On a day Environment Canada issued an extreme cold warning for the Quinte area, upwards of 30 people stood outside behind Belleville city hall to demand more action on homelessness.
Members of Not Alone Team Quinte, a local homelessness advocacy group, organized the rally to spur Belleville council into taking more action including raising the temperature threshold for the city’s warming centre at Bridge Street United Church and working on more affordable housing.
Currently the warming centre at Bridge Street United Church is only activated if temperatures are at or below -10 degrees celsius or -15 degrees celsius with wind chill.
The rally began with a march up and down Front Street while rallygoers chanted about housing, homelessness and Belleville Mayor Mitch Panciuk.
Once the procession ended, more than 30 attendees sporting a variety of signs sat and listened as Not Alone Team Quinte Members and people experiencing homelessness alike shared their stories and spoke about how to spur action.
Not Alone Team Quinte founder Debbie Lee was critical of some of the services in place including the 24-hour emergency homelessness services line offered by Hastings County.
“Get services that are meant to not fail you. We’re tired of hearing excuses. We’re tired of not being heard. We’re tired of people going without needs, and one death is way too many on our streets.”
Lee said that Ontario Works, which she says is responsible for the warming centre, is citing insurance issues as a a hold-up for the warming centre.
Sean McNeill, a member of Not Alone who works for the Quinte Labour Council and has lived in Belleville for six years, encouraged people to lobby local elected politicians for action.
“It does require us as citizens to participate, and for those who are impacted by homelessness, who are actually out on the street, they can’t do this for themselves. Surviving is what they’re doing. So, it’s on each of us as people who have the quote-un-quote privilege to have the human right of housing and a job to spend some time in their day organizing, talking to each other and telling their councillors that this is not enough, and it takes more than voting. Voting is not nearly enough. We’re in an election year for this council, that is not going to be enough. You have to maintain a relationship, you have to build networks. The Not Alone team is a network that you can build with.”
One woman experiencing homelessness said that the Grace Inn Shelter is frequently full and only has five beds for women and that recently the drop-in centre at Bridge Street United Church, which is available for people who need a place to go during the day, as well as the warming centre have also been full.
The Community and Human Services Committee of Hastings County has representation from both Belleville and Quinte West and they handle homelessness services for all three together.
Hastings County CAO Jim Pine said they are working hard to help those in need of housing and that there’s “always more to do.”
He also said the committee is developing plans for more affordable housing and referred to the opening of Home For Good in Belleville, which houses 40 tenant transitional housing and access to services.
As far as the warming centre changes that people are calling for, Pine said it simply can’t happen overnight.
“There’s different fire code regulations that we have to do, there’s staffing requirements, there’s the capacity of volunteers and others, there’s arranging security coverage and costs, things that take some time and some effort to be able to put it all together. You have to remember that Bridge Street Church operates with different organizations as well and we need to respect their needs as a facility, so it’s a complicated matter to expand it more than we’ve contracted with them for at this stage. I know that Bridge Street is more than willing to work with us and the city and others in planning for something that could be open for a longer period of time, it just can’t happen immediately.”
He said future plans include looking at a permanent warming and/or cooling centre, where shelters fit into the equation, what can be done with funds to help care for people who are precariously housed or not housed and seeking funding from higher levels of government.
Not Alone Team Quinte founder Debbie Miller addresses a crowd of around 30 people behind Belleville City Hall at the group’s No More Out In The Cold rally, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. (Photo: Ryan Peddigrew/Quinte News)
Around 30 people were in attendance for Not Alone Team Quinte’s No More Out in the Cold rally despite bitter temperatures in excess of -15 degrees including the wind chill, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. (Photo: Ryan Peddigrew/Quinte News)
