A permanent shelter in Bancroft isn’t just important - it’s necessary. So many in our community are struggling silently without a safe place to go. A shelter would provide stability, safety, and a real chance for people to rebuild their lives. Everyone deserves a place to call home, even if it’s temporary. This is about compassion, dignity, and doing the right thing for our neighbours.
Stranded in an emergency for at least 6 years!
I volunteer with others who prepare and deliver meals to 30 or more vulnerable people without adequate shelter in North Hastings. There is no indoor location open to them them during the day all year. Winter cold, freezing rain, summer heat waves, bad air quality from wildfires and extreme storms...nowhere to be safe inside from April on to December. Nowhere to keep their few belongings. Nowhere to use a washroom or to bathe.
In December, they can use a poorly set-up portable building for warmth but for only 8 hours each night. Our hearts break for them every day. Enough is enough. Everyone deserves shelter and safety. This is a basic human right.
Homeless is a MASSIVE problem, in Bancroft and elsewhere. There are next to no services whatsoever available in Bancroft for individuals who are unhoused or precariously unhoused. Expecting those people to make use of services located in Belleville, 1.5-2 hours away (one way), is unreasonable given there is NO transportation between Bancroft and Belleville. Most people who are unhoused or precariously housed do not own cars of their own, and therefore have no ability to transport themselves from Bancroft to the Belleville area to access services. Bancroft experiencing significant issues of its own and its people deserve their own services.
At North Hastings Community Cupboard we are seeing incredible suffering of the unhoused. While we are happy to see progress in a permanent location for a warming centre, so much more is needed in North Hastings. We need a year round solution and for County funding to be targeted directly to the north to properly address this crisis. The lack of affordable housing has only been increasing over time, and the desperation we are witnessing in our community continues to mount. We need every level of government to step up with real solutions and a year round shelter.
Whether you work for the township, the county, the province or federally, you also work on behalf of the people and that includes everyone. We need to support each other however possible. No one should have to go without a roof over their head.
To be expected to pay £ thousands in 14 days because you have been late paying a monthly instalment by a few days (even 2 days!!!!) is completely unjust. They add on a few hundred extra as well to send the letter. Like other bills, it should be OK to pay a bit late sometimes - with just a late fee. Not a few hundred pounds penalty and a demand for £3.5 k in 14 days or else.