More talk, no action on homeless crisis
Extreme cold weather plan "in the works".
Is West Nipissing getting their fair share of services from the $3.5M it pays DNSSAB?
West Nipissing Council held another discussion on the ongoing homeless crisis this week.
At the December 5th meeting, council formally accepted a petition from dozens of West Nipissing residents asking that the municipality establish a warming center for the homeless. The city has over twenty unhoused individuals and many are worried as to what they will do when the nights become too cold for them.
City to help the homeless when it drops to -40C
The first person to speak on the subject was the long-time CAO who advised those in attendance that they were “in the process of or providing an extreme cold weather plan” to help out the homeless. He told council that unfortunately they did not have the plan ready but hoped to present it at the next meeting on December 19th.
But he stressed that this plan would only be providing a solution if a certain threshold of -30C or -40C is met where options would then be provided to the homeless.
The CAO blamed the budget process for the lateness of this proposal. Considering we have had extreme cold weather stretches in mid-December many times in the past, it seems odd to wait until December 19th to begin the discussions on such a plan.
However this answer likely did not satisfy the requests of the petition as it did not answer what the homeless are to do when it is below zero but has not yet reached -40C.
Councillor Anne Tessier who is an active volunteer with the local homeless outreach group proposed that council request more help from DNSSAB and suggested that some units in West Nipissing’s non-profit housing be allocated as temporary accommodations for the homeless.
$3.5 Million of West Nipissing Taxes go to DNSSAB
The unanswered question continues to be: Is West Nipissing getting their fair share of services?
The city pays $3.5 million* to DNSSAB per year (18% of tax revenue) to manage homeless and housing issues across the region but it is very difficult to see how they are applying these funds in West Nipissing.
*This number will jump to over $3.6M in 2024
For some reason other councillors and the mayor refuse to put pressure on this public board. Meeting after meeting they continually praise DNSSAB. On Tuesday, Mayor Thorne-Rochon said “I don’t want to underestimate the work that DNSAAB has put in”.
Last to speak on the subject was Deputy Mayor Jamie Restoule who also is the city’s representative on the DNSSAB board. He as well did not offer any solution or indicate he would apply pressure. He simply “appreciated the work that’s been done”.
Amidst this crisis, DNSSAB held a board meeting on November 22nd which Mr. Restoule attended. The agenda can be found here.
Although we provide $3.5M to this organization, Resoutle did not even see it appropriate to add this ongoing crisis to the agenda. No delegations were requested and West Nipissing is not mentioned in the agenda whatsoever.
DNSSAB allocated over $6 million this year to various homeless shelters and organizations. None of these are based in West Nipissing. A reallocation of these funds by WN’s representative would be warranted and justified. But for some reason council refuses to speak up.
It seems that this council has no intention to actually address the issues at hand. They simply want to kick this politically unpopular football far enough to get to next quarter. And then the next…
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