While the city’s sanctioned encampment site grows and area residents express safety concerns as temperatures plummet into the annual deep freeze, at least one key question lingers.
How is it that people are being left to sleep outdoors in downtown Sudbury for another winter?
If it was preventable, Mayor Paul Lefebvre said, “I’d like to know how.”
Sudbury.com met with Lefebvre earlier this week to gain his insight on another winter passing with people living in tents in downtown Sudbury — an annual tradition the COVID-era spike in homelessness helped kick off a few years ago.
One repeatedly proposed alternative to people living in tents during the winter months has been the construction of tiny homes.
Although the idea was raised on a number of occasions, city council has never adopted a tiny homes development, opting instead to allow a city-sanctioned makeshift encampment to take shape.
Tiny homes, the likes of which consulting firm Better Street helped get constructed in such communities as Kitchener/Waterloo and Hamilton, are shed-like structures with a bed and dresser, electricity, heating and air conditioning. Each unit comes in at approximately $15,000-$21,000 depending on material costs, and washroom, kitchen and laundry facilities are contained in a communal building.
“The tents versus tiny homes thing, to me, these are temporary fixes,” Lefebvre said. “We’re focused on trying to create that continuum of housing they can access.”
Rather than spend money on tiny homes, Lefebvre said it’s better to invest in permanent solutions.
“We are focused on developing other housing opportunities as fast as we can with other levels of government,” he said.
“There are already existing tents in that area, and we’re just trying to make sure we’re keeping that area as safe as we possibly can and providing those services where they’re at, and also safety and security for those businesses around.”
The city has adopted a plan to bring a functional end to homelessness by 2030, and Lefebvre noted, ”tiny homes are not part of that.”
Indeed, the city’s Roadmap to End Homelessness by 2030 does not mention tiny homes, and city staff have cautioned against them alongside homelessness consultant Iain De Jong, who advised the city on the strategy.
The durability of tiny homes “is not a long-term capital infrastructure project as opposed to multi-residential transitional or supportive housing,” city Community Well-being general manager Tyler Campbell told city council members earlier this year.
“They can be very expensive to implement depending on where we end up putting it in terms of city-owned lands and whatever remediation we need to do.”
Echoing this sentiment, Lefebvre said, “We’re not reacting all the time, we’ve got a strategy and we’ve got to follow that.”
Responding to the COVID-era encampment at Memorial Park in October 2021, Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc and then-Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan proposed an alternative encampment at Energy Court consisting of ice-fishing huts.
The topic of tiny homes persisted as other Ontario municipalities gave them a shot, prompting Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent to tour such a community in Peterborough last year.
The tiny home community was approved by Peterborough city council on May 23, 2023, with construction beginning that September. Forty-nine of the 50 units were occupied as soon as they opened. Its construction cost approximately $2.5 million, and its net annual operating budget (less rental revenue) is just shy of $2 million.
In July, Leduc proposed tiny homes again in a business case request, which was shot down by an 8-5 vote of city council.
Since that time, a homelessness situation city CAO Shari Lichterman recently described as “crisis mode” prompted the city to set up a sanctioned encampment at Energy Court in downtown Sudbury.
It’s centered around the old supervised consumption site building, opening as a warming centre Nov. 1, where services will be offered and police have pledged to patrol.
Where city council stands on tiny homes now
With much having changed since city council members last discussed tiny homes in July, Sudbury.com reached out to all 13 members of city council to request their latest insights.
We reached out to all 13 members of city council by email, but the majority did not respond, which has become typical.
Ward 2 Coun. Eric Benoit responded by email, and Lefebvre’s office responded to line up an in-person interview. We also reached out to both Leduc and Parent by phone, as they’ve weighed in on the topic in the past, and received responses from both councillors.
As such, only four of 13 members ended up weighing in on the tiny home question.
(We also sought comment from city staff, but communications staff declined this request, deferring to Lefebvre.)
“The problem with tiny homes is the longevity and efficiency of those structures and the overall value for the money spent to construct them,” Benoit wrote. “Energy Court encampment is not a permanent solution; it is a necessary measure to effectively deliver services and provide some level of safety to our vulnerable population while we work on more permanent solutions.”
Leduc said the city should have proceeded with tiny homes, as they’re safer than tents.
At Energy Court, he said tiny homes could have been set up without kitchens, with the warming centre used as a centralized kitchen.
This setup, he said, “would have provided a lot of safety.”
Instead, he said, “We’re doing the same thing now, year after year.”
Although a centralized, city-sanctioned encampment at Energy Court where services will be offered is a change from past years’ scattered encampments, he said it still consists of people living in tents.
After promoting a tiny home community as a potential solution in the past, Parent said this week that city council was correct in rejecting the idea.
In July, Parent voted against Leduc’s motion requesting a business case for tiny homes.
“Tiny homes are a temporary solution. We’d spend a lot of money going into that and it doesn’t necessarily provide the kinds of wraparound services to allow individuals to transition (into permanent community housing),” Parent said.
“I can understand how the public is frustrated and losing patience, but to follow a plan that doesn’t have a desired outcome and spend a lot of money, I don’t think is a wise decision.”
Even if the city were to proceed with a tiny home community, he said they wouldn’t necessarily have enough units for everyone, and the city might be left with a tent encampment anyway.
“There’s only so much money the taxpayers can put toward this on top of other items that we as a municipality have to provide,” Parent said.
“We want to make sure we direct those dollars to the best solutions that will lead to the best outcomes, and that really is permanent infrastructure, not temporary infrastructure."
What’s next for city council?
The goal, Parent said, is for the city to have enough permanent housing spaces in place so this is the last winter people are left sleeping outside.
In July, city council issued formal advocacy for senior levels of government to fund more transitional housing and shelter beds.
The timeline Parent proposes appears ambitious when looking at the city’s most recent project on Lorraine Street. When the city broke ground on the 40-unit transitional housing complex in June 2023, it was expected to be open by the end of that year.
After a series of delays, it has only recently opened, with its first 10 residents moving in on July 21 of this year. This points to a two-year wait once a project breaks ground.
“I think that’s where we’re putting a lot of focus, is working with the private sector to move much quicker and not have another Lorraine Street nightmare,” Parent said.
The city will need help to achieve its goal of ending homelessness by 2030, Lefebvre said.
“As a municipality, we need the help of other levels of government," the mayor said. “This is a health-care issue, and it’s tough for a municipality to do health care.”
In correspondence from city communications staff, Sudbury.com sought totals for 2024 homelessness initiatives funded by the municipal, provincial and federal governments.
- Federal government: A total of $7,536,000 spent on homelessness initiatives. Of that total, $2,436,000 was spent on social services (i.e., emergency shelters, housing assistance, community outreach, coordinated access, etc.) and $5,100,000 on housing (i.e., non-profit, rent supplements, capital repair projects, etc.).
- Provincial government: A total of $15,828,000 spent on homelessness initiatives. Of that total, $6,653,000 was spent on social services (i.e., emergency shelters, housing assistance, community outreach and support services, etc.) and $9,175,000 on housing (administration, rent supplements, capital builds/repair projects, housing allowance, etc.).
- Municipal government: A total of $24,122,000 spent on homelessness initiatives. Of that total, $1,155,000 was spent on social services and $22,967,000 on housing.
Mitigating Energy Court safety concerns
Greater Sudbury Police Service will be hosting a month-long crackdown on open drug use throughout November.
This will include an enforcement team patrolling downtown from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. and an undercover effort cracking down on drug dealers.
“This will be complemented daily by officers from Patrol, Integrated Traffic Safety and Emergency Response, as well as the Indigenous Liaison Unit who will be working collaboratively with community partners to do outreach,” a police spokesperson noted.
GSPS involvement will be reassessed at the end of November. Regardless of this outcome, the community response unit of police officers will regularly conduct proactive patrols at Energy Court as part of their daily foot and bike patrols.
Meanwhile, city staff have “been mobilizing quickly to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone as we develop a social services hub at Energy Court,” a city spokesperson said.
Beginning Nov. 1, the Go-Give Project will begin operating its 24/7 warming centre at Energy Court, which will include security and peer support services.
“City-led services will also be provided, including client navigators to help people navigate the system to get to housing, and community paramedics to provide immediate wound care and first aid,” the spokesperson said. “Through a collaborative response, staff will continue regular engagement with those living in encampments, connecting them with appropriate support such as housing services and shelters.”
Frequent safety checks will also be conducted by city staff “to identify and mitigate risks, including removing unsafe heating devices from tents.”
The nearby warming centre will offer heated space to protect people from the extreme cold, though it likely lacks the capacity to hold all encampment residents at one time.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.