A major development aimed at helping ensure Peterborough’s homeless don’t freeze on the streets this winter was unveiled Thursday (September 14) at the former Trinity United Church at 360 Reid Street.
The main hall of the former church will be renovated over the next month to not only accommodate a daytime drop-in program year round from 1 to 5 p.m., but also to provide 45 sleeping cots for those seeking overnight shelter from October 1 through the winter until March 31.
While there’s no firm opening date as of yet, the work required will begin immediately, with the plan to open the doors as soon as possible.
At the heart of what is now known as Trinity Centre are several community partners, all of which were represented at the media announcement.
One City Peterborough, which operated Stop Gap, an overnight drop-in centre, from mid-January this year until the end of April, will move almost all of its operations to the former church and oversee not only the required renovations but also the day-to-day operation of the centre.
The church, including the centre space, is owned by the Peterborough Poverty Reduction Network (PPRN) for the purpose of developing a community hub, not unlike its previous purchase, renovation, and development of The Mount Community Centre.
PPRN purchased the property about a year ago. Well prior to that, the congregation, struggling with dwindling numbers and major repair costs, voted to close the church and disband, with the last church service held June 24, 2021. While the property wasn’t publicly listed for sale, PPRN learned of its availability and entered negotiations to buy the property.
And then there’s the City of Peterborough, which will provide One City with $900,000 annually for three years as part of a service agreement for the operation of an overnight drop-in space and a year-round daytime drop-centre.
“We wanted to do it right this year, to make sure there are cots available so people can sleep and provide more of a dignified environment,” said One City Peterborough co-executive director Christian Harvey at Thursday’s announcement. “This is huge. This is bringing everything under one roof, pardon the phrase. We’re trying to do it as quickly as possible but also as thoughtfully as possible.”
Harvey had nothing but praise for the former Trinity United Church congregation that, rather than putting the church on the open market and selling the expansive property to a developer for future residential or commercial development, stayed true to its decades-long commitment of service to the community at large.
“Trinity, having the vision of saying ‘We want to continue our legacy in the community beyond worshipping’ is brilliant,” said Harvey. “It’s a model that other churches, as they coming to make such hard decisions, can learn from.”
“These buildings provide such important spaces. Churches’ missions should be to provide support to their communities. The fact that Trinity saw a way which to do that is a model we should be watching { }that idea of saying ‘How can we continue to support our neighbourhood in a very real way?'”
Dave Freeman, the chair of the recently formed Trinity Centre Coordination Committee and a former member of Trinity United Church congregation, related that while the church was pondering what to do with the property, “We had this offer (from PPRN) at the ninth hour.”
“Many people were skeptical but once we met the people behind the offer and discovered what they had in mind, the congregation just completely flipped over and said ‘Let’s do it locally.’ These people, having done The Mount, know what they’re in for and how to do it. Having already made the decision to disband, once they (the congregation) recognized the path forward, they were overjoyed.”
“This has the possibility of being more effective for more people than we could possibly do as a church,” Freeman added. “There are all sorts of things going on in a church related to worship and singing and whatever. Now the focus is entirely on the community and those that need support.”
While PPRN chair Steve Kylie wouldn’t share the purchase price, he did reveal the church “used some of its resources to help lower the price,” bringing it down to a point where PPRN could buy the property.
“They were hung up on a price they got from an appraisal. It was a good-sized number, but they threw in some resources to make it palatable for us (PPRN).”
“The United Church of Canada wanted to maintain ownership and use them (former church buildings) for affordable apartments,” Kylie explained. “When we talked to this membership, we said ‘Well, there could be some housing here but we want to use it to fulfill the dreams of the PPRN.’
“They realized that even though it’s not affordable housing, what we’re doing here is basically a fulfillment of their religious values — caring for community. So it became an easy sell for them. We just had to get everyone else on board.”
The formal portion of the announcement was convened by United Way of Peterborough and District CEO Jim Russell.
Russell said the “establishment of this space is a reflection of the leadership of this city, and the collaboration of community partners today to make sure we’re addressing the needs of the most vulnerable people in our community.”
Meanwhile, Harvey addressed the impact of the new centre on the neighbourhood in which it’s located.
“We’ve already started reaching out to local businesses, and will be reaching out to neighbours, to find a way in which we can be the best neighbour possible. We call ourselves One City. The idea is that we all want to reside here together, so how do we find a way to do that?”
The fact that the centre will be become the new home of One City Peterborough, adds Harvey, mean he, his staff, and his volunteers can be “a greater support” to the immediate neighbourhood.
Of note, much of the work required to retrofit the space will be done by those involved with One City’s employment program that provides job opportunities.
As for the requiring zoning modifications and required permits, praise was heaped on the City of Peterborough for expediting and streamlining the process where possible. On hand representing the city were councillors Keith Riel and Alex Bierk, co-chairs of council’s housing and homelessness portfolios.
“We have to stop the friction between the city and the agencies and work together,” said Councillor Riel.
“There’s a segment of the population that doesn’t want to be housed and want to use something like this. The ultimate goal is to house everybody but, with that, we have to have the wrap-around services and the help of the agencies that do this (work) every day and are the experts on it. We (the city) can free up the money and take the roadblocks down but we’re not the experts.”
“There is no playbook for housing and homelessness,” Riel pointed out. “We’re writing the playbook, every day. I’d like to see us make the playbook, not just for Peterborough, but for every city that’s dealing with housing and homelessness in some form or another.”
