Transition House Coalition of Northumberland has received a green light from the Cobourg fire department to continue operating its Chapel Street facility, but with only 10 beds for the area’s unsheltered residents instead of 22.
Northumberland County’s only provider of emergency shelter and related services was poised earlier this week to close its doors or drastically cut its number of beds to comply with fire department requirements.
While Transition House is slated to move its shelter operations and services to a new location on Division Street in Cobourg, the transition has been delayed due to compliance issues with a 2024 bylaw around the regulation of emergency care establishments (ECE) introduced by the Town of Cobourg.
During a special meeting of Northumberland County council last Tuesday (October 29), council authorized county staff to spend up to $40,000 on hotel/motel rooms and advised staff to meet with Town of Cobourg staff within five business days to resolve the remaining issues related to the ECE bylaw.
Some of the unmet requirements include compliance in areas of security, garbage, and liability.
In the meantime, Ike Nwibe, Transition House’s executive director, told kawarthaNOW that Transition House has gone ahead and booked additional motel rooms to support people living unsheltered in the area.
“I can confirm that within 48 hours of county council’s direction to expand shelter system capacity through the use of additional motel rooms, county and Transition House staff secured eight additional motel rooms and are now finalizing a staffing model to ensure professional emergency shelter and outreach staff are in place to rotate to these locations providing check-ins and supports,” Nwibe said.
With those measures in place, he added, staff will be “assessing client need through the formal intake process and placing people in either the shelter or motel rooms based on the most appropriate allocation.”
“We anticipate the majority, if not all, of available shelter system space will be occupied within (24 hours), based on Transition House’s updated capacity, and the interest expressed from people seeking to move from encampment to shelter services.”
For the Chapel Street location, the approved plan has now been submitted to Town of Cobourg bylaw staff in accordance with the requirements of Transition House’s ECE licence, according to a media release from Transition House.
“While we regret the necessity of having to decrease our capacity from 22 beds to 10, particularly as the cold weather approaches, we are hopeful that this approval will ensure that we can continue to provide essential services for those in need from this location, and we are optimistic that town staff will confirm the approved plan is compliant with town bylaws,” the organization noted.
“We continue to engage with the town on possibilities to temporarily expand shelter capacity, and our work is ongoing with Northumberland County to secure alternate accommodations for those who have been displaced.
Nwibe said motel accommodations are not the preferred model for emergency shelter.
“Our hope is that this will be a temporary solution and we will be able to welcome all clients to our new shelter location at 310 Division Street in the near future,” he said.
“Transition House will continue to work collaboratively with the town to respond to any requests they may have, while serving our most vulnerable population to ensure their safety to every extent of our ability as the weather gets colder.”
