A rally at Belleville City Hall this Monday will call on the city and Hastings County to do more to find housing and homelessness solutions.
The rally is being organized by Not Alone Team Quinte.
Jenna Gallagher says the city and county have abandoned people in the cold, noting the Warming Centre was not even ready to open on what turned out to be a very cold New Year’s Eve.
She says legal and insurance arrangements are a poor excuse.
“There have been months to plan for this and winter is an inevitability. If the housing crisis and homelessness crisis is something that the city and county is going to take care of then they need to be able to get this together in time for January 1 which is well into winter.”
Gallagher says the warming centre needs to be open more often and more housing is needed.
“We want to demand that the shelter be open at a higher temperature threshold of zero to 5 degrees and we are also demanding that either the city or the council start to meet the housing needs of people in Belleville.”
She says having more than 1,000 people on a wait list for affordable housing, some of whom have been waiting for years, is unacceptable.
The rally starts at 3 p.m. at City Hall.
Masks and social distancing rules will be in effect.
