Save Our Cabins!

On Tuesday November 7, 2023, City of Kingston Council voted to wind down our vital and innovative sleeping cabin program. This decision came as a shock, as we had been working towards finding a permanent location for our cabin community. Homestead had made a generous $900,000 offer for a 10 year lease, at $1 a year, all capital and site preparation costs, including buying the existing cabins, and $50,000 per year for 3 years towards operating costs. This was an extremely generous donation which City Council threw away. Who throws away $900,000?

See Staff Report , and recording of the Council meeting.

Mistaken Information Behind the Council Decision

1. Cost of the program..... The total purchase cost of the cabins was $403,127.50 with $250,000 of that cost funded by generous donors. There's no building in the City of Kingston which could house 17 people for anything close to that cost. In 2022, OLS received $201,459 from the Social Services Relief Fund 3, a provincial fund, OLS's financials for 2022 are available here. In 2023, OLS received $328,400 from the Housing Accelorator Fund, a provincial fund. OLS's financials for 2023 are available here. Most of the provincial funds provided are used to pay our staff, the rents paid by our residents cover staff training, cleaning and maintenance costs. We have asked the City of Kingston for receipts for any other expenditures incurred to support our program, but have not received them yet. When we receive proof of additional costs, we will update this paragraph. Homestead's donation offer could have taken care of these costs.... again, who throws away $900,000?
   
   

2. The program was just a stop gap for Covid.... this was never true or OLS's intent. When we welcomed our first resident on January 17, 2022, there were officially 210 people on the list of people who need homes; known as the By-Name List, there are now officially 537 people, as of October 2023. The need is GREATER than ever, and growing at a concerning rate.
   
   If the cabin community was never meant to be permanent, why did Council approve finding a location for a second cabin community? why did Council approve buying a modular building for our common spaces? and why did Council task City staff with finding our cabin community a permanent location?
   
   

3. Dog houses, sheds, inhumane.... our cabins have been called a lot of things, our residents call them HOME! Here's a Technical Sheet about our cabins, the same design are used by Fisheries Canada in Coral Harbour, Nunavut. Residents love the sense of home their cabin provides, the independance and control over their own door. How one of our newest residents makes his cabin feel like home.

How do our residents feel about this decision? Listen to Marsha on CBC All in a Day

Where will our residents go?

So far, we have not seen a transition plan for our residents to move to permanent housing. Why? Attainable housing is scarce in the City of Kingston. We have seen an effort to convince our residents to move to other transition housing programs which puts them at a high risk to end up without a home again. Of the 17 residents with us in November, 2023, one has successfully transitioned to supportive housing!

What's the Plan?

• Many of our residents have not had Housing First case managers to help them in their housing search, with 537 people on the list of people who need homes, there's a long wait list to receive assistance. OLS has offered three times to have all their staff trained as Housing First case managers to help reduce the backlog, but City staff declined this offer. Instead, we've done what we can to assist our residents in their housing search. Since Council's decision to wind down our program, more, but not all, of our residents have been offered Housing First case manager support.

• City Staff have facilitated having residents complete this survey, but have not provided information about the programs listed on page 2, so our residents can make informed decisions. When we receive the program information, we will add it to this page, and of course, share it with our residents.

• City Staff have indicated that they would like to bring a transition plan to Council on April 16th, 2024.