“The base understanding of homeless or people who are homeless. They’re not getting on buses scheduled to “Oh I’ve gotta catch the 9:55 to the central location. What we have to do is have serious discussions in each of our municipalities about where and how we’re going to do this. And they have to be located where the people are congregating.”
“They just flat out won’t get on a bus and go to say a central shelter somewhere on Highway 2, midway between Quinte West and Belleville. It’s unworkable. I think the impetus is on each of our municipalities to find a solution in our individual municipalities, unfortunately.”
“It was going to cost in total about $378,000 and we had a deficit of $50,000. Coincidental with that report we had received an earlier report at the last meeting that said there was a provincial announcement that made available $281,000 to the County of Hastings for the homeless prevention program. An additional $281,000 for homeless prevention.
“Could we use $50,000 from the additional funds and make plans to operate it 106 days rather than have to be gauged by the temperature. I think there was a general agreement at that meeting that that’s the path we should proceed on. So what I’m hoping we’re going to do today is that we’re going to agree to operate these three facilities for the 106 days, utilize the homeless provincial program to fund it for the entirety. And then I look forward to, as you point out in your executive summary, that the vision is that the warming centres wouldn’t be considered a permanent solution.”
“But for the here and now and the winter before us we need to put plans in place to have this facility, warming centre, and have it open every day.”
