Kingston councillor calls on care hub to create safety plan if it wants to keep funding

A councillor in Kingston, Ont., is calling on the city's Integrated Care Hub (ICH) to create a safety plan and set up a community consultation group in order to continue receiving funding from the city.

The motion from King's Town representative Greg Ridge notes the site has helped save "many lives" by providing shelter, supervised consumption and other services. But it also states neighbouring residents have long raised health and safety concerns about the site.

"The only way that we as a municipality can make a positive difference in this is to recognize both of those realities and to move forward in a way that works for everybody," Ridge told CBC in an interview.

"If we don't do that, then we're going to be doomed to fail over and over and over again."

The motion states the city has provided the ICH with $5.5 million since 2020, including a $4-million startup contribution and $500,000 annually.

Seeking data on services, emergency calls

It suggests any application for further funding include a plan that considers the safety of clients, staff and neighbours, and sets out requirements for a community consultation group that should be established by the end of November.

The motion also directs staff to work with the ICH to collect data on the services it provides, along with the number of visits emergency services make to the area, in order to compare it to other parts of the city.

It's being seconded by Mayor Bryan Paterson and will be considered during council's next meeting on Tuesday.

The call comes in the wake of a series of deadly attacks that happened in the encampment that's grown around the ICH and on nearby Montreal Street on Sept. 12. The rash of violence left two men dead and a woman seriously injured.

It also led some, including from the mayor, to push for the site to be shut down. In a statement issued shortly after the attacks, Paterson called for the encampment to be cleared and the ICH shuttered until a "better way" to support vulnerable residents could be found.

A representative for the organizations that runs the ICH, which includes Trellis HIV & Community Care and Addiction & Mental Health Services KFLA, declined an interview, but said they're working on a statement in response to the motion.

The site has remained closed since the attacks and is still fenced off.

A statement by the ICH partners on Oct. 1 said planning is underway to manage access to the hub in accordance with a revised operational plan, which incorporates the fencing around the site.

Ridge described the violence as a "terrible tragedy," adding that while it may have been the impetus for a renewed focus on safety, his motion seeks a holistic approach to what's been happening in the area.

'Lived experience' wanted

He said the community consultation group is meant to create a place for conversations about how the hub is operating and the impact on everyone involved, adding it would provide regular updates to council.

The councillor envisions neighbours sitting down with him, city staff and ICH workers, as well as those who rely on the site.

"Whether that's someone who uses the service alone, or someone that uses the service and resides potentially in the encampment nearby, I think it's really important to have that lived experience on there as well," he explained.

Ridge added he believes the ICH and its services are in a "very precarious position," so transparency and accountability are needed to make the site sustainable.

He said the debate about the Hub and its future has become increasingly polarized.

"We need to be looking at the bigger picture here and and seeing what we can do to help everybody, help the organizations providing these services, help the people using these services, the staff and the neighbours around it," Ridge said. "That's the only way that this is going to work."

In the meantime, the site remains closed and the councillor said he expects the fencing around the ICH to be in place for "some time."

Ridge said exterminators are still on site tackling a "considerable" rat infestation that will take until at least the end of next week to address.

Only then can work begin to address soil contamination, which will require sending samples to the Ministry of Environment and waiting for a response.