Kingston, Ont. sleeping cabins to move as permanent location still undecided

Imagine having to move every six months. It’s not an ideal situation but one in which residents of Kingston, Ont.’s, sleeping cabins keep finding themselves.

The cabins, currently located at the Centre 70 arena, are slated to move back to Portsmouth Olympic Harbour the first week of October where they’ll stay until spring. But residents hope a permanent location could be found sooner rather than later.

“Trying to pack things up, it’s chaos with everything everywhere,” sleeping cabin resident, Marsha Wiggins said. “Some of the elderly can’t do really anything so we have to try to help them as much as we can.”

Since their inception back in 2020, the cabins have alternated between the two sites, with the promise of a permanent location coming each spring but every year the cabins end up back at Centre 70.

“We have been trying, absolutely trying, and looking for properties and reaching out to property owners. We did a big media push a couple of weeks ago and sent letters to potential hosts of our cabin community and unfortunately we didn’t hear anything back,” Our Livable Solutions Director at Large Chrystal Wilson said.

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There are two locations the city is currently eyeing up. The first is at Rodden Park in the city’s Calvin Park area, while the other is the old Rideau Marina, which is the preferred option of Our Livable Solutions.

“It’s a better location for us,” Wilson said. “It’s also a very generous donation by Homestead because it includes the capital costs to get started and the operating costs as well, and it’s a ten-year lease so it would stabilize us for ten years.”

But staff with the City of Kingston say they’re still working on nailing down a permanent location that makes sense for all parties involved.

“By presenting this from all of the different angles, I think we really need to have council then have their debate and conversation around what they think is the best,” City of Kingston Housing and Social Services Director Ruth Noordegraf said.

Residents can have their say in regards to a permanent location for the sleeping cabins. A public meeting was held at the Rideau Marina for residents in that part of the city, while another will take place on Thursday, Sept. 28, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Calvin Park library for those interested in the Rodden Park location.