Following months of controversy and uncertainty, the City of Ottawa has announced it will not be proceeding with building semi-permanent sprung structure shelters for newcomers in Kanata and Nepean.
In a memo released on Wednesday, Kale Brown, interim director of housing and homelessness services and community and social services at the City, said staff are adjusting the plan for welcoming newcomers “as a result of decreasing demand” and “new opportunities.”
In November, the city identified five city-owned sites to host sprung-shelter facilities for newcomers and asylum seekers, and some members of the affected communities promptly took to the streets in protest.
At that time, the city had selected its “top five” options for the newcomer reception project and is fast-tracking necessary planning and funding in order to have the facilities operational by the end of 2025.
The first structure was planned for 1645 Woodroffe Ave., which is a portion of the NCC-owned parcel. The City currently leases the land for an underutilized football field. The property also houses the Nepean Sportsplex and an OCDSB training facility.
If necessary, the second facility was planned for Hearst Way, which is located west of Eagleson Road and the Eagleson BRT station. It is near the future Stage 2 LRT station and currently serves as overflow parking for the Eagleson Park & Ride.
The newcomer reception project aims to address an influx of newcomers and immigrants that has been exacerbating the city’s ongoing homelessness crisis. The key aspects of the project included temporary shelter in one of the “reception centres” for up to 90 days, followed by connection to community and health resources, employment, interpretation and translation services and language training, and access to transitional housing and ongoing housing support.
The newcomer reception system also involves the establishment of new transitional housing facilities for newcomers, the purchase of up to 20 scattered homes to be used as transitional housing, and the development of up to two newcomer reception centres as required.
Beginning in June 2023, Ottawa experienced a “significant and unprecedented increase” in the number of asylum claimants accessing shelters, Brown said in the memo. The number of single adult asylum claimants being served in the shelter system peaked at over 1,000 people.
However, as a result of federal immigration policy changes that were announced in fall of 2024 and an increase in the capacity of newcomer-specific transitional housing, the number of asylum claimants relying on community shelters and overflow beds has decreased, Brown said.
As a result, Brown said “staff are adjusting the infrastructure requirements” in the newcomer reception proposal that is being negotiated with Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
For example, the YMCA has announced it will not be pursuing the purchase of a building at 180 Argyle Ave., which is currently being used as transitional housing. Instead, the YMCA will be working with the City to convert additional space in the building and accommodate additional newcomers.
The federal government also confirmed that the anticipated buyer of 250 Lanark Avenue will not be proceeding with the sale, allowing staff to consider other uses for the space.
“These new opportunities, paired with demand trending downwards, will eliminate the need to develop the newcomer reception centres at 1645 Woodroffe Avenue and 40 Hearst Way,” said Brown. “As such the procurement process and the plans to build at these locations will not proceed. The pre-development work completed to date will be kept and staff will continue to monitor trends in demand.”
City councillors of both wards were caught off guard by the news of the planned centres in November. Sean Devine, councillor of Knoxdale-Merivale — where the first facility was planned — hosted a community information session on Dec. 5 that saw protests and some attendees walk out.
One protestor was detained and removed from the premises by police for rushing the stage and refusing to cooperate with law enforcement.
Now, Devine says he is “enthused” that although the City is taking a different approach, it is “not so much a change in direction about whether or not to to offer these supports and services.”
“As consistently as I can, I’ve been advocating that our city provide good, appropriate supports and services to vulnerable newcomers arriving to our city. That’s been my, one of my primary focuses,” he told Ottawa Compass. “At the same time, however, I’ve been raising questions and concerns about the way in which this file has been handled by the city.”
“There will always be people in my ward who were never pleased that this project was happening, and I will not win their support back,” he explained. “I completely understand that, because while I was advocating, while I was pushing staff to make sure that what we do is done in the most responsible way possible, I was still being supportive of the overall intentions, and so some people were not pleased with that.
“But at the same time, there have been many residents of my ward who remain critical of this project who at the very least appreciated the fact that I had been pushing for some changes,” Devine continued. “I’d like to think that for my residents who were critical of this, they will see that my oversight role was at least precipitating towards having the best outcome possible.”
Since the announcement was made this week, Devine said he’s already heard from residents of his ward, his inbox “lighting up” from people who are supportive of the City, pleased with his handling of the situation, or generally relieved that the shelters will not be proceeding as planned.
Before the City announced the update, Devine said his team had already planned meetings this week to discuss the project, and he said he intends to proceed with those.
He said he had questions about the procurement and site selection process that resulted in the site in his ward being chosen to house a shelter, and he said he was looking to understand the financing process as well.
“One might say that my questions are no longer relevant, but I have a lot of concerns and doubts about the procurement process we followed, and so I still want to get those questions answered, because I want to find out if we had embarked on a road that we should not have embarked on in the first place,” he said. “And then, with regards to financing… I still am not sure if the city is in a position to finance this overall project.
“We’re still moving forward, and I need to make sure that our procurement processes are transparent there, and I need to make sure that we can finance this project,” Devine concluded. “So I guess the only thing is, even though everything has changed here, my oversight role has not, and I still have to ask those questions and get them answered.”
