Temporary tenting will be allowed on a municipal parking lot near construction of a modular bridge housing community to assist those experiencing homelessness in Peterborough, Ont.
During Tuesday’s general committee meeting, city council unanimously agreed to a temporary amendment to its parks and facilities bylaw and trespass bylaw to allow tenting on the parking lot at the southeast corner of Aylmer and Wolfe streets. During that time, 50 modular homes will be built and established at the nearby Rehill parking lot on Wolfe Street.
A tent encampment has been at the Rehill lot for over a year. Coun. Keith Riel, who made the motion for the temporary bylaw amendments, says there are currently 41 individuals at the main encampment.
Some have already relocated to the adjacent parking lot and the remainder will do so this week to allow for safe construction of the modular housing units to begin next week. At its peak, the encampment had over 70 tents, Riel said.
“We had to rejig the bylaw to encompass (the move) while keeping the tenting bylaw still in place,” he said. “The tenting bylaw is still in place but we had to change it for that piece of property.”
Riel and Coun. Alex Birek are chairpersons of the housing and homelessness portfolio. They say the amendments will keep the impacted individuals nearby and not require them to relocate across the city.
“In the many meetings we’ve had all summer, going through the details of the project, it seemed to make sense to keep people on site as the construction period happens,” Bierk told Global News after the meeting. “That required us to move people off the one parking lot.”
Tenting on municipal properties has been prohibited since bylaws were approved in August 2019 following a large encampment that formed on Victoria Park in the city’s downtown (property that belongs to Peterborough County, which also passed similar tenting bylaws).
The city’s Community Services Commissioner will set conditions or restrictions on the temporary tenting at Aylmer and Wolfe streets. The bylaw amendment is expected to be in effect until Nov. 15 but could be revoked sooner as the homes are scheduled to be completed in October and ready for occupancy by the start of November.
Approved in May 2023, the city plans to build modular units as supportive temporary housing with the ultimate goal of assisting people to move into more permanent housing. Each cabin is approximately 107 square feet and features electricity, heating and cooling and is expected to be in place in 18 to 24 months.
The housing community will also feature amenities such as washrooms and laundry services along with an office for security staff at the main entrance.
Bierk and Riel note there’s a sense of urgency to get the homes completed before winter. The city is working with the Elizabeth Fry Society to select the first 50 individuals who will receive a modular bridge housing unit, relying on the city’s by-name priority list (BNPL), a real-time list of all people in the city experiencing homelessness.
The society is also expected to be the site manager for the modular bridge housing community.
“Social services staff and agencies on the ground have been working with folks who are in the encampment,” Bierk said Tuesday. “Now that this (amendment) has been finalized tonight, we’re going to have a really solid approach — for sure, knowing what the strategy is and continuing to do the work that’s been happening to connect with individuals who are camping to find the best solution for them to find shelter.”
Social services outreach workers and the Elizabeth Fry Society will speak to each prospective tenant to confirm their intention to move once the units are installed.
“The Elizabeth Fry Society of Peterborough is excited to be able to develop the bridge housing program that will support this alternative housing option for people who are facing barriers in our community,” said executive director Debbie Carriere. “It will protect them from the elements and ultimately keep people alive.”
Carriere said that the project will make a “real and concrete difference” and will be based on other similar communities and that the city’s own housing projects will “honour the voices of the people who will ultimately live in these units.”
“Housing is a human right and in the midst of a housing crisis, we need to be innovative in creating new options that reflect the communities we serve and bring us all together like never before,” she said.
Both councillors say there will be some rules in place for the modular housing community, yet Riel believes the community will also “make some rules for themselves.”
“We have some basic rules that they’ll have to follow, but the working of the community itself will be incumbent on them on how they want to see their community thrive,” Riel said.
“This is us acknowledging the gaps in the current system,” Bierk said. “We’re really trying to work to bring a model to Peterborough that’s going to meet the needs of the people that it’s serving. So we’re bringing a great amount of structure to the area and helping address the reason why some people are choosing to not access our current shelter and are choosing to tent instead. We hope we will see an impact with that.”
Once the modular homes are completed, the city will not allow an encampment to continue in the area. Riel said shelter spaces have been expanded at the Wolfe Street overflow and the Brock Mission men’s shelter.
The city is also currently in negotiations with One City for some stop-gap services for those experiencing homelessness, Riel said.
“There’s plenty of space for people to use our shelter system,” he said. “I can’t force people to use it, but it’s available. So with the modulars, the increased shelter spaces and the stop-gap, that should augment the needs that we have here.”
The city has 106 beds at its four emergency shelters. The city reports last week there were an average of 40 beds available each night, including 27 each night at the overflow shelter bed program at the Wolfe Street building. The shelter will be converted to office space for agencies working with those experiencing homelessness such as FourCAST, which is a community-based addiction treatment provider.
A city staff report in May reported that by mid-April, there were 302 individuals on the city’s BNPL. The list encompasses those staying in shelters, outside or in precarious housing scenarios.
— with files from Sam Houpt/Global News Peterborough