The City of Greater Sudbury is moving to centralize services for the city’s homeless community within a municipally owned parcel of land called Energy Court.
Located behind the Chris’ Your Independent grocery store, Energy Court houses the old supervised consumption site building, whose operations ceased last year due to a lack of provincial funding.
The building later accommodated a warming centre, which local charity The Go-Give Project operated in the past and are now slated to resume operations of with expanded 24/7 service beginning Nov. 1.
City council members were unanimous in approving this service expansion and other shelter program expansions during tonight’s city council meeting, at which city CAO Shari Lichterman also outlined a broader vision for Energy Court.
“We really see Energy Court as an opportunity to develop as a hub of social services,” she said.
“While we’re looking at the Go-Give warming centre as one piece of that, we want to spend the next few months bringing more services to that site.”
Titled “The Crisis in our Downtown,” Lichterman’s presentation highlighted downtown Sudbury as “a very significant economic engine for the city.”
“It is critical that we protect the investments the city is making in the downtown and support the businesses that are really struggling with some of these issues,” she said, adding, “And most of all, support the vulnerable residents who are experiencing homelessness, mental health and addictions in this downtown.”
Lichterman added to this point later on in her presentation, saying, “We’re in crisis and people are dying on the streets.”
By the city’s latest-published account there were 199 people living in encampments at 34 sites through Greater Sudbury in June, which was a jump from the 46 people at 36 sites counted in June 2023.
More supportive housing is needed in the long term, Lichterman said, adding that while the city’s recently opened 40-unit transitional housing complex on Lorraine Street is a start, the city probably needs at least three equivalent facilities to meet current needs.
“We need to find a better place for them in the meantime,” she said of the city's homeless community, citing Energy Court as the chosen location.
“We need somewhere to bring people, and right now we think that’s the best option,” she said. “If we don’t have a place to direct people and provide some level of services, then we struggle with removing them from some of the public spaces that have become a challenge for us now.”
After Go-Give’s expanded use of the Energy Court building begins in November, Lichterman said other services will follow, such as added safety and security via bylaw and police, client navigators to help people find the services they need and food security measures.
“We’re starting to identify core services we could provide over there,” she said. “To ensure that it truly is a hub and a place where you can get support on the addictions side from basic human needs, and also housing and income applications and support.”
Meanwhile, Lichterman said the city would also take steps to clean up downtown, with bylaw taking a more proactive approach to enforcing such things as property maintenance standards.
Bylaw enforcement is currently reactive, meaning officers investigate complaints rather than seek out compliance in targeted neighbourhoods as they’ll begin doing downtown.
Some members of city council expressed concern that by closing encampments and pushing people to set up encampments at Energy Court the city would merely push the city’s homeless community to other areas of the city.
“There are risks to trying to centralize the services and the encampment in one location,” Lichterman said, adding that the city is striving to learn from other municipalities, and that “trying to have a diverse array of services on site is going to be a big piece of that.”
Rather than call it a sanctioned encampment site, Lichterman said, “I’d frame it as a social services hub.”
“It’s an area where we are allowing tents and an encampment to take place, but we want to do that in a more orderly, safe fashion than what we’re seeing today,” she said.
Mayor Paul Lefebvre previewed tonight’s city council meeting during a Rotary Club luncheon at the Caruso Club on Oct. 2, at which he pledged such actions as a tougher stance on panhandling.
He also announced the to expand services at Energy Court, which will include a 24/7 hub with warming and cooling space and washroom facility access.
Access to barrier-free 24/7 washroom space has been a longstanding point of public advocacy and the subject of a recently quashed human rights complaint filed against the city by a private resident.
The Go-Give Project will operate the space, as they also did during overnight hours from November 1, 2024, to April 30. During this run, they supported up to 50 people at any given time with a safe space, washrooms, internet and staff support. An average of 161 people visited per night.
“The overnight services were instrumental in keeping people safe and warm and creating opportunities for supportive referrals,” according to the municipal report. “However, the overnight only hours created a gap in effective connection to housing support.”
The Go-Give Project continued by offering the site as a daytime cooling centre from June 30 to Sept. 30, during which an average of 145 people visited per day.
They proposed the 24-hour program which city council members approved on Tuesday night. It will be offered from Nov. 1 to April 30, 2026, and “include crisis services, referrals, addiction support workers, peer support and programming as well as the overnight drop-in program.”
The budget for the Go-Give Project proposal is $1,171,037.
Other proposals which city council greenlit during tonight’s meeting include:
- New Hope Outreach will host a drop-in centre and warming station at 344 Elgin St. between Oct. 1 and April 30, 2026, from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m., with a capacity of 30 spaces (an increase of five spaces per night from their previous effort), plus additional drop-in centre access (weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., weekends from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and additional funding for regular options during weekdays from 1-5 p.m. from January to April), for a total budget of $464,593.
- The Canadian Mental Health Association Off the Street Shelter at 200 Larch St. currently operates 365 days per year, from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., with capacity for 35 people. During the past 12 months, they’ve operated at 96 per cent occupancy. They requested an additional $114,332 to extend hours this winter to operate from 9 p.m. to 11 a.m. from Nov. 1 to April 30, 2026.
Funding sources are a combination of federal, provincial and existing municipal operational budgets.
While these measures are intended to help during the winter months, the municipal report clarifies that it’s a “temporary requirement as we continue to build more permanent housing options though the Roadmap to End Homelessness recommendations.”
This Roadmap to End Homelessness is a largely unfunded $350-million plan to bring a functional end to homelessness in Greater Sudbury by 2030.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.