Government funds pour in, but Cobourg's vagrancy and crime crises show no signs of stopping
The small-town community continues to grapple with vagrancy despite a doubling in government funding, as one advocate works to address gaps in services and highlights the failures of local shelter agencies.
Northumberland County and its sole-source contracted shelter provider, Transition House, are facing growing criticism in Cobourg, once known as "Ontario’s feel-good town."
Situated along the 401 corridor, just an hour’s drive east of Toronto, the community has been grappling with a sharp rise in crime, violence, and vagrancy over the past two years. These issues have persisted despite a multi-million dollar doubling in government funding intended to address homelessness and addiction.
Driven by concern for his community, Jordan Stevenson founded the registered non-profit organization called IHARC – Integrated Homelessness and Addictions Recovery Centre (IHARC). Stevenson’s goal is to make service access easier, while also acknowledging the harm caused by addiction, homelessness and mental health struggles on both individuals and the broader community.
Stevenson says there is a lack of unified access to agencies and services. “It’s been an uphill battle just simply trying to have a communication framework with organizations like Transition House. There’s no willingness to participate or work collaboratively and ultimately it affects the people we’re all trying to help,” he explains.
The situation escalated earlier this month when Stevenson was conducting a treatment intake for an individual seeking help on the property of Transition House. He was removed and trespassed from the property while the process was underway.
Despite the hurdles that IHARC has faced in attempting to work collaboratively, Stevenson has already been able to facilitate two individuals into treatment in just under two weeks.
The same cannot be said for Transition House.
“It’s this cycle of the same people remaining in the system year after year,” Stevenson says. “We had two people enter the program within the span of a week which means the beds were just sitting empty so obviously there is something wrong.”
“Unfortunately when it comes to these agencies like Transition House and the County, there’s a reluctance or a flat-out refusal to acknowledge any barriers or any problems and just stick with the status quo,” he furthers.
Although Transition House and the 310 Division location reside in downtown Cobourg, the upper-tier municipality of Northumberland County is responsible for funding allocation and oversight of social services. When presented with claims of community complaints by Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland, Northumberland County’s Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Moore feigned that “she is personally unaware of such problems,” as reported by Today’s Northumberland.
Stevenson says this is false. “As part of the program that we run, we don’t just address concerns of those living homeless or facing addiction, we also address concerns of community members in what I coin community-based harm reduction.”
Overall, Stevenson says the situation in Cobourg and Northumberland County is a prime example of the government throwing money at something and hoping it will go away.
Where all of the “wrap-around services” and tangible outcomes provided by such multi-million dollar funding are remains largely a mystery.
Public disorder, vagrancy, crime and chaos are issues facing towns, cities and communities all across Canada amid the Liberal government's failing billion-dollar “safer” drug supply strategy and decriminalization pilot projects, with “harm-reduction” efforts by radical advocacy groups and private interest funders resulting in increased drug use and overdoses.
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Bruce Atchison commented 2024-12-10 19:53:31 -0500Get rid of Trudeau and Canada will be free to become great again. Trudeau just makes Canada g r a t e.
