Belleville, Ont. grassroots group seeks to build shelter community of 50 cabins for homeless

The City of Belleville, like most communities across the province, is wrestling with a homelessness crisis.

At Monday’s council meeting, the local grassroots group Not Alone Team Quinte asked for $25,000 to start the process of creating a 50-sleeping cabin community to provide shelter for the city’s homeless.

“Homelessness doesn’t look pretty, but there has to be a pretty answer,” says Debbie Pike, founder of Not Alone Team Quinte.

Pike, along with fellow volunteer Vino Noronha, thinks the pretty answer to help address the homeless issue in Belleville is a cabin community.

“Our idea is to get a shelter just to provide them security, a safe spot to live, somewhere they can lock their door, to feel their stuff is safe,” Pike says.

Both women say the number of people who are homeless exceeds the supports that are currently available.

“In April of 2021, the point in time count was 180 homeless people in Belleville, and 72 of them said that they were homeless for more than a year,” Noronha says.

Along with the physical shelters, the plan, if it moves forward, would include services to help those individuals move forward to a more stable life.

“Being able to provide mental health and addictions or community involvement or being able to feel part of the community,” Pike says.

Earlier this week, Belleville city council approved $25,000 for Not Alone Team Quinte to produce a proof of concept report.

“With a needs assessment, budget, and what location it might be best suited,”  Noronha says.

The group has already recruited a consultant to help with that work, but they are also looking for volunteers in the process as well.

One of the next steps is to recruit members of the community to form a steering committee for the project.

“We’re looking to have representation from the construction side, representation from the business side for fundraising, and we’re looking for social workers,” Noronha says.

They are also looking to coordinate with other groups that work with the homeless community.

When the report is complete, it will then go back to city council.

“If we like what we see and we ask the questions that we need to, we can send it on to Hastings County to have them support it and make it a reality if everything lines up,” says Belleville mayor Mitch Panciuk.

The report is supposed to go to council by the year’s end, which also means that the decision of whether to proceed will fall on the shoulders of the next council following this fall’s municipal elections.