City of Kingston, residents continue to clash over proposed transitional housing at Extendicare site
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The City of Kingston continues to face strong opposition to proposed transitional housing plans for the soon-to-be-former Extendicare site on Queen Mary Road.
A packed Polson Park Free Methodist Church greeted city officials, including chief administrative officer Lanie Hurdle, on Thursday night in a second town hall to discuss the city’s plans for the building, which the city has a signed deal to purchase once the long-term care facility moves to its new location later this year.
Renata Sobiesiak, a spokesperson for one of the groups of residents who live in Meadowbrook-Strathcona District, opened the meeting by reiterating that the groups are not opposed to the unhoused or vulnerable population, but remain vehement in their opposition to the city’s plan to convert a portion of the site to transitional housing.
“We are advocating for the city to work with our communities to establish better solutions that could potentially help thousands of Kingstonians while at the same time keeping four heavily residential areas out of harm’s way,” she said while asking the approximately 150 in attendance to show “respect and decorum for all attendees and presenters.”
Hurdle, along with Jennifer Campbell, commissioner of community services, Jen Pinarski, manager of communications and public engagement, and Amanda Nugara, co-ordinator of council and community relations, represented the city at the gathering, which was also attended by Meadowbrook-Strathcona District Coun. Jeff McLaren and Portsmouth District Coun. Don Amos.
Hurdle reminded the crowd that the city maintains that there are no plans to move the city’s Integrated Care Hub on Montreal Street, or its services, to 309 Queen Mary Rd. She also provided more detailed plans for the site, which under the latest proposal would see roughly 50 per cent of the building repurposed to house a medical clinic that would service the community at large, as well as transitional housing for displaced residents 55 years of age or older or those with mobility challenges, and a community space.
“I was in this room about two months ago or so and at the time we were just starting the process,” Hurdle told the crowd. “We indicated that we still had a lot of work to do and we had feedback to get from you and others to start advancing what this proposal could look like. We have been working with a number of community members, we’ve received a lot of input, we’ve also been working with residents from Grenville Park Co-op Association, we had a meeting about a month ago with this group, so the feedback you will see tonight is reflective of a lot of input that we’ve received.”
Slides showing plans for the Extendicare facility, as well as other related information, were projected on a screen as Hurdle addressed the crowd, which sat silently for much of the two-hour meeting. Hurdle said the city received and reviewed all of the public feedback in devising its plans for the site, which in its present, albeit dilapidated form, has the capacity to house up to 150 residents.
The feedback, Hurdle said, included suggestions for converting the site to a full medical facility to address the city’s increasing family doctor shortages and upgrading and maintaining the site as an elder care facility.
“We know that medical services are critical,” Hurdle said, while revealing new city plans to have roughly 50 per cent of the site dedicated to a medical clinic to address some of those needs. “We have been working with a medical clinic, a family physician clinic, and we are looking at providing significant space within 309 Queen Mary Rd.,” she said, presenting a slide showing the city’s proposed plans.
But per council’s strategic plan and directive, the Queen Mary site would also house supportive transitional housing, Hurdle said.
“We do need transitional supportive housing; we have it in many other districts in the community,” she said. “Based on the space that is available, we think we could accommodate between 30 to 35 people in that space, and that’s based on rooms accommodating couples as well, not just single individuals.”
The building is fully accessible in its current form, which provides the opportunity to house residents with serious mobility issues, Hurdle noted.
Finally, Hurdle said, the city received feedback suggesting the site could be converted for public use.
“When we met with residents from Grenville Park, many of them brought some good ideas forward and they asked if there was any way that some of the space could be made available to the community for different programs,” she said. “For example, there is a large commercial kitchen in the space, so the question is could we have other organizations or community members use it? I’m sure that most of you are familiar with Loving Spoonful, which provides cooking classes and those types of things. That’s the kind of use that we’re looking at. There were also questions about community rooms and having access to those for community use, so we have identified space for that.”
Hurdle reminded residents that the city currently operates other transitional housing facilities throughout Kingston, with others currently in the process of being converted to transitional facilities or earmarked to be so in the future.
“Supportive transitional housing is where people actually live, they don’t drop by, they actually pay rent and they live there,” she said. “We have a number of projects within the city, locations that have already opened,” she said, citing facilities located at 206 Concession St., 113 Lower Union St., 805 Ridley Dr., 494 Fieldstone Dr. and 484 Albert St.
The CAO also addressed concerns raised about the surrounding greenspace becoming an encampment similar to the one in the Belle Park area, noting that the city is not purchasing the adjoining land, which belongs to the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority.
“A lot of people thought we were actually buying a portion of the greenspace,” Hurdle told the crowd. “We are not. It’s really the boundary around the building itself, including the parking lot. The remainder of the property, the greenspace is owned in part by the CRCA and there may be some private ownership in there somewhere as well.”
Campbell reassured the crowd that the city had sifted through every email and survey related to the proposed project at 309 Queen Mary Rd.
“Behind the scenes, our team, along with senior leadership, do read every single piece of feedback that comes through — good, bad and otherwise,” she said. “We’ve had about 4,200 visits to the Get Involved page, there is an FAQ that was published, and we had about a thousand visits to that and 716 survey responses — a pretty high volume.”
Jen Brierley, who has lived in one of the condos on Queen Mary since 2011, reminded Hurdle of the city’s obligation to maintain a safe living environment for its residents.
“We are here right now to tell you that we do not accept any form of transitional housing,” she said. “We are asking you tonight, as part of our community, to work with us to ensure that our community remains a safe space for all. We ask you as you’ve noted in your message to the community to work together with us, to support each other with us and move together forward with us.”
An emotional Sobiesiak reminded the city that it was the residents who invited the city to come address them, and not the city initiating the gathering.
“The two town halls that have been held here have been called by us, paid for by us,” she said through tears. “We’re just being ignored. I just really want to emphasize that. That’s hurtful.”
Safety, Sobiesiak said, remains the residents’ greatest concern.
“You’re saying 55-plus. A lot of people work in health care and are aware that a good majority of the drug-using, drug-seeking population is actually in that age category,” Sobiesiak told Hurdle. “That scares us. So when you’re not defining where are these people coming from, who is going to be chosen to live here, that just compounds fear because anything you don’t know is scary, especially when it’s in your backyard. I don’t know if you don’t have an answer to that or you’re just not answering it, but that’s where the fear is coming from. You are telling us, and I notice the numbers keep going down, we started with 50 to 100, the mayor said four to 50, you’re saying 30 to 35. I’m ecstatic the numbers are going down. I hope we get it to zero. But the fear is the same.”
Hurdle explained that the proposed project has been an ever evolving one as city staff have been gathering information and consulting with its partners and potential partners regarding what the site would ultimately look like should it proceed.
“The comments that I made in the past (were that) the facility itself could accommodate that many people,” she said. “If you look at the facility, how it’s designed, the number of rooms, you could accommodate that many people. What I also indicated is that we were intending to bring other uses into the building. I made that very clear when I attended the first town hall that we didn’t have a fully defined plan at that point. This is why there have been changes.”
Sobiesiak told city officials that other transitional housing facilities around the city have, on average, 13 spaces, but that 309 Queen Mary has the potential to house 10 times that.
“I’m disappointed to see, again, the restating of the transitional housing facilities that you keep referring to in the context of 309 (Queen Mary). Again, on average, of all of your transitional housing supports that you have in this city average 13 spots. The potential space of 309 (Queen Mary) is 150. I guess that speaks to the fear because you may start off with 20, you may start off with 30, which is already more than any other option that you’re trying, but then how do we know that it’s not just going to grow? How do we know that it won’t wind up being 150? That’s where the fear is.”
Hurdle pointed to the proposed medical facility, which would account for half of the building’s space.
“In order to accommodate the medical clinic, we will need to make a number of building alterations,” she said. “With these alterations, the space is not going to be converted back to housing once it’s been converted to meet the needs of a medical clinic. We will be looking at a long-term lease as well with the medical clinic.”
Sobiesiak pressed Hurdle to provide an example of a transitional housing model that would rival the size of the proposed Queen Mary one that has succeeded.
“In Kingston, obviously we do not have one currently that has been built and provides for 30 to 35 individuals,” Hurdle admitted. “We have actually approved funding to build one that has 38 units, so higher than the numbers we’re looking at now, at 484 Albert. That one won’t be in this district or near this district but will be accommodating 38 youth in a couple of years.”
“So the answer to that question is that you don’t have a tangible example to give us,” Sobiesiak said.
Campbell said comparing transitional housing is difficult.
“It’s very challenging to actually take every transitional house and compare them to any other transitional location,” she said. “Certainly, we can talk about the numbers of individuals that are housed within them, but there is variance between them. Some are specifically identified for Indigenous use, others are identified for women and children, others are identified for youth, this one is being specifically identified for the 55-plus with mobility challenges, so I’m not suggesting I have a ready example to share that is identical to this, but I think I have to offer back that any transitional housing in the city is not similar to the next transitional housing because the program operators are different, the acuity of the people within the facility are different as well, and that’s also part of something that has to be considered when we’re thinking about how many people can live in each kind of transitional housing in different neighbourhoods.”
“We are going to be a guinea pig,” Sobiesiak said. “It’s not been tried before, it’s not been proven, so that’s the fear. You have no way of knowing whether this is going to be a wonderful thing or a complete disaster.”
Residents took turns asking city officials questions and pressing upon them the desire to see the site used for other purposes.
Davina Bernard, who owns a condo on Queen Mary Road and has lived in the neighbourhood her entire life, carried a sign with her listing myriad options for the site, many of them health-care related.
“What is holding you back from the entire facility being used Monday to Friday for these services that are required for the Greater Kingston population,” she asked.
Hurdle responded, saying that if transitional housing, which is part of the city’s mandate, isn’t included at the site, it would need to be purchased by a medical clinic or the provincial government and not the city.
“Municipal funding is not usually applied to health-care services,” she explained. “If this facility was to be entirely health-care services, then it would need to be purchased by either the medical clinic, which I can guarantee you they do not have the financial means to do that, or the provincial government, which I don’t believe has expressed an interest in acquiring this facility. Council has approved funding for housing, and the funding for affordable housing is actually being utilized to purchase this facility. Really, the clinic component is really not within the mandate. We’re trying to support it because we’re recognizing that it’s a huge community need.”
Tim Sugrue questioned Hurdle as to why the city isn’t considering retrofitting the building and maintaining it as an elder care facility?
“Why isn’t this building continuing to be an elder care facility,” he asked, to huge ovation. He also questioned the city’s unwavering desire to convert the facility into transitional housing.
“I had an unfortunate sort of thought during the PowerPoint presentation. It was sadly reminiscent of the same selling of the dream that happened on Montreal Street, telling those people what a great opportunity it was going to be,” he said as the crowd applauded.
Sugrue questioned the lack of public policy due diligence on the proposed project so far.
“I’ve done a lot of public policy stuff in my life, and this particular issue with the city is puzzling because of the total lack of the three pillars of public policy: consultation, fiduciary duty and due diligence,” he said.
Other residents questioned how the city could keep the surrounding greenspace from becoming an encampment similar to the one enveloping Belle Park.
“In terms of the encampment, the property that is located around the facility is actually private property,” Hurdle explained. “Kingston Police have the ability to remove individuals that are camping on private property.” She noted that city officials, bylaw and police recently acted swiftly to a complaint about someone who had set up a tent in the area.
“I got emails, the city acted on this and went and had the people removed and also cleaned up the land,” she said. “This is something that we would continue to do no matter what. The city has an encampment protocol for the entire city, and I can tell you that that protocol applies everywhere and there are many other places where there are tents set up.”
“So you’re saying that this is the norm?” someone from the crowd shouted as things began to get slightly heated.
“Kingston is not the only city where there are challenges with homelessness,” Hurdle answered.
“We don’t care about other cities,” others shouted.
Zoltan Boka, another resident, pressed Hurdle on the lack of public information on costs associated with renovating the building.
“How much is it going to cost?” he asked, to which Hurdle answered that the city has estimated the repairs at roughly $2 million over a couple of years on smaller repairs, which doesn’t include alterations to add the medical clinic.
“The budget that council has approved right now is $6.5 million,” Hurdle answered when asked.
Dagmar Freiwillig, who purchased her condo on Queen Mary last year, said she never would have had she known she’d be facing this.
“I am petrified of the potential danger that is coming to my neighbourhood,” she said.
Freiwillig asked city officials to consider other uses for the site that don’t include transitional housing.
“The funding does come from affordable housing; we don’t have funding for a medical facility,” Hurdle answered. “To be clear, if we remove the funding, the city is not purchasing the building, which is still possible,” she added as the crowd let out a rousing cheer.
Hurdle said the edict in the city’s strategic plan is to look at options for affordable and transitional housing, but that it could still opt not to proceed with the proposal at 309 Queen Mary.
“The direction that we have in our strategic plan from city council is to look at options for affordable and transitional housing,” she said. “The only way to really change any of this would be to not proceed with anything at all, which is a possibility. I do want to add that if that is the case, there would be no funding for the medical funding and I’m not sure what would happen there. But again, that’s not a city responsibility in terms of the medical clinic, we’re just trying to accommodate and make sure there is a service available for the public. I will say that council does have strategic priorities for affordable housing and transitional housing in all areas of the city.”
As the meeting wrapped, Sobiesiak informed city staff that the group will be presenting officials with a petition containing more than 1,100 signatures against the transitional housing project.
Hurdle promised there will be one more meeting prior to the final council vote.
“The final plan, budget, all of those things, will need to go back to council for approval,” she said. “Staff can bring reports with recommendations, but staff cannot make decisions, I want to be clear about that. I don’t want anybody leaving tonight thinking that I’m the sole decision-maker on this. I’m not. We will provide council with the information and the options, we will look at this not only from the community perspective but from the overall community perspective, and we’ll be providing that information to council.”
Following the meeting, Hurdle was asked how firm the city is in its resolve to locate transitional housing at 309 Queen Mary.
“That’s a council strategic plan priority,” she said. “It’s in our strategic plan. We have been actively acquiring properties across the community to implement transitional housing. Council has the ability to say no if for whatever reason we don’t want to put transitional housing in one neighbourhood but we will put it into other neighbourhoods. But I doubt that would be council’s perception on transitional housing. What we’re really trying to do is make sure we can properly integrate it into the community.”
The work, Hurdle said, will continue.
Following the meeting, Sobiesiak expressed that the residents felt heard, given that the city came with concrete plans that included a medical facility and fewer transitional housing units.
“We are being heard,” she said. “The pushback is working. We’re going to continue pushing back until we’re fully heard, because from the beginning, our main objective was no transitional housing. The numbers … started at 150, went to 100, went to 50, now we’re down to 30 to 35, but the potential is still there. I am so proud of our community and the coalition of neighbourhoods that we have built that stand united.”
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