The municipality will not be moving forward with plans for a new temporary homeless shelter in Chatham.
On August 10, council approved using the Chatham Banquet and Conference Centre at 280 Merritt Ave. as the location for a new temporary homeless shelter. However, municipal officials announced on Monday morning that the Merritt Avenue location is no longer being pursued because an agreement had not been reached within the time period needed to move.
The goal of the new location was to relocate people out of the John D. Bradley Convention Centre, which has acted as a temporary shelter space since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 150 people have utilized the shelter. However, according to the municipality, the convention centre can no longer accommodate the shelter due to rental demand.
“The opportunity to lease 280 Merritt Ave. in Chatham was a workable solution for a temporary shelter. We are grateful to the owners who willingly offered to help. With the urgent need to secure an alternate location and a lease not yet close to being finalized, a change of course was required," explained Director of Employment and Social Services Polly Smith.
To continue to help the community's most vulnerable, Employment and Social Services staff will use motel rooms within Chatham-Kent to meet shelter needs for the time being. The municipality is asking motel owners to come forward and identify their renewed capacity to serve homeless individuals and families who are willingly participating in sheltering plans.
"At the beginning of the pandemic, hotels had a shortage of available rooms. Recently local hotels have advised us of renewed opportunity to continue our long-standing arrangement of temporarily placing our vulnerable population while we assist them in securing permanent housing," said Smith. "We are grateful for this opportunity and will move our services out of the John D. Bradley Centre shortly. With this change, all community meetings and other plans related to the move to 280 Merritt Avenue in Chatham have been cancelled."