Thunder Bay City Council ratifies Kam River park as site for temporary shelter village

CBC News

· Posted: May 07, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

After months of debate, metropolis assembly connected Monday gave its last support to Kam River Heritage Park arsenic the tract of a caller impermanent structure village.

Construction of the village, which volition see astir 80 mini-cabins for usage arsenic transitional housing, is expected to commencement successful July, with the archetypal occupants moving in, successful the fall.

Council voted to o.k. the tract astatine its gathering past week; that determination was ratified connected Monday.

"I deliberation each members of assembly struggled with the decision," Current River Coun. Andrew Foulds said Tuesday. "It was an extraordinarily hard decision, and listening to members of assembly some successful unfastened and closed session, what's precise wide is each subordinate of council, and I would besides widen that to our administration, cares profoundly astir this community."

"There is simply a designation that we person a conception of our colonisation that is truly struggling and vulnerable, and each members of assembly privation what's champion and and that was evident (Monday) night."

City medication was recommending the Kam River Heritage Park tract for respective reasons, including its proximity to different enactment services, and the information that an encampment is already located adjacent the park.

The metropolis has budgeted $5.5 cardinal for operation of the village, and $1.5 cardinal annually for operational costs; if operation starts by July and is implicit by December, the metropolis is eligible for $2.8 cardinal successful outer funding.

Now that the tract has been approved and the determination ratified by council, the metropolis volition contented two requests for proposal: 1 for the operation of the village, and 1 for its operation.

"The metropolis isn't going to beryllium moving this," Foulds said. "We volition beryllium ... looking for a third-party operator."

Carrie Anne Marshall, subordinate prof astatine Western University and manager of the school's Social Justice successful Mental Health Research Lab, said she has concerns with the usage of mini-cabins.

"I'm profoundly acrophobic astir the proliferation of sleeping cabins crossed North America," she said. "There isn't capable grounds to enactment the usage of tiny homes and sleeping cabins oregon peculiarly specifically sleeping cabins, and yet we're pouring millions of dollars into these approaches crossed North America."

Marshall said erstwhile it comes to mini-cabins and tiny homes, the second is the amended approach.

"Tiny homes to maine are benignant of similar tiny homes that person each of the amenities of any home oregon an apartment, that immoderate of america would unrecorded in," she said.

Mini-cabins, meanwhile, "don't person integrated amenities," Marshall said. "They usually person a bed, sometimes a fridge. They were insulated, often, but they're conscionable fundamentally a shed."

"They're often situated successful villages, wherever determination is simply a gathering wherever a idiosyncratic tin entree moving h2o and cooking facilities and that benignant of thing."

And they tin beryllium costly, she said.

"I deliberation it's perceived ratio successful presumption of cost, and successful presumption of easiness of setup," Marshall said. "But erstwhile we look astatine the the grounds connected the various communities that are being acceptable up crossed North America, they're really truly rather complicated."

The villages, she said, often tally into issues regarding placement, which leads to delays. But caller studies, Marshall said, besides amusement that accepted congregate structure models — including the usage of erstwhile motels taken implicit by municipalities — are really cheaper than village-style shelters.

"There's a recent community that's being established successful Hamilton that has gone $5.1 cardinal implicit budget," Marshall said. "It's currently costing the metropolis of Hamilton $7.9 cardinal to found 80 sleeping cabins temporarily for 2 years."

"Then successful the Kingston community, the metropolis of Kingston dedicated $2 million to a sleeping compartment assemblage for 15 radical for a twelvemonth and a half. If you benignant of bash the math, it's $7,407 per idiosyncratic per period successful that twelvemonth and a half, which acold exceeds the outgo of placing a idiosyncratic successful imperishable supportive housing."

Marshall said a housing-first attack is much effective, arsenic it's "demonstrated effectiveness implicit and implicit again for helping radical to unafraid lodging and to support it for longer than transitional housing."

"There's a deficiency of nationalist lodging that's profoundly affordable, and there's astir nonexistent profoundly affordable marketplace solutions," she said. "So erstwhile a person's tenure in a impermanent concern ends, there's often not capable lodging available, deeply-affordable lodging disposable for them."

"So the impermanent solutions thin to go longer-term solutions, and successful the meantime, we're benignant of diverting backing distant from those imperishable supportive lodging solutions successful bid to money these impermanent solutions."

Marshall said processing new, more-dignified structure spaces — with a absorption connected information and privacy — for radical to usage portion waiting for imperishable lodging would beryllium a amended approach.

"I deliberation determination are some possibilities for moving with municipalities and with organizations to make structure spaces that are much dignified and that are really safer for radical to beryllium successful without spending a batch much money," Marshall said. "It's truly conscionable a alteration successful organizational argumentation that we're talking astir astatine that point."

"We could really usage the surplus backing to supply possibly immoderate imperishable housing, oregon adjacent temporarily immoderate exigency structure beds, portion different lodging options are becoming available."