‘Every county person should be embarrassed’: Sparks fly as Oxford Council gets earful from public on homeless shelter at former YMCA

The former Woodstock, Ont. YMCA building has been purchased by Oxford County for use as a homeless shelter. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)

Sparks were flying and tears were shed at the meeting of Oxford County Council Wednesday.

For the first time, the public had a chance to weigh-in on a leaked announcement last week that the former Woodstock YMCA building on Dundas Street is being turned into a homeless shelter.

“It is people falling through the cracks over and over again until there is nowhere left to fall. I have watched my son struggle in ways that I would never wish on another family,” said Tracey Sherman in an emotional delegation to council.

The Woodstock mother told councillors of her family’s struggles with a son who has schizophrenia and lives on the street.

“This new building gives me hope because people need more than a temporary place to sleep. They need stability. They need dignity. They need safety,” she said.

Sherman was one of several people who spoke at council about news that became public last week and took many by surprise.

It was revealed that last month council approved the purchase of the former Woodstock YMCA building to be redeveloped into a homelessness support centre, a 24-hour shelter with supports.

The decision took place behind closed doors. It was a move that did not sit well with some residents including Kelly and Justin Byers, who lashed out at council over the action.

“I can’t believe I’m standing up here to be against this,” said Byers. “Yet, the whole process of how you’ve run this behind closed doors, and to find out through a leaked media report is where we’re standing today. It’s ridiculous. Every county person should be embarrassed at how that happened.”

Oxford County Warden Marcus Ryan fired back in an exchange that went on for several minutes.

“There are people who are unrepresented here today, who we shouldn’t forget, and that’s people who are sleeping under tarps tonight, people who slept in tents last night in parks,” Ryan retorted.

“And there are businesses that came to open up their business this morning and had somebody in their doorway, and they couldn’t open up their business because there was somebody sleeping in the doorway and they had to phone the police,” he continued.

County council unanimously supported a motion by Coun. Deb Tait to hold a public input meeting on the homelessness support centre before the end of July.

“It’s not debating the homeless centre. There was no input from anybody, other than around this table, of that location,” she said.

It was Tait who originally went public with council’s closed-door decision to purchase the Dundas Street property for use as a shelter.

Council voted 8-2 in favour of sole sourcing the architectural design work for the homelessness support centre at a cost of up to $250,000. The contract will be granted to JPM Architecture Inc.

County staff told councillors the architectural work will be done in parallel with the public input process.

Councillors Deb Tait and Deb Gilvesy voted against the recommendation.