‘We’re essentially being held hostage in our own neighbourhood,’ say Niagara Falls residents living near shelter

“We can’t take our kids to the park,” said Amanda Jellema, who lives on Lowell Avenue, behind the shelter. “We can’t walk the dogs. We can’t go out at night. We’re essentially being held hostage in our own neighbourhood.” 

The Region funds emergency shelters to provide temporary support for people experiencing homelessness while they find suitable housing. The goal is to have the experience with homelessness be as short as possible and not happen again.

But for residents and businesses in the Main Street, Lowell Avenue and Summer Street area, the presence of the housing-focused shelter has led to a multitude of issues they say are ruining the established tight-knit neighbourhood.

“The biggest concern for us is safety and security for our family and the community. Commercial properties as well are experiencing issues,” said Jellema, adding she was “nominated” by her neighbours to address Niagara Falls city council during its Tuesday meeting, with many of them in the gallery.

“Daily, we are experiencing property theft, vandalism, stolen mail, break and enters, verbal threats from residents when they’re caught trespassing on our properties, fighting in the streets … in front of our children.”

She said some of this is happening directly on Summer Street, in view of two school bus stops.

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• Dec 31, 1969
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“The open drug use — it doesn’t appear they’re using inside, but they’re definitely using outside, and not just on the property, but in the neighbourhood.”

Jellema said residents have had to pick up used crack pipes, syringes, naloxone kits and tinfoil with drug residue on it.

“We’re seeing people publicly urinating and defecating in the area. We can’t have kids play in our yards. You have to go and do a perimeter check every time. The Coronation Park that was recently redone, full of needles, full of garbage. The Niagara Regional Police have been great in responding to us, but there’s only so much they can do.”

She said residents and businesses have installed fences and purchased security cameras and alarm systems. They’ve also had to replace stolen or damaged property.

“We understand the plight of everybody in the shelter. It’s a service that we really think is essential. The people working there are doing a great service and they’ve been very accommodating.

”(But) it’s a magnet for crime. It’s a magnet for drug dealers. It’s a magnet for people willing to prey on the people who are there. It’s unfortunate but, unfortunately, we’re bearing the brunt.”

Jellema submitted a petition signed by 112 people impacted by the shelter, as well as photos of items being found and emails from concerned citizens who could not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

She read out an email from Andrew Davidson, who has a dental practice on Main Street, adjacent to the shelter.

In the email, Davidson said the shelter has had “negative repercussions” for businesses and residents and “we’ve been confronted with a multitude of issues that have profoundly impacted our daily operations and safety of our staff.”

“While I am sympathetic to the housing crisis in the Niagara region, the placement of the shelter in an established tight-knit community has been nothing short of a disaster,” said Davidson, adding that it was done without consulting the community.

“I implore you to consider the detrimental impact that the shelter has had on our business and the well-being of our community members. The shelter is destroying our community and I plead that another location for it can be found.”

He said that if issues persist, he may relocate his dental practice.

“Such a decision would have a far-reaching consequence, not only for our business, but also for the many local patients who rely on our services.”

Jason Burgess, the city’s chief administrative officer, said he has “significant sympathy and frustration,” adding that city and Region staff spend “incredible” resources trying to address issues.

He said concerns expressed by Jellema are not unique to that neighbourhood, adding that problems exist in other areas of Niagara Falls, as well as in other communities.

“The thing with Summer Street, I understand there are challenges, but it is actually a best-practice approach that we’re using,” said Burgess. “It is not just a shelter. This is a housing-focused shelter.”

Some people in the gallery began to react to Burgess’s comments, which led Mayor Jim Diodati to ask for decorum in the chamber.

“We’re going to have to solve it collectively,” Diodati said. “We’ve got to deal with the Region, we’ve got to deal with police, we’ve got to deal with our bylaw, we’ve got to deal with a lot of different agencies to make this happen and the best way to do it is if we can come collectively and orderly.” 

Burgess said the number of people finding housing out of the Summer Street shelter is “higher than in many other shelters.”

He said the city and Region can’t “move the problem to somebody else’s neighbourhood,” adding that municipalities can’t “regulate or zone them out — it’s against the law.”

Burgess said many times it’s not the people in the shelter causing problems, it “attracts other people.”

“Some days I feel like it’s a big game of Whac-A-Mole, but at the end of the day, someone needs to solve the core issue,” he said.

“You can’t … give someone ($733 from Ontario Works) a month and say, go live and be a productive member of society. It hasn’t worked, I don’t think it will work, and we need to figure something else out. Yes, we’re investing more into it. Yes, they’re receiving counselling there. Yes, it’s a housing-focused thing to try to get them (into stable housing). But the Region and us aren’t going to solve it. It’s going to require multiple levels.”

Council approved a motion asking staff to report back with answers to the questions raised by residents and to set up a meeting, which will have representation from the neighbourhood, city, Region and police, in an effort to solve problems.