A temporary location has been secured for a group of tiny cabins for people experiencing homelessness in Hamilton.
The Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters (HATS) has been offered the use of a currently-empty parking lot at Barton and Earl streets to set up a community of about ten cabins, along with facilities for washrooms, showers and a communal kitchen.
The public school board had previously offered up the former Sir John A. MacDonald Secondary School site for the tiny cabins but that location was compromised by a number of issues, including flooding.
HATS member Tom Cooper said the goal will be to have the shelters up and running at 647 Barton St. E., early next year so that at least some unhoused Hamiltonians can keep warm during the cold winter months.
He acknowledged that it’s not a permanent solution and that residents living in that area may have some questions and concerns.
“This particular site was offered to us by the landowner, who is actually planning a development on the site in the very near future,” he told Global News. “So we won’t have the site for very long, but we certainly understand there are going to be some community concerns around security and safety, both for the residents living at the site as well as for the local neighbourhood.”
That’s why HATS has sent an informational letter to hundreds of residents living near the site.
They’ll also be holding two community engagement sessions at Tim Hortons Field on Thursday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. so residents can come out and learn more about the initiative, including what kind of timelines HATS is looking at for the site.
“We’re still in the very early days of this project, but we hope by working with the community, we will be able to ensure that at least some of our neighbours who are currently living unhoused in Hamilton have a place to stay this winter,” said Cooper.
It’s expected to cost about $300,000 to get the whole thing up and running in a way that will make it sustainable, and so far HATS has raised nearly $100,000, including almost $19,000 through a GoFundMe campaign.
The group will also be delegating to Hamilton’s new city council during Monday’s general issues committee meeting in the hopes of getting some financial help.
“At the end of the day, we’d love to be able to ensure that the individuals who are staying in the tiny cabins find more permanent supportive forms of housing. So we’re looking to shut ourselves down eventually, but it takes time to build affordable housing and until those options are available to people, this is a far better remedy than people staying on the street and all the risks that that entails.”