Belleville council agrees to fund Not Alone Team Quinte tiny-home concept plan

A plan in the works to ultimately build a tiny shelter community of 50 cabins on the outskirts of Belleville could be just the solution for homeless persons to get off the streets and back on their feet toward a healthier and more productive life, Belleville city council heard Monday.

In a deputation to city leaders, volunteers Debbie Lee and Vino Noronha with Not Alone Team Quinte – a not-for-profit group based in Belleville dedicated to helping, clothe and feed unhoused persons --requested $25,000 in seed funding from city coffers to prepare a concept plan to help make the tiny-house idea a reality.

Lee and Noronha said with basic start-up funding to retain BetterStreet founder and consultant Tony D'Amato Stortz to help pen the concept plan, a new path forward could be framed to give homeless persons in Belleville a more semi-permanent refuge of their own to begin rebuilding life anew.

Lee informed council Not Alone Team Quinte is in the process of filing for official charitable status and already oversees five different operations to help the homeless in the city including a holiday program, a meal program, the pet foster program, outreach program and referral to community resources and services.

“If you pass the United Church, you know the homeless problem is growing and is everywhere. Over the last five years of working with the homeless, we've learned so much from each of them, the stories and the stigma that follows them,” Lee said.

According to a study done in April 2021, Lee said “there are roughly 180 people in Belleville, 72 people who have experienced homelessness for at least 12 months. The Grace Inn only has 21 beds.”

She pointed to a years' long waiting list for subsidized housing as rents climb above $1,500 a month, a tough monthly obligation for those battling mental and physical health issues on very limited social services funds.

Noronha told council Not Alone Team Quinte and its steering committee are now working on the tiny shelter community idea and with the right progress and partnerships hope to have at least one portable cabin built and placed by December's end of this year.

“We're looking to build a community of safe, warm, lockable tiny shelters with a bed, a fire extinguisher, carbon-monoxide monitor and smoke detector and these units would be portable. So, we're looking to do one eight-by-12, insulated shelter for each individual, a place that they can call home,” Noronha said.

Ultimately, the tiny houses would be complemented by “a main area for eating, showers, laundry facilities and wrap-around services to come to their location to help them heal and get back on their feet.”

As part of the first phase of exploration of the tiny shelter community idea, volunteers are looking for a property that is one to eight acres in size on the edge of the city to avoid expected objections by homeowners in the city.

“The residents will abide by a code of conduct with a set of rules fostering safety, respect and responsibility,” Noronha said. “We see this homeless crisis as an opportunity for community-based problem solving. In this time of crisis, we need to come together both the public and private sector to solve this community problem.”

Councillors liked the Not Alone Team Quinte initiative but not everyone around the horseshoe was fully sold on the idea at first.

A majority of councillors expressed serious reservations about spending $25,000 without more of a preliminary thumbnail sketch of sorts to provide more details about the consultant to be hired to help frame the concept plan.

The reticence was evident given a fall election is only months away with heightened taxpayer scrutiny over city expenditures in the leadup to the polls Oct. 24.

However, Coun. Paul Carr brought clarity to council chambers when he challenged reservations about handing money to a group seeking expertise from a consultant on homelessness who was unknown to councillors.

Carr informed his council colleagues that the consultant in question is Tony D'Amato Stortz, founder of BetterStreet which has helped cities such as Kitchener, Kingston and currently Peterborough set up tiny shelter communities.

“Are we going to do all we can to help, or are we going to find reasons not to?” Carr asked his colleagues. “The reality here is: Are we going to micromanage this project?”

Carr said: “Tony D'Amato Stortz is the founder of BetterStreet, which offers strategies, problem-solving, and training for groups helping those who experience homelessness, drug addiction, and mental health problems. BetterStreet endorses and assists sanctioned `tiny home' communities for these vulnerable individuals.”

“Tony worked for a year as site superintendent for A Better Tent City in Kitchener, Ont., one of the tiny home communities in Canada. In Kitchener, Tony used his construction experience, business training, and people skills to achieve many goals, including: helping to build the heated cabins residents would live in; planning and executing two moves of the entire community; managing two Covid outbreaks; and bridging gaps between the professional and street worlds,” Carr said reading from the betterstreet.ca website.

Stortz, according to the website, is “currently advising the Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters in Hamilton, Ont. as it sets up 10 to 20 individual cabins where residents can live independently in a supportive community” and has a B.A. in Commerce from the University of Guelph.

Following Carr's call for a recorded vote, city council voted unanimously to support allocating the money to Not Alone Team Quinte to fund its concept plan.

Mayor Mitch Panciuk said the funding can be sourced from unused funds originally earmarked for paid duty patrols in the Downtown District.

Panciuk said, “the funding we are providing is not for a consultant, the funding is for a concept plan. What Not Alone Team Quinte chooses to do to get the expertise to help them with the report is up to them.”

The mayor added, “when I look at a report that will come from them, I will judge their credibility on who helped prepare it but I'm not going to tell them how to do it. I'm not going to demand that the consultant come before us to report.”

Council asked for the completed concept plan to be delivered to City Hall by year's end.