No homeless shelter this winter, after public urges council to do “something”

Jason Davis, one of the members of the public urging Stratford city council to establish “something” to tackle the immediate needs of the homeless in Stratford, acknowledged that the Rotary Complex was not suitable – but the city is no longer “in the position to not have a shelter.”

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

While many delegates at the Sept. 8 Stratford city council meeting agreed that the Rotary Complex was not a good location for a shelter, nearly all of them acknowledged that something must be done.

Council and the public had a lengthy debate on the potential for a temporary homeless shelter this winter at the complex, after Coun. Geza Wordofa put forward the motion. As he said, it was about taking responsibility.

“We are lucky to live in one of the best cities,” Wordofa said. “We are so lucky … Through (the) chair, I’ll ask you (with) respect, who is taking responsibility … for our homelessness?”

“We all are,” Mayor Martin Ritsma answered. “We are, and I oppose when you say it has to be council. We have agencies in our community that serve our most marginalized individuals. We have a social services department … Last winter, on a nightly basis, I would call the director and say, ‘How are we doing for housing?’ And on a nightly basis, she would say, ‘Anybody that wants to have shelter tonight can have shelter tonight.’ So when you say, who's responsible? It frequently falls on the shoulders of our community, our social services and their amazing staff, their outreach staff, the staff that does the work during the day and during the night.

“But what we're looking at is finding long-term solutions.”

The desire for long-term solutions was the primary reason why many councillors denied putting together an emergency shelter. Citing the ever-increasing burden municipalities face and the limited options they have to raise revenue, many said the money is better spent elsewhere, like supportive housing, housing with social supports built around it so that those needing it can be permanently housed in a space that is their own.

Ritsma shared dollar figures provided by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) for emergency overnight stays: $32 a night in a hospital, $14 a night in a prison, $6 a night in a shelter and $4 a night in supportive housing.

Coun. Mark Hunter added that it is a peculiar tight rope that municipal councils walk. The only money they can reliably generate is through property taxes.

“So every dollar we collect makes housing a little bit less affordable,” Hunter reasoned. “We walk this delicate balance of trying to get the most value for our money and to deliver a quality product for as little as possible. That's what we do across the board, or try to anyway. The evidence we have in front of us from experts is that shelter is not an efficient use of that money, but that putting the money into a longer-term solution is.”

“$2.1 billion is being spent by municipalities throughout the province,” Coun. Larry McCabe added. “Homelessness is a provincial responsibility. Instead of spending $618 million to pay up foreign brewers before the last election, the current government could have allocated some of those resources to municipalities to deal with the homelessness issue. … It is time for the federal government and the provincial government to step up … but to imagine that small municipalities are going to be able to compete with resources to solve this issue? I think is dishonest and will not actually get to the solution that we want.”

Coun. Lesley Biehn added that there are non-financial reasons as to why supportive housing is a better solution than a shelter. Having been to municipalities that have operated a shelter system and municipalities that have operated a supportive housing system, the latter is clearly preferable.

“When I walk out of it all, I want the taxpayer dollars – that are limited – to go toward the permanent housing that creates dignity for the human beings over there,” Biehn said. “… It's permanent, it's safe, it's warm and it's dignified.”

That isn’t to mention just how non-temporary a shelter would be. As Coun. Taylor Briscoe pointed out, “there’s no such thing as a temporary shelter.” In Canada, housing is a human right and once a shelter is put in place, legally it cannot be removed unless there is adequate support. It would be permanent, a reality that has been seen in other municipalities.

The dream of a winter shelter was seconded for discussion by Briscoe; however, the motion was defeated with only Wordofa supporting it.

Despite the sentiments of council, many members of the public in the gallery point blank asked for a shelter and were disappointed with council’s decision. While nearly all had acknowledged that the Rotary Complex was not suitable – being on the edge of town, having a lack of showers, far from social supports, and needing extra security for the users of the complex to name a few – residents expressed that anything was better than nothing.

“The provincial and federal governments are not coming to save us,” Davis said. “… We are failing. What we are doing is not working, and we need to increase capacity quickly as an emergency measure … The argument we have a plan to make, a plan to build something that will have 10 to 20 per cent affordable with shovels in the ground in two years, built in six years, is no longer an acceptable answer. We need a solution.”

Citing a 2018 article published by CTV News Kitchener, Davis pointed out the strong similarity between then and now when it came to the rhetoric of why a shelter is not a solution.

“We are no longer in the position to not have a shelter,” Davis stressed.

“The message I am receiving from the audience is that council does not want to have a shelter,” Mike Sullivan said. “That having a shelter is not the preferred solution. The preferred solution is this piecemeal approach and maybe collaboration with the church, and maybe we'll make sure people aren't unhoused in the coldest days, but we don't want to have a shelter here in Stratford. It seems to be the message. And I think given that seven years ago, you had that same discussion, and nothing happened, and it's just gotten worse. There isn't more supportive housing. I think you got to bite the bullet and we need a shelter here in Stratford.”

Later in the evening, Kim McElroy, the director of social services, responded to Sullivan’s claim that the city is piecemealing its approach to the homeless.

“We're talking about human dignity,” McElroy said. “We have to look at every individual and what their wants and their needs are. … Here's the reality, we have to ask these individuals, ‘What type of housing do you want?’ And why are there people on the street right now? Because some people do not want to be in emergency accommodations. There's many people that don't find human dignity in shelters. So it's about long-term solutions, and it's supportive housing.”

While a shelter was ultimately not pursued, the possibility of overnight warming centres was discussed at length. On behalf of the Stratford Council of Churches, Trevor Biehn, Bruno Hacquebard and Suzi Higgins shared that work has begun amongst their membership to operate warming centres at the behest of the mayor.

Working in tandem with other organizations, Not One More Night, as the project is being called, means to “explore where the gaps and the unmet needs may still exist,” with the mission to make sure that no individual in Stratford is without a safe, warm place to sleep during winter nights.

Work started in 2024, when the idea was first presented, and continued well into 2025 as the council of churches investigated what needed to be in place for the centres to be operational.

The council’s congregations will be presented with the proposal to formally ratify the plan on Sept. 17. Afterwards, after a motion by Coun. Bonnie Henderson and Coun. Jo-Dee Burbach, the project organizers will meet with the anti-homeless taskforce that is operated by the city’s social services department.

Mid-way through the debate, Wordofa called the housing crisis and the amount of people in the streets a “disaster.”

“Very shameful for our community, very shameful for our city staff. We’re doing (a) good job, but we don’t want somebody dying.”

Coun. Brad Beatty seemingly took offence to his comment. Later in the meeting he reminded council and the public that “words matter.”

“Words matter and tonight I’m a little pissed off,” Beatty said. “I've heard people say shameful. I've heard people say embarrassed. I've heard so many things that are downtrodding (sic) our community and our staff … This is a respectful workplace, and we started tonight with that respectful workplace policy, and I believe that we've gone a little bit too far here today.”

Wordofa promptly apologized to Beatty, expressing his appreciation for staff and their work.