If Sarnia City Council goes ahead with dismantling an encampment at Rainbow Park, there are shelter beds available, for those who want to use them.
Lambton's Social Services General Manager Valerie Colasanti told Lambton County Council Wednesday there are a total of 145 shelter beds available within the county, 76 of those are county funded through the Inn of the Good Shepherd and 69 are funded through River City Vineyard.
She said over the last 12 months, the Inn of the Good Shepherd Lodge and the overflow shelter at the former Laurel-Lea St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church have only been at a 73 per cent utilization rate, and only 44 per cent for the last month.
Colasanti said the overflow shelter was scheduled to close on May 2, however despite low usage, the shelter will remain open for the next month or so.
"Although some individuals state they want to come into the overflow shelter, we were only seeing five or six a night," she said. "Some individuals just don't want to come into congregate care, some are heavily addicted and they want to be able to utilize drugs 24/7, for some they suffer with perhaps an undiagnosed mental health issue. So there really are various issues, it's not the same for any individual."
She said county staff have been visiting the individuals staying at Rainbow Park regularly.
"Our county workers are going twice a day to Rainbow Park, on top of visiting anyone else that may be living outside or needing their services," said Colasanti. "But, they're going, they're offering these services of available resources. If the offer is declined, they continue to go back and ask them if they'd like to move, but they don't have any authority or ability to relocate those individuals."
A handful of delegations are scheduled to speak at city council's meeting on Monday in regards to Rainbow Park.
Meanwhile, Lambton County Council on Wednesday also passed a motion brought forward by Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley calling for action from the Ford Tories, and to treat homelessness as an emergency.
"Just as we did, and they changed their position as it related to violence against women, to treat this an emergency," said Bradley. "Take the lead and bring all the municipalities, health units and other agencies together to come up with a comprehensive plan to at least move forward on this issue, instead of allowing 444 municipalities to paddle in the water and going no place and trying to deal with this crisis in their communities."
In the budget tabled on March 26, the provincial government announced investments designed to increase housing, including $1 billion for the new Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program.