Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley would like all levels of government to help the area's homeless.
Lambton shelter sought

Norman De Bono
Sun Media, March 26, 2007

The homeless population in Sarnia and Lambton is on the rise and a permanent shelter is needed to cope with the growing crisis, Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said yesterday.

Mike Bradley
"We are trying to accommodate people, but we are saying to other levels of government it is all our responsibility to help these people." -- Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley.
Bradley plans to bring forward a motion to county council calling on the city and county to establish a homeless shelter in Sarnia. The shelter would replace a patchwork system in which homeless people are placed in motels and a city church if more beds are needed, he said. "We are trying to accommodate people, but we are saying to other levels of government it is all our responsibility to help these people. It is all our issue. The need is there."
The county is responsible for shelter issues but it remains largely an urban problem, said Bradley, who sits on county council. "I am of the sense there is a need, so we will look at this issue and determine exactly what the need is," said Jim Burns, Lambton County warden. "We have pockets of service now, but there is no cohesiveness."
The issue will go before the county in May with a report expected back in June. The city shelters homeless in motels, which is paid for out of the county's budget. A Protestant church group in Sarnia, the River City Vineyard, has received approval from the city to offer 21 beds to the homeless for 15 men and six women.
The group will operate the shelter for 26 months, giving the county and city a two-year window to solve the housing issue, Bradley said. There will not be a problem finding a building, as the city has had offers to donate one. But budgeting for the annual operating costs out of the county's budget could prove a challenge, he said.
County government staff have discussed the issue with their federal and provincial counterparts, Bradley said. "This situation will get a lot worse soon," said George Esser, pastoral team leader at River City Vineyard.
"We really don't have a shelter program, after 30 days people are removed from the motels and when it was cold, we thought that just was not right," Esser said.
In 2004, a study suggested there were more than 300 homeless in Sarnia. Esser believes as many as 4,000 others may be "couch surfing" -- staying at friends and family without a permanent home. There also is growing concern that the issue may worsen as the economy in Sarnia betters. Transient workers moving to the city to work in the petrochemical industries will displace the homeless in motels, Bradley said. "The economy is good and that means these people may be displaced," he said. "Skilled workers can pay more for their rooms."
In addition, the homeless can only get treatment for sobriety issues when they are sober for seven days -- easier to achieve when one is in a shelter as opposed to a motel or on the street, Bradley said. "We want people to get into addiction treatment programs and they may not be able to access that now."

Norman De Bono is a Free Press reporter.

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