Parnell says ‘no’ to tiny homes proposal

‘We do not need another messy tent city of wooden boxes’

A proposal from Coun. Alex Bierk to erect 15 heated sleeping cabins this winter for people without homes at the former United Canadian Malt property on Park Street South has drawn a rebuke from Coun. Lesley Parnell, ahead of a committee meeting Monday when the idea will be up for discussion.

“The answer is NO,” Parnell tweeted Thursday. And in a later tweet said, “We do not need another messy tent city of wooden boxes.”

Bierk will be expected to pitch an idea Monday to allow 10 to 15 tiny homes installed this winter in the west end of the now-vacant Malt property at Park and Lansdowne streets, owned by David McGee.

McGee had written a letter to the former city council in April offering his 3.6-hectare property rent-free for up to five years, for the purpose of setting up services or a community of heated sleeping cabins for

people without homes.

Meanwhile the grassroots group Peterborough Action for Tiny Homes (PATH) has 10 sleeping cabins built and five more under construction and is looking for a place to erect them.

Peterborough is experiencing a worsening housing crisis, and former mayor Diane Therrien’s last act in office in October was to declare a homelessness emergency in the city.

But Parnell noted on Twitter that the former Malt property is not zoned for such a use and there’s no “proper process” in place to allow the tiny homes by Jan. 5, Bierk’s proposed setup date.

Parnell, Bierk and the rest of council will have an opportunity to discuss it at Monday’s city council general committee meeting.

Meanwhile councillors will also review a city staff report on Monday that offers options for keeping the Wolfe Street shelter open through 2023, rather than closing at the end of March.

The Wolfe Street shelter was set up in early 2021 as an overflow shelter, meaning it accommodates people when other shelters, such as the Brock Mission for men, are full. It was meant to stay open for about two years, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, with funding from the provincial government.

But the provincial government’s pandemic funding runs out Dec. 31, and rather than close the shelter Jan. 1, the previous city council voted to spend $267,000 to keep it open 24/7 until March 31.

Now a new city staff report recommends council budget an additional $400,500 in 2023 to keep the shelter open 12 hours (overnight only) from April 1 to Dec. 31.

City councillors don’t have to decide on Monday: they can consider it in January, when they sit down to budget talks.

Meantime nearby property owners have said the Wolfe Street shelter is not a good fit for their neighbourhood because people now camp, litter and defecate in the open.

Danyell Trotter-Worr, whose family owns a house near the shelter, emailed council on Thursday saying the neighbourhood has become a “dangerous, lawless and volatile environment.”

Trotter-Worr writes that council doesn’t seem to care that the neighbours’ property values have plummeted “due to the impact of the (tent) encampment and shelter’s presence.”

“It’s crime, filth and violence,” she wrote.

“Will this council relieve these citizens of the losses the city has created for them?”