It’s been a controversial plan but Quinte West’s Planning Advisory Committee is recommending council approve a zoning amendment allowing a group home and emergency homeless shelter to operate out of a former church at 178 Lester Road in Trenton.
Residents living near the property again packed council’s chamber Thursday night opposing the plan from non-profit agency St. Leonard’s Community Support, Prevention, and Residential Services to operate a 10-bed home for vulnerable youth.
They were concerned about neighbourhood crime, safety and decreasing property values.
The former church property is already zoned for residential use which allows group homes but St. Leonard’s is seeking an amendment adding emergency housing as a permitted use.
Mayor Jim Harrison said he understood the residents’ concerns while stressing that the success of the concept would hinge on St. Leonard’s doing a thorough job of screening people entering the home.
“From my point of view nobody chooses to be an addict but it happens and we have to deal with those individuals and help them get back into a productive fruitful life.”
Executive Director of St. Leonard’s Kelly Nolan stressed that all people, including homeless, will be screened by agencies doing background checks and interviews before being admitted to the facility.
“The people who are going to live there are not necessarily criminals (interruptions from crowd, Chair Alyea intervenes) and we will be thorough and we’re hoping for referrals from our agency sources, CAS (Children’s Aid Society). They have a lot of youth aging out of care who don’t have skills and they’re not ready to live independently at 12 or 13 hundred dollars a month. We are trying to give them the training, the schooling, to move on to trades and then get into their own place and move forward.”
Feelings ran high at Thursday’s meeting with one resident pointing out that many emails from residents to Kelly Nolan asking questions about the proposal had not been answered.
Nolan told the crowd that, for some unknown reason, she had not received any of the emails.
Staff had recommended the committee approve the zoning amendment adding emergency housing because from a land planning perspective a group home and emergency housing with supervision were virtually identical, offering housing in what was already a residential area.
