Lambton County's new Housing and Homelessness Hub has opened its doors.
The site, at Sarnia's former St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church on Exmouth Street, will offer day programming for those experiencing homelessness. It will also offer visitors access to snacks, restrooms, some clothing, quiet spaces for daytime rest as well as computers and phones.
A report presented to County Council ahead of Wednesday morning's meeting said the goal of the program is to provide these individuals with wrap around support and a safe space to access critical resources they may otherwise have difficulty accessing.
Social Services General Manager Valerie Colasanti told council that the pilot program will stay open until March of 2024 but they anticipate that they'll make adjustments as they go along.
"If we're finding that there are individuals coming in wanting services that we're not providing, we'll look to see if we can provide those. If we're providing services that aren't requested, we'll eliminate those," she said. "So it'll be an ongoing evaluation."
The report said the HH Hub, which held a soft-launch on Monday, will provide individuals and families with a centralized location that will offer responsive, low-barrier professional support services, such as mental health supports and healthcare. It will also help visitors complete housing applications and income tax returns.
Colosanti said it's a temporary location and that come March, they'll evaluate if the program was successful.
"If it was, do we need to look for a permanent location, which would involve community consultations, those types of things, so that will take some time," said Colosanti. "My understanding is they're hoping to use that property with another non-profit agency to turn it into affordable housing, which is a positive story. It's not a county project at this time but it's being explored."
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the City of Sarnia and the neighbourhood where the site is located were not listed in the report's consultation.
"I'm just sitting here now with a large, lengthy complaint from the neighbourhood, which I think you're aware of, and I understand that does happen," said Bradley. "Is there going to be outreach to the immediate neighbourhood on Melrose and the businesses on Exmouth Street who've been raising these issues so that we can try to diminish some of the fire coming in?"
Colosanti said they have a three-pronged communication plan.
"This report's going to council this morning, a media release is going out and we'll be delivering flyers to the immediate neighbours this afternoon as well, I believe this afternoon or tomorrow morning," she said. "We wanted to make sure this report got in front of council, but we'll be doing it at the same time and the Inn of the Good Shepherd will be assisting us with that communication as well since they're very involved in the location."
Sarnia Councillor Bill Dennis also questioned Colosanti about the purpose of the site.
"Are we just going to take care of these people and hope that they turn their lives around, or are we leading them to get their lives back on track?" asked Dennis.
Colosanti said that's a very challenging question to answer.
"The county offers a number of programs that provide assistance including Ontario Works as well as our homeless prevention programs, and we provide supports for those individuals in receipt of those programs, but people really have to want to take advantage of the programs offered to them. At the end of the day, we can't make people do anything," she said.
Colosanti said they try to encourage and build trust with individuals to get them to utilize those programs.