Hamilton tiny shelters program stalls as councillors reject 3 alternate site locations

A Hamilton group hoping to build a small community of tiny shelters for those experiencing homelessness are headed back to the drawing board in search of a suitable location.

The Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters (HATS) failed to get approval from city politicians Thursday for one of three potential sites to house a community of eight-by-10 cabins.

Cathedral Park alongside Highway 403; the old Dominion Glass site near Gage Avenue and Barton Street; and Stuart Street near the CN Rail yard were the options brought forward to house the 10 shelters outfitted with a bed, microwave, mini-refrigerator and door locks.

However, none of the three locations were backed by councillors.

HATS initiative appears more and more unlikely to have a community up and running this winter after Hamilton’s general manager of planning suggested a deferral to next month was not enough time to vet alternative sites.

Stoney Creek councillor Brad Clark, who was chairing Thursday’s emergency and community services committee, admitted “frustration” with the prospect of an endless debate over suitable locations.

“We have approximately 1,500 homeless here in Hamilton … (And) we’re talking about (accommodations for) ten,” Clark said.

“A little bit under a year now, we’ve been wrestling with this and we just keep going around in circles.”

East Hamilton’s Tammy Hwang echoed Clark’s sentiments suggesting there are “no perfect sites” for the initiative.

“My concern is this has taken considerable staff resources, it has taken considerable HATS resources to even get us to this point,” said Hwang.

In January, two other locations, a vacant lot on Barton Street East and the former Sir John McDonald Secondary School, were also nixed due to community opposition and other factors.

The matter has now been deferred to a future committee meeting in mid-February.

Tom Cooper, director of Hamilton’s Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, believes the community’s “passion” for the project should equate to a suitable location at some point.

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So far, the tiny shelters initiative has been able to raise close to $300,000 to facilitate the pilot project.

“There are about 1,600 people experiencing homelessness in Hamilton right now, out on the streets, living in alleyways, in alcoves,” Cooper told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.

“This is a project that really tries to stabilize people, get them warm, get them healthy so that they can transition into more permanent forms of housing.”

Individuals who are not able to use the city’s current shelter system for a number of reasons are the target of the project, including couples and those with health issues and pets.

“If there’s others out there in the community, faith groups or private landowners, who think this might be a good project on a parcel of land they they own, let us know we’d be more than happy to talk to them,” Cooper said.