Can PATH’s sleeping cabins be used at the Wolfe Street modular housing community?

Peterborough Mayor Jeff Leal wants to look into using ten sleeping cabins built by Peterborough Action for Tiny Homes (PATH) to expand the city’s Wolfe Street modular housing project for people experiencing homelessness, he said.

But the mayor has not reached out to the group about the idea, according to PATH board member Keith Dalton.

“We haven’t been approached about being involved in that in any way,” he said on Wednesday, August 28.

Leal joined a majority of councillors last week in refusing to grant a temporary zoning change to allow PATH, a non-profit, to build 24 sleeping cabins for unhoused people at a property it leases on Lansdowne Street East. The mayor suggested adding 10 more sleeping cabins to the 50 already located at the Wolfe Street site as an alternative.

Those additional cabins could be ones PATH has already pre-fabricated, Leal told Peterborough Currents.

“Let’s look at that opportunity and have them working with us on that site,” Leal said. “We want to take advantage of the work that they have completed.”

PATH would be “all in favour” of the city adding 10 more cabins at the Wolfe Street site, Dalton said, but he added he still thinks another sleeping cabin community is needed.

“We have a much bigger homeless problem than can be accomplished or dealt with by an additional 10 cabins,” he said. PATH’s proposal is to eventually build up to 24 cabins at its Lansdowne Street site, after starting with an initial 10 this coming winter. PATH’s sleeping cabin community would be operated by the Elizabeth Fry Society of Peterborough, the same agency that runs the city’s Wolfe Street modular housing community.

Leal acknowledged that there is a “need to house more people” as winter approaches.

But it’s not clear exactly how many people in Peterborough are currently experiencing homelessness. The city no longer publishes monthly counts of the number of people on its byname list for people experiencing homelessness. However, a recent report from One City Peterborough stated that its overnight shelter at the Trinity Centre was at capacity most nights last winter and had to turn people away hundreds of times.

“We felt council was unjustly pandering to public opinion”: PATH member

Dalton said he was “disgusted” with council’s response to PATH’s sleeping cabin proposal at last Monday’s general committee meeting. Councillors voted 8-2 against a staff recommendation to approve PATH’s temporary rezoning application, citing concerns about the chosen site and the financial viability of the volunteer-led initiative. Only councillors Alex Bierk and Joy Lachica voted in favour.

Several nearby business owners and residents spoke against PATH’s plan at the meeting, claiming that sleeping cabin residents might steal from businesses, jaywalk across Lansdowne Street and pose a safety risk to other people living in the area. 

“We felt council was unjustly pandering to public opinion on what would be appropriate and what level of security and safety is required,” Dalton said. The sleeping cabins would be for “people who are closer to being ready” for their own housing, not those with “really difficult mental health issues and substance use issues,” Dalton said.

A representative for heavy equipment supplier Toromont Industries expressed concerns that Ontario’s environment ministry could shut down the company’s facility if there are noise complaints from cabin residents. Toromont currently sells and services heavy equipment from a facility adjacent to the proposed sleeping cabin community, and the company has been working to get city approval to expand its footprint for five years, said Garnet Peirson, the company’s vice president of real estate and development.

Leal said he didn’t want to risk noise complaints from sleeping cabin residents posing a threat to Toromont’s expansion plans, which Peirson said will bring 60 new high-paying jobs to the city.

“It’s very important that we balance the potential loss of 60 jobs through an expansion of Toromont on that particular site,” Leal said.

Peirson told councillors that if there are noise complaints, the environment ministry “can come in and shut down our operations or they can severely alter our operations.”

“That’s not just a story I’m telling you, that’s something I’m dealing with right now in Kanata because a residential development went up next door,” Peirson said, adding that he’s “currently dealing with” a similar situation at the company’s location in Concord, Ontario as well.

Environment ministry says it has not received noise complaints about Toromont’s operations in Kanata and Concord

But the company has not been forced to shut down or alter its operations in Kanata or Concord at this time, nor have there been any complaints to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, according to a ministry spokesperson.

“At this point the ministry has not received any complaints regarding the company’s operations at their Kanata and Concord locations,” Gary Wheeler wrote by email.

The environment ministry handles noise complaints about industrial sites, according to the province’s website. 

Leal said it would be “very inhumane” to house people next to the Toromont facility because it generates “dust, noise and a significant movement of heavy trucks 24/7.”

Asked if living near the industrial site would be better than sleeping rough, Leal said “anything is better than a tent.” But he said the city is acting “pretty aggressively” to create more housing, noting the Wolfe Street modular housing community and the “affordable” housing complex the city is building at 681 Monaghan Road. Additionally, the city is applying for funding to address the housing shortage through the second round of the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund, he said. The city’s application to the first round was rejected.

Meanwhile, the first phase of the city’s plan to redevelop several social housing complexes to build hundreds of additional “affordable” and market-rate housing units is stalled due to lack of funding, the Peterborough Examiner reported recently.

Dalton called it a “weak argument” to claim that PATH’s site is too noisy for people to live there. A study by Cambium Consulting determined that the noise could be mitigated, a conclusion city staff agreed with in their report to city council. But Toromont commissioned its own study that found the noise from the facility “will be a nuisance” for the sleeping cabin residents, Peirson told general committee.

Some councillors also expressed skepticism that PATH can raise enough money to run the sleeping cabin community because the group has so far relied on donations to fund its activities. Councillor Keith Riel said the group’s “plan is not sustainable with the financial models they have.”

But Dalton said PATH is confident it can get federal and provincial government funding once the community is established. He said funding agencies like the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Ontario Trillium Foundation have told the group it needs to “demonstrate performance” in order to qualify for funding.

“It’s difficult to get grant funding, significant grant funding, from higher levels of government until the operation is underway and has demonstrated performance,” he said.

Mayor says it’s “a little premature” to discuss how modular home community expansion would be funded

Leal did not say where the money would come from to expand the Wolfe Street modular housing community, when the city is already facing the prospect of service cuts next year to meet council’s goal of keeping the property tax increase to 5 percent.

He said it’s “a little premature” to discuss funding, but he said he believes there is room for additional cabins. “I’ve been on that site many times and just from my observation, it would look like we could accommodate a few more,” he said, adding that city staff are expected to present a report on housing issues to council in September.

Last week’s vote on PATH’s temporary rezoning application isn’t final. City council will vote on it for a final time on Tuesday September 3. Dalton said PATH members will be at Tuesday’s meeting to present “our case as to why we don’t think it was a fair decision by council.”

Meanwhile, PATH members have also been “regrouping to decide what would be the appropriate next steps for us in terms of a future plan that has a greater probability of success,” Dalton said.