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Town looking at crisis care beds, warming centre

January 27, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

Orangeville is currently in crisis for those with mental health issues, addictions, and a lack of housing, according to Orangeville’s Mayor Sandy Brown.

He sounded the alarm during Council’s regular meeting on Monday (Jan. 24), noting that in the last two weeks, the community has been faced with tragedy due to a lack of support resources.

“We’ve seen examples of people dying because they didn’t get the help that they need. Real people that we know,” said Mayor Brown to members of Council.

“Today I talked to two people, one was living in her car [with her teenage daughter], and the other lost her former common law husband, her former spouse, and father of her daughter, was found dead in the washroom of a big box store in Orangeville in the last two weeks. So this is real, it’s happening right now, and the mental health and drug addiction, and alcohol addiction issues are at the root of many of these problems.”

Mayor Brown also noted that this isn’t happening to just to the “lower echelon of society”

“Some of these people, you know them, you know their sons, and they’re from well to do families and upper middle-class families that have had tragedies happen because of mental health and drug and alcohol addiction issues,” he remarked.

The solution, according to Mayor Brown, is creating a crisis bed facility in Town, which was one of the recommendations from Orangeville’s Men’s Homeless Committee, following a Needs Assessment for homelessness that was recently published by the University of Guelph Research Shop.

In addition to crisis beds, the recommendations are: opening a warming centre as an interim solution during extreme weather conditions, enhancing the motel voucher program, improving mental health resources, and consider creating a men’s issues resource hub.

With respect to a crisis care bed facility, Mayor Brown noted that it would address some of the overlying issues leading to homelessness, providing treatment for mental health issues and addiction. Such facility would provide supportive resources to those who need it through diversion programs, aimed at keeping people off the streets.

A crisis care facility creates less stigmatization than a men’s shelter according to Mayor Brown, who noted that there would be challenges with getting a local men’s shelter going near residential areas, due to the negative perceptions surrounding them.

However, the Orangeville Fire Hall on Dawson Road will be coming up for surplus in the next year and a half or two, which could be utilized for such facility, said Mayor Brown.

“It’s not an area that’s close to many residential [neighbourhoods]. In fact, it’s more in an industrial area, so our thoughts are that the nimbyism that comes with the stigmatization of shelters or this type of facility would be at a minimum in that particular location.”

Mayor Brown also noted that a capital fundraising campaign could help cover costs associated with the facilities retrofit and it would be sold at fair market value to the organization managing it.

The operational costs of a crisis care facility would be done through Ontario Health Team, since its part of the healthcare system, so there would be no burden on municipal taxpayers.

“The crisis care facility, according to Ms. [Lesley] Nagoda, who’s the CEO of SHIP, they’ve had a very high success rate in their facilities in Brampton, and Mississauga,” Mayor Brown said, while noting a shelter that provides just a roof and food doesn’t address the root causes of the problems homeless people have.

Mayor Brown has conversations regarding the crisis beds planned with leadership at SHIP, Dufferin County, Orangeville emergency services, Headwaters Hospital, and the Mayor of Caledon, since northern Caledon residents could utilize the crisis beds.

Once there is a united front, Mayor Brown said he’ll plan to meet with Dufferin–Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones for funding and noted that he doesn’t foresee challenges with securing it.

“This isn’t going to be that hard of an argument to make with any of these people. I think we’re going to get significant support,” he said. “It’s just it’s a win-win that we need. We know that mental health resources are lacking in our area.”’

If a crisis care bed facility isn’t created, Mayor Brown said, “we’re not doing our jobs as members of this community.”

Local men’s battle

Meanwhile, Coun. Sherwood, during her and Coun. Andrews’ presentation to Council on the men’s homelessness committees’ recommendations, shared stories of local men who are impacted by the issue.

“We heard about Brian, his family shared with us that he had multiple years on the streets of Orangeville and in Newmarket. Brian was in and out of the shelters. He battled mental health, he had addictions, he tried to get out of the system,” Coun. Sherwood said. “Unfortunately, Brian passed away on the streets in December 2021.”

Another homeless local man, Steven, had multiple years in and out of the social support system, she noted.

“He had mental health issues. He never felt safe in shelters. At one point he ended up in jail, and he was released on the streets in the dead of cold winter with just the t-shirt and shorts that he was admitted in. He almost died. He finally received and accepted services and he’s now housed and on his way to recovery,” Coun. Sherwood said.

To put things into perspective, Coun. Andrews noted that an estimated that 35,000 Canadians experience homelessness and more than 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness each year.

Short-term warming centre

With respect to the previously mentioned recommendation for a warming centre, Coun. Lisa Post asked about what might be a viable short-term solution that could be enacted immediately due to the winter weather.

Coun. Sherwood responded that it’s something Town Staff can look into and come up with a cost for.

A motion was then put forward to direct staff to review the costs.

Tony Rose Arena was the main suggestion and Orangeville’s general manager of community services Ray Osmond noted that if they were to create an official, formal warming centre, there are some important considerations, such as staffing.

“We’d have staff that will be there 24 hours around the clock, certainly all night long, and we’d have staff that will be qualified to deal with any eventuality that comes into the door,” he said.

Adding, “There would be a cost to setting up a particular room, we couldn’t open a warming center and just have it in the lobby, we’d have to designate a warming center space.”

There’s also Public Health concerns.

Town buildings reopen Jan. 31, so something could be implemented after that date. However, all town facilities currently require proof of vaccination to enter, and vaccination rates among homeless people are lower for a variety of reasons, such as mental health issues and a lack of education. They also often lack the resources to acquire government issued ID or obtain the QR code needed to enter proof-of-vaccine settings.

A full report on the feasibility of a warming centre in Town is anticipated at Council’s next meeting on Feb. 14.

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