s really trying to get their stuff together,” Waters said.
“I think there should be more programs like this. It’s in between a shelter and housing — it’s like that extra step that’s needed.”
Drader says he had originally tried to apply for a zoning change last year, but was told by the planning department that he would never get the change.
He’s now hoping a political move will let him keep the operation running.