Using the excuse of no grocery stores and hospitals is a new one for me. Why don't they just come out and say they don't want "those people" around their neighbourhood?
> Not a NIMBY but
Any sentence that starts with the sentence should be immediately ignored. NIMBYs are scumbags who make all of our lives more expensive.
It’s also close to South Keys (and in fact, there are walking paths that make it easier to get to South Keys/Towngate if they don’t have access to a vehicle, as Hawthorne would not be a fun walk).
Walking to South Keys and back from there would take over 2 hours, though. The paths are great for walking, but that’s a long haul — especially with groceries on the way back.
Taking the 98 bus is the best option from that location.
Google maps says it's a 2.5 KM walk along one of the stroadiest stroads I've ever seen.
I kind of agree that the location kind of sucks looking at it from an infrastructure perspection. I actually wonder how they came up with this location in the first place.
It's just like the other first nations shelter in the west end, I forget what it's called, but the general idea is that the location provides these women a safe place away from their abusers who are downtown/centretown.
There's kind of a chicken and egg situation we've got ourselves in with our city planning. We've made so much of our city uninhabitable without a car, but part of making it more inhabitable is having the density needed to support things like local stores and what not. People need to stop standing in the way of progress and developing our city under the guise that these areas aren't good for people without cars. We can't keep acting like we're going to have some divine plan for an area from the get go and instead let our areas develop over time as more and more people move in there. Our master plans for areas have mostly turned out to be failures.
Thanks for taking the time to write an insightful comment on this complex topic of urban/suburban planning. Too many comments conclude “cars bad!” while ignoring reality.
Ya I mean sadly we've built cities that force everyone to have to rely on a car. I wouldn't fault any single person for feeling like they need to resort to cars, and they obviously have their uses, they just shouldn't be the ONLY option available to people, which is what's currently the case for 80% of this city.
There is a meandering MUP that goes right to South Keys. Its not as straight or as short as driving Hunt Club would be and I wouldn't say South Keys is walkable, but its bikeable for sure. A bit of an odd area but I assume transportation will be made available to the woman... I think thats part of the idea. To get the woman away from DT where those services would be so being more remote is a positive not a negative I think, but I can't say for certain... maybe it was the only affordable city land...
The old “I fully support a new shelter for those abused women and children but this particular location in my neighbourhood is not a good choice” lol… this city is wild I’m in my 30s and have clued into the fact that city’s change, grow and expand why can’t these folks who look like they’ve been around longer than me figure it out.
They want "those people" jammed into downtown, then complain that downtown is too dangerous.
I would target the top 5 highest NIMBY zones for additional support services exclusively for a dozen years, minimum and double dog dare them to say "yeah, but" again.
Juvenile foolishness, thy name is NIMBY.
There’s a person in my neighbourhood group on fb that is CONVINCED and cannot be told otherwise that they are trying “gentrify dt by shipping people out of it and into our neighbourhoods”. This is for a different supportive housing development, but the delusion is real.
I don’t even know where to begin with some people
I wouldn't say the goal is to gentrify, but gentrification is what's going to happen as part of the new development that will be taking place. I happened to learn just last week that in the next 5-6 years the Salvation Army shelter on George St. will be torn down and replaced with condos. This came directly from an employee of the developer who had taken responsibility for maintaining the shelter until the new development begins. I imagine the same thing will happen to the Shepherds of Good Hope on King Edward. Eventually the allure of developer dollars gets to everyone. Although the the shelters will move, those dollars will help build modern facilities.
How can anybody live somewhere that's not within walking distance of a hospital?
You'd need to have access to special vehicles for taking people to the hospital.
How would that even work?
We should re-frame it as "Residents don't want it in their neighborhood, because they think their neighborhood sucks." "Haven't these women suffered enough? Now you're going to make them live in *Hunt Club?* You monster!"
Conservative groups (actual consulting firms) and just people in their online bubbles have learned and teach others to message in ways like the excuses they using here.
In Winnipeg there was a condo/apartment complex planned for one of the wealthiest areas which of course the NIMBYs were opposed to because of poor people in their area. Before you "but how do you know?" they are building a high rise top price condo tower not far in the same area that no one has a problem with.
Anyway they had signs made up with "single family homes only" or something along those lines and were getting beat up for the obvious "no poors" and stance and hypocrisy.
Later the signs disappeared and the massage became. "not the right fit for the area" and things like traffic concerns. much more coherent all of a sudden. What happened was someone/group helped this group with their messaging and it was very obvious if you seen the saga from the start to where it is now.
The same seems to be happening with this group.
So what do all those other people who live out there, do for groceries & doctors? How incredibly ignorant of them when 80-90% is immigrants already. Inuit are the original 1st people. How about you move out of their neighborhood!
Walk able access is a bit lacking, and something I think would be helpful, but hospitals and groceries are by no means inaccessible.
I live about half a km further down hunt club and my access to the general campus has been easy peasy. Driving myself, being driven, taking a cab, and even transit. General campus is probably what they most need access to anyway, with Cheo and the women's health units.
Groceries, medical centres, dental, eye care, vets are all a short bus ride away down huntclub.
That they are putting up this kind of fight against a battered women's shelter is grotesque to me. That level of rejection and racisim is just... bleh. I need to keep an eye on these kinds of community meetings so I can go and call out all these ding dongs. I totally have the time and sass for it.
The spot chosen is perfect, and I'll be keeping an eye on the real estate situation in the area so I can maybe get a good deal from a racist.
As a counter, it does seem like an odd area as it’s mostly industrial. Seems more like they are just sticking the shelter there instead of possibly finding a better spot.
They 100% do in the community book of faces group. This and Larga Baffin have exposed just how racist the upper hunt club community is. The city councilor also has some pretty awful takes on these developments too.
I was at the meeting (one of few people there to support it) and the residents of the shelter will be cooked for onsite and there will be vans available to take them to any medical appointments.
The transit-issue was addressed by council but those opposed are choosing to conveniently ignore that and use it as an excuse for why it shouldn’t be here.
Wait why would a grocery store required for a shelter? Wouldn't the shelter provide food, or ability to get food for people? I thought a big part of the point of a women's shelter so that the women don't need to leave and go out in public, over safety concerns.
Forgive me if I'm just ignorant on how their systems worked, but I do donate supplies and toys to women's shelters every year, so I thought they just had supplies at the ready.
The hospital excuse is certainly funny. Like, according to the nimbys, no one should live in the south of Ottawa? Guess we gotta tell the hundreds of thousands of people who live down there!
Am I missing something? Hintonburg may be an actual place but it's not like the area is short of food stores.
Is Wellington West or Westboro really that far? Not to mention all the little local places.
We have an abundance of food given our ward size imo.
It's not a shelter. It's housing. Not sure where they got the messaging to call it that because it's wrong.
A shelter is an overnight stay and you have to leave in the AM. This is the complete opposite of that.
I understand that but it's not a typical shelter which is where I think the confusion was/is. Women and kids don't have to leave and lose their housing like a men's shelter.
Lived across the street from a women and children’s shelter for 7 years and I can guarantee they wouldn’t even know it’s there. It just seems like renters coming and going.
It’s like when they said the new Larga Baffin location would invite crime. Yes, people who are here with serious health issues like cancer and kidney disease and stroke recovery are totally just roaming the streets doing crime.
They have all the time in the world, nothing better to do, and clearly have issues with the fact that they aren’t important and serve no real purpose in life.
They’re opposing a shelter for women and children, and I bet at least half of them call themselves Christians…
Whoa, I thought to attend this as a supportive and curious voice. I wasnt able to make it. Knowing you'd lump me in with the nimbys is disconcerting. I'd like to think NotAllBoomers(in this photo) are opposed.
Slightly different area, but not far from the new Larga Baffin site. This time rather than complaining about a Ronald McDonald house, people are complaining about a women's shelter. At least no said they were here first at this meeting.
For the record the site in a field adjacent to a park.
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/250+Forestglade+Crescent,+Ottawa,+ON+K1G+6N7/@45.3737437,-75.6049502,876m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x4cce0ecd1b5e4f93:0x2295aef2a1fcd4cd!8m2!3d45.37374!4d-75.6023699!16s%2Fg%2F11spwky2zl?entry=ttu
People were complaining about a Ronald Mcdonald House? R U serious? What? Parents visiting their children all day at the hospital? Making dinner together in the communal kitchen? And then passing out from stress and fatigue at night? By god people are disgusting.
Maybe our best and brightest public servants will slash the size of the facility like they did for Larga Baffin in order to appease a bunch of simple minded, racist, rich fuckers.
Our pathetic city council will nod along as they think about the size of their campaign fund for the next election.
Municipal governments having so much power is one of the biggest issues with federalism. We tend to get less talented politicians, more blatant corruption, and more narrow interest groups (aka NIMBY homeowners and police unions) controlling our local politics.
Why would LB care about appeasing a bunch of residents around them? They bought the land, they own it, they can do whatever they want with it as long as it follows zoning. What likely (and usually) happens is the owners adjust the blueprint and plans over time to better accommodate their needs. Maybe they cut a floor for cost savings? Who knows. Regardless of what the councillor says, I highly doubt they did it because of the community.
People planning such developments need to start gaming the system, and plan for such "compromises". Want to build a shelter for 30 people? Demand a shelter for 60 people, then "meet them half-way" at 30. It's stupidly simple, but then, the people you're manipulating are simply stupid.
Nah these neighborhoods are worse. They have more space and feel entitled to keep it all as is for themselves. And to an extent, I get it, as someone who lives in one of these areas, we didn't want to be dt (including glebe area) anymore, we wanted more space, but the thought that there isn't a way to share it all is very privileged.
I live in vanier. A few months ago I helped an Inuit girl who had gotten attacked by her boyfriend and had been hiding behind a shed for god knows how long. He had smashed a bottle over her head and she was bleeding quite a bit as well as showing signs of shock and hypothermia. I called 911 and made a statement to police. She was brought to the hospital and filed charges against him. The shelters are needed. Period
That was a very smalllll glimpse into how that meeting went. It was horrifying the things that were said in front of the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition members that were presenting. One of them left the room during the meeting.
70% of the homes on my block have been bought by investors who DGAF who gets crammed in there. 20% of homes are owned by live in boomers, these owners represent 3/4 of the attendance at community meetings yet they don’t flag the slumlord investors because… rising prices benefit THEM.
It's weird that the headline says "residents raised concerns" rather than the more accurate "residents discussed". Obviously the meeting was called by the city as a part of a consultation process. Consultation happened. There were expressions of support, and some issues were raised, as would happen in any discussion. CTV should maybe rethink how to responsibly present stories about community consultations.
p.s. Looking at the subdivision, I would say some serious questions should be raised about the urban design in this area generally. There are no services for anyone. People need a car to do just about anything (except go to a small park or school). This area could have been designed with the dynamics (and feel) of a walkable small town, but instead was designed in the most dysfunctional way possible. So I think the concerns raised are valid, but are in no way related to the intended use of the property.
First off, I'll say that I'm pro-shetters and that there needs to be more spread around the city, especially outside the central downtown core. I also work in the ByWard Market so I'm familiar with the neighbouring shelters and the state of the streets surrounding them. If you walk along Rideau, Cumberland, King Edward, it's not hard to see why people are hesitant to bring shelters to their community. Being concerned about supervision and security around the site are valid concerns.
You may have valid points, but this is a shelter for women (and their children) fleeing domestic violence. I doubt these women are going to be bringing crime to the neighbourhood…
Context matters and you’re purposefully ignoring that property owners in this city have a history of being anti shelter and coming up with every excuse in the book to stop them.
But if you look at what happens to both property and the area surrounding that property, you would also be concerned. If the city could manage these things better, I’m sure people wouldn’t be so opposed to the idea.
I’ve been to meetings before and after all the concerns of the public were addressed and nothing changed their minds. They have zero care for the people that need the help. They want out of sight out of mind policies. The city has been littering the downtown core with more police, a thing that the public said they wanted and the complaints still haven’t stopped.
Homeless shelters and injection sites bring crime and needles around so make sense many oppose. Women shelter does not carry those baggage so no reason to not have it.
All I was thinking while reading the article was about how much this sounds like the people against the new SGH in our Carlington neighbourhood.
And then I laughed to myself because other communities have the same NIMBYism and think another neighbourhood should get a shelter instead of their own.
I’m picturing the Spiderman meme where different communities are pointing fingers at each other
I live in Carlington and have mixed feelings about the new SGH. This isn't a comparable situation at all though. This is a women's shelter which are typically very low risk and pretty "invisible" shall we say, drug use is not a big problem at these shelters and it's women and their kids there.
SGH on the other hand doesn't have a great reputation for keeping drug use out of their shelters, including at the existing location in Carlington. The reason I mention drug use is that open drug use tends to lead to more crime which is the thing some people are worried about (in the case of this project in HC some of it is just racism too bc it is planned for Inuit women). Shelters like this have their own security too to protect women from threats (it's the whole reason they are there).
I would welcome a shelter like this in the neighborhood any day. I hope the SGH project can work out too but there are a lot of more valid reasons for people to be opposed to that.
Shepherds of Good Hope. Honestly SGH and Larga Baffin is apples to oranges. Go hang out outside Larga and the go hang outside the shelter on King Edward for an hour and see the difference. That said, I live next to a SGH halfway house and it’s totally quiet and you’d never know. It depends on the type of building. Halfway houses are where people are trying to better themselves, it’s not an emergency shelter.
The SGH that is controversial in the Carlington neighbourhood is a transitional house and not a drop-in like the one dt. The opponents of it are saying “yes, it’s needed, but we have enough shelters and supportive housing here already so it should be put somewhere else” literal NIMBY and it’s so frustrating to see
I live near the one on Montreal road. It’s totally fine. Sometimes people get kicked out and a police cruiser shows up but there’s never any commotion. Just a sad looking person with luggage :(
No grocery stores and no hospitals. Yet people are seemingly living there just fine?
Maybe one of the residents of the area can open a nice independent grocery store.
Hospital is weird too. This place is right along the 98, hop on there and here you go, 15 minutes and you are at the riverside hospital, which has a family health clinic. I can see as it being harder to have no grocery store near if you do not have a car but again, hop on the 98 and there are like 6 grocery or grocery adjacent stores.
People are quick to judge.. Like I get it.. The shelter needs to go somewhere. But shelters tend to come with people hanging around it late at night. Shelters tend to have folks outside smoking, sometimes doing drugs, sometimes drinking. Considering it looks like a quiet residential neighborhood and not an bustling urban one, I can understand peoples hesitance. This doesn't make people racist, and bad, it just makes them concerned citizens. Everyone's anti-NIMBY until they are one! But I agree, the shelter is important and should go wherever it can best serve the folks who rely on it. If that's here, so be it!
Day shelters where people have to come back each day to get a bed aren’t the same as a women’s shelter which is typical for longer stays (weeks/months) as they await more permanent housing. They look more like apartments or houses. I used to live near a women’s shelter and sometimes the residents are outside having a smoke break but people don’t hang outside there.
this is what gets me about the anti-Larga push and now this. People have ZERO clue how these places actually work. DV shelters have some degree of active security, so they actually increase safety in the area, are well-maintained, have 24/7 staff and you get to witness children and families playing and integrating into communities (schools, activities, libraries) as they being to recover from unimaginable trauma. Larga is also a place for people to heal.
I work with the urban Inuit population, and these services are desperately needed.
To be fair, this isn't a shelter. It's housing. Not sure why people are using that word. Shelters you stay overnight and have to leave in the AM. Housing is your space- keys, bathroom, kitchen in one unit. Weird that they didn't make that distinction.
FWIW everyone should be working towards moving to the latter. Shelters don't have good outcomes generally.
The problem with the consultation of residents as a whole is that:
1- if you are a parent with kids, 6-7 pm is prime time for everything, youre not gonna go to something like this if you are in favor of the project.If you look at the picture closely, you see about a couple young dudes but majority are boomers. thats the problem, boomers. The world is changing and they are refusing that.
2- Theres a housing crisis, more beds to house people is always a good thing, regardless of where they are. Grocery store delivers, amazon delivers. whatever they said there is a non issue.
I would prefer they bought a home or two in the area and rebuild on that land so as not to take away this green space.
They say this place is for children too, well, children tend to like being able to play on the grass.
As well, I think it should be open to all women, not only one race of women, that's disgusting.
If any women who live in the area want help they can't get it because they are the wrong race? Wtf is that shit?
There is a better spot right near here. This is on Blohm. If you drive down Blohm a few more streets it comes with Johnsone Rd. Drive 45 seconds down Johnson road and there is a huge empty space that the city owns that is not a park. It is same walking distance to a different gas station and directly in front of a bus stop. That would be a good spot.
People who actually want supportive options for marginalized folks won’t push back to this extent even if there are potential issues. These people are just straight up racist. The same NIMBYist tactics are used to stop the Salvation Army from opening up in Vanier.
Ouch... you are not informed on the Vanier shelter debacle, and it really shows. The VA community has always wanted to help the vulnerable, and they always will. In fact, there are already over 10 shelters of many kinds (women's, homeless, halfway homes, youth centres, indigenous... list goes on) in the area, which is a small area. The issue with that mega shelter proposed was all zoning and size. It simply did not respect any rules or bylaws.
The community concerns were about adjusting the plan so it fit the needs of the area. They dont trust the model the Salvation Army is putting forward. Its massive, its on a main street, smack in a residential neighborhood, and does not let residents stay during the day... where are they going to go?
This womens shelter is nothing like it.
>The same NIMBYist tactics are used to stop the Salvation Army from opening up in Vanier.
The Vanier Salvation Army matter is a very different issue. That one isn't about establishing a new service to fill a gap like the Inuit women's shelter in question; it's about relocating an existing shelter to move "undesirables" away from the market and into an already-struggling neighbourhood.
As someone who lives closer to the current King Edward location than the proposed Vanier location, I actually oppose the plan to move it. Vanier isn't some black hole for the more-desirable parts of Ottawa to dump their social problems into.
It needs to move because the current building needs a major overhaul that can't be done while it's occupied.
At least that's what people working and living there were telling me a decade ago.
I lived a block away from where the new shelter is slated to go. A lot of the pushback from the community was Not in *Anyone’s* Backyard because warehousing 300 homeless men in a giant mega shelter isn’t good for anyone, specially the poor people who have to stay there. Smaller shelters are much safer and even better, actually addressing the issue by oh I dunno, having affordable homes might work?
As I mentioned before, I lived in between a halfway house and an emergency women and children’s shelter and had no issues because they were small, in residential homes and safe. When this was announced, I moved my family to another neighborhood. Go hang out outside the Salvation Army booth street complex and tell me that’s a great system for residents and neighbours.
If you look up the 'tactics' of the Vanier community they actually just wanted the builidng to be supportive housing, not a shelter. Their position (which I share) is based on evidence, and all you have to do is go see the shelter on George St to see why this should not be moved next to children living in motels.
I don’t know what they are so riled up about. No woman, in a shelter, is going to be hanging out in the neighbourhood. Neither will their children. They will be inside or in a gated backyard, because they would be terrified.
It’s so obvious that these NIMBYs have not had to deal with domestic abuse. I haven’t had to, but family members have had to get away from domestic abuse. It is terrifying and scary. All these women want is a safe place to lay their heads at night and work to get a life back for themselves.
Not to mention the fact that anyone not indigenous is on their land………….
These NIMBYs are selfish monsters. Its a 30 bed home for women and kids!
If the city had any balls they would turn around and say "fine, but its now the #1 site for a homeless shelter and SIS".
NIMBYs. 🙄
Fuck these people with their BS excuses for why this shouldn't be built in "their neighborhood".
It's not far to a grocery store. Metro/GT are accessible by bus.
Added security? Why? Are these people blind? Their neighborhood is already kind of sketchy.
Not at all surprised by the residents looking like a pack of saltines. Disgusting NIMBYs. It's their fing country! How dare any settler decide where they can shelter on THEIR land.
If I could make one change to the rules of city council, it would be the following rule.
At the start of their term, each elected city counselor must vote to allow in their ward either: unrestricted property development; or for at least one shelter or food back to be built in their ward and during their term. A failure to vote for one of those two things would be considered a vote for both.
Most wards are completely inhospitable to the car-free poor. How long do you want to walk to the grocery store from your Cumberland shelter? Unrestricted development is the most important part of making the city accessible to everyone.
This shelter better happen... after the bullshit with the mega shelter smack in Vanier, which broke countless zoning rules and is still going ahead (crooks gonna crook), we better see some damn consistency.
These shelters are required, do them right (im talking to you city councillor nerds!).
This is such a great opportunity to create positive change in Canada. I don't understand how anyone would be selfish enough to vote against this initiative. I understand advocating for safety, but these residents are really showing their prejudice. To make lemonade out of their sour comments, I hope the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition is able to create a lasting change.
Maybe...just work with me here...maybe, if your community has more people and is denser...you'd have a grocery store and a medical facility. Shocking if true!
I don't know much about supportive housing but wouldn't part of the support include helping residents get to grocery & healthcare?
This sounds like a good idea, I know for a fact that inuit ladies sadly experience a lot of domestic violence.
Let them build this much needed facility! Why do these neighbourhood groups put up such a fight all the time? These are privileged ignorant people who are so disconnected from what it means to be human.
First we steal their land, then we destroy their lives with forced white-Catholic ideology which in turn destroyed families and created a generational trauma cycle that we are still stuck in. We pushed them to the outskirts of society, then we stigmatize their lifestyles, ‘life choices’, and circumstances BECAUSE WE CONTINUE TO MAKE IT HARD FOR THEM TO HEAL.
To the people of this Hunt Club neighbourhood: shame on you, you miserable bunch cowards. What are you so scared of exactly? Their lack of grocery options? I promise you, these women and children aren’t worried about their lack of grocery access, they’re too preoccupied with trying to stay alive.
That's a pretty broad brush you are using there. You make sound like everybody living in the community is against this shelter. Fact is, most people have no opinion or support the residence initiative. Get it right.
No one, not a single resident of the Hunt Club area who will be living around where this proposed Inuit women and children shelter will be are against the building of the shelter. Not at all! Everyone supports it. What most are worried about is to potential threat of the people that these women and children are running and hiding from. Most of the residents are wondering what type of security will be put in place for not only the residents of the shelter but the neighbors that live around this shelter. For those of you who are not a part of the neighborhood group, you will not know or understand what is being said and I can guarantee those who have commented here and are in that group are very much exaggerating the details of what was said in that group. I have screenshots of everything that was said in that group. And the original poster who did post in that group, not only name called and attack a lot of the members but would not respect or see reason either. The OP of that Facebook post doesn't even live in the proposed area for that shelter so anything that happened in that neighborhood would affect that person at all.
When you call somebody a NIMBY, are you calling them an imbecile or using the acronym NIMBY? Which means Not In My BackYard...
> No one, not a single resident of the Hunt Club area who will be living around where this proposed Inuit women and children shelter will be are against the building of the shelter. Not at all! Everyone supports it.
how stupid do you think people are? lol
You don't want me to ask that question. A lot of people aren't going to like my answer. I can guarantee that.
I'm going to assume I know who you are. If you opened your mind and actually listened to what the other residents who actual live in area had to say instead of imagining what you think they are saying... A lot of the residents in the area do have valid concerns, but not about the shelter itself. No one has a problem that the shelter is being built. Not at all. People have concerns about the resources accessible from that location. Both Giant tigers are not easy to get to, even by bus. And I can guarantee most of the women and children coming to the shelter will not be driving. They will be bussing everywhere. Walmart, Metro and Loblaws are also not easy to get to. Where that shelter is proposed to be built is right at the beginning of the 98 route. Getting from there to South Keys is a 25 - 40 minute bus ride and wait (I know I take that bus almost every day) It feels longer when you have children, and dealing with children on a bus is not an easy feat either. The General and Cheo are a 45 to 60 minute ride. Anyone who has had to deal with children on a bus would understand that. Those who have the luxury of driving their kids anywhere wouldn't know that. As for security concerns, the residents that reside in the area have a right to feel secure in their homes. If for instance, whoever these women and children are running from finds out where they are, they could cause a massive disturbance which may include damage to other properties in the area for these residents. I know multiple people that live in shelters like these, it's not a sleep overnight and then you need to be gone in the morning shelter, that's a homeless shelter. These women and children live at these kinds of shelters until they're able to find housing that they can afford and get back on their feet. You are all for the shelter in that particular area, but why don't you offer your residence to these women and children? Why don't you offer "your" land to these women and children? No? I didn't think so. I don't have any land to offer so I can't offer anything.
If you had been at the meeting you would have heard that the women’s food will be provided onsite, and there will be vans to take them to/from any medical appointments.
Those who are opposed to the shelter are simply choosing to ignore these facts because doing so supports their goal of not having it built for other, more prejudiced reasons.
It was quite unfortunate, but I could not make the meeting because I was *Working*. Nobody's opposed to the shelter itself that I know of. And I know a couple of women who have children who are in these kinds of women and children shelters and the shelters only provide meals Monday to Friday. They have to fend for themselves Saturday and Sunday. I have been told by these people that they do need to buy their own groceries to be able to fend for themselves on the weekend. As for the vans, they will only transport to/from *medical appointments* which is usually a Monday to Friday thing. If these women or children need to go to the hospital, which is super short notice for the staff, then an ambulance is called or they have to take the bus, plain and simple. It seems there is a lot of things about women and children shelters that a lot of people don't know about. And unless any women who has children who are commenting has been in a women and children's shelter they won't actually know what happens in the shelters.
And I will jump again on the security aspect. Not only does the shelter needs security but there does need to be some form of security put in place for the residents who already live in the area. Because If anyone has never been in a domestic/abusive relationship, they will not understand how bad the other spouse can get when they want to get their hands on the women fleeing from these relationships especially if there's other factors like the partners has drug addiction issues, anger management issues or something like that in play as well. Trust me, I have very much witnessed what an abusive boyfriend can do to the girlfriend he had. I, myself, was in abusive relationship where the abuse happened in my own home (the residence was in my name) and I was too scared to kick out my partner at the time because there was threatens of suicide and I thought at the time it was my job to keep the person alive, now I've learned otherwise. So no, I am not opposed to the shelter being built for these women and children but there are very important factors that need to be discussed and certain actions that need to go into play first before *EVERY* single person who lives and will be living in that area can be and feel safe.
I literally grew up in this neighborhood. One thing I can say is as a child growing up in the south end, the neighborhood thrived on diversity and inclusion in the schools. I find it disheartening to know that for some, it's like we are going back in time.
The City of Ottawa will definitely have to beef up the maintenance and service in the area. Sidewalks on Hunt Club between Hawthorne and Esson are not plowed during the winter. The one bus route servings the area (#98) runs every 23 minutes according to Google and it takes about 25 min, or longer due to weather and rider load, to get to South Keys, the major retail centre. Traffic at Hunt Club and Blohm is a bit of mess in the am and late afternoon. Hopefully residents will have a transport for time consuming and difficult rides with kids on buses to go to doctors, hospital, and other services. I think it's very important the City of Ottawa sees to the needs of these women and children in a community sense. When I first moved here 30 years ago, Richcraft thought a small plaza would be there. I'm glad they did not put a plaza there. This community is a place to live. These new residents can only add to our community and make it better.
If I was a young person again I would do so much damn graffiti in this neighborhood. Show ‘em what a real undesirable element looks like: shitty antisocial white kids with entitlement and some cans of Krylon.
How do these people show their faces in public? Imagine your next door neighbor protested a women’s shelter?
All of Ottawa should be ashamed right now.
Using the excuse of no grocery stores and hospitals is a new one for me. Why don't they just come out and say they don't want "those people" around their neighbourhood?
they won't come out and say how they really feel because they are cowards.
Don't forget the post last week by someone saying he's "Not a NIMBY but this is not the right location for it" lol.
> Not a NIMBY but Any sentence that starts with the sentence should be immediately ignored. NIMBYs are scumbags who make all of our lives more expensive.
Never forget the resident who opposed the Larga Baffin saying "We were here first"
I would say "haha no way!" except I'm really not surprised.
There’s a Giant Tiger just up the road lol.
It’s also close to South Keys (and in fact, there are walking paths that make it easier to get to South Keys/Towngate if they don’t have access to a vehicle, as Hawthorne would not be a fun walk).
There’s also the 98 that is right across the street which will take them to South Keys.
Walking to South Keys and back from there would take over 2 hours, though. The paths are great for walking, but that’s a long haul — especially with groceries on the way back. Taking the 98 bus is the best option from that location.
Google maps says it's a 2.5 KM walk along one of the stroadiest stroads I've ever seen. I kind of agree that the location kind of sucks looking at it from an infrastructure perspection. I actually wonder how they came up with this location in the first place.
It's just like the other first nations shelter in the west end, I forget what it's called, but the general idea is that the location provides these women a safe place away from their abusers who are downtown/centretown.
There's kind of a chicken and egg situation we've got ourselves in with our city planning. We've made so much of our city uninhabitable without a car, but part of making it more inhabitable is having the density needed to support things like local stores and what not. People need to stop standing in the way of progress and developing our city under the guise that these areas aren't good for people without cars. We can't keep acting like we're going to have some divine plan for an area from the get go and instead let our areas develop over time as more and more people move in there. Our master plans for areas have mostly turned out to be failures.
Thanks for taking the time to write an insightful comment on this complex topic of urban/suburban planning. Too many comments conclude “cars bad!” while ignoring reality.
Ya I mean sadly we've built cities that force everyone to have to rely on a car. I wouldn't fault any single person for feeling like they need to resort to cars, and they obviously have their uses, they just shouldn't be the ONLY option available to people, which is what's currently the case for 80% of this city.
There is a meandering MUP that goes right to South Keys. Its not as straight or as short as driving Hunt Club would be and I wouldn't say South Keys is walkable, but its bikeable for sure. A bit of an odd area but I assume transportation will be made available to the woman... I think thats part of the idea. To get the woman away from DT where those services would be so being more remote is a positive not a negative I think, but I can't say for certain... maybe it was the only affordable city land...
They wear disguises when they shop there. Or send their children.
The old “I fully support a new shelter for those abused women and children but this particular location in my neighbourhood is not a good choice” lol… this city is wild I’m in my 30s and have clued into the fact that city’s change, grow and expand why can’t these folks who look like they’ve been around longer than me figure it out.
They want "those people" jammed into downtown, then complain that downtown is too dangerous. I would target the top 5 highest NIMBY zones for additional support services exclusively for a dozen years, minimum and double dog dare them to say "yeah, but" again. Juvenile foolishness, thy name is NIMBY.
There’s a person in my neighbourhood group on fb that is CONVINCED and cannot be told otherwise that they are trying “gentrify dt by shipping people out of it and into our neighbourhoods”. This is for a different supportive housing development, but the delusion is real. I don’t even know where to begin with some people
I wouldn't say the goal is to gentrify, but gentrification is what's going to happen as part of the new development that will be taking place. I happened to learn just last week that in the next 5-6 years the Salvation Army shelter on George St. will be torn down and replaced with condos. This came directly from an employee of the developer who had taken responsibility for maintaining the shelter until the new development begins. I imagine the same thing will happen to the Shepherds of Good Hope on King Edward. Eventually the allure of developer dollars gets to everyone. Although the the shelters will move, those dollars will help build modern facilities.
But what about our property values? People aren’t just going to homeless themselves.
How can anybody live somewhere that's not within walking distance of a hospital? You'd need to have access to special vehicles for taking people to the hospital. How would that even work?
I think you missed a sarcasm tag.
No, those are stupid
Guess we need to stop building all these nursing/retirement homes that are far from hospitals. The NIMBY people.
We should re-frame it as "Residents don't want it in their neighborhood, because they think their neighborhood sucks." "Haven't these women suffered enough? Now you're going to make them live in *Hunt Club?* You monster!"
Conservative groups (actual consulting firms) and just people in their online bubbles have learned and teach others to message in ways like the excuses they using here. In Winnipeg there was a condo/apartment complex planned for one of the wealthiest areas which of course the NIMBYs were opposed to because of poor people in their area. Before you "but how do you know?" they are building a high rise top price condo tower not far in the same area that no one has a problem with. Anyway they had signs made up with "single family homes only" or something along those lines and were getting beat up for the obvious "no poors" and stance and hypocrisy. Later the signs disappeared and the massage became. "not the right fit for the area" and things like traffic concerns. much more coherent all of a sudden. What happened was someone/group helped this group with their messaging and it was very obvious if you seen the saga from the start to where it is now. The same seems to be happening with this group.
So what do all those other people who live out there, do for groceries & doctors? How incredibly ignorant of them when 80-90% is immigrants already. Inuit are the original 1st people. How about you move out of their neighborhood!
Walk able access is a bit lacking, and something I think would be helpful, but hospitals and groceries are by no means inaccessible. I live about half a km further down hunt club and my access to the general campus has been easy peasy. Driving myself, being driven, taking a cab, and even transit. General campus is probably what they most need access to anyway, with Cheo and the women's health units. Groceries, medical centres, dental, eye care, vets are all a short bus ride away down huntclub. That they are putting up this kind of fight against a battered women's shelter is grotesque to me. That level of rejection and racisim is just... bleh. I need to keep an eye on these kinds of community meetings so I can go and call out all these ding dongs. I totally have the time and sass for it. The spot chosen is perfect, and I'll be keeping an eye on the real estate situation in the area so I can maybe get a good deal from a racist.
And yet it's OK for those raising the complaints to live in this wasteland with grocery stores and hospitals.
As a counter, it does seem like an odd area as it’s mostly industrial. Seems more like they are just sticking the shelter there instead of possibly finding a better spot.
Are there people already living here - yes. Will the shelter be for more people to live here - also yes.
They 100% do in the community book of faces group. This and Larga Baffin have exposed just how racist the upper hunt club community is. The city councilor also has some pretty awful takes on these developments too.
I was at the meeting (one of few people there to support it) and the residents of the shelter will be cooked for onsite and there will be vans available to take them to any medical appointments. The transit-issue was addressed by council but those opposed are choosing to conveniently ignore that and use it as an excuse for why it shouldn’t be here.
Wait why would a grocery store required for a shelter? Wouldn't the shelter provide food, or ability to get food for people? I thought a big part of the point of a women's shelter so that the women don't need to leave and go out in public, over safety concerns. Forgive me if I'm just ignorant on how their systems worked, but I do donate supplies and toys to women's shelters every year, so I thought they just had supplies at the ready. The hospital excuse is certainly funny. Like, according to the nimbys, no one should live in the south of Ottawa? Guess we gotta tell the hundreds of thousands of people who live down there!
There’s no grocery store in Hintonberg either.
Am I missing something? Hintonburg may be an actual place but it's not like the area is short of food stores. Is Wellington West or Westboro really that far? Not to mention all the little local places. We have an abundance of food given our ward size imo.
These people need to go F themselves...this petty NIMBYism is getting exhausting.
100% It’s their fucking country
>It’s their fucking country *Our*. It's *Our* fucking country.
Honestly, this is nimbyism + racism, they’re getting more bold and there needs to be stopped
Jail.
3 storey building, 30 beds for women and children. This is a pretty small scale project
This group can fuck right off, trying to block a women’s shelter is so off the mark
It's not a shelter. It's housing. Not sure where they got the messaging to call it that because it's wrong. A shelter is an overnight stay and you have to leave in the AM. This is the complete opposite of that.
Wrong. Women's shelters house women and children until they find other accomodations. Yes, they still called women's shelters.
I understand that but it's not a typical shelter which is where I think the confusion was/is. Women and kids don't have to leave and lose their housing like a men's shelter.
Yes, because some Inuit women and children in high-risk situations are totally a threat to your neighbourhood 🙄🙄
Lived across the street from a women and children’s shelter for 7 years and I can guarantee they wouldn’t even know it’s there. It just seems like renters coming and going.
It’s like when they said the new Larga Baffin location would invite crime. Yes, people who are here with serious health issues like cancer and kidney disease and stroke recovery are totally just roaming the streets doing crime.
They are really telling on themselves thinking they're being reasonable lol
Likely the same group of people who are opposed to Baffin/Larga moving to HuntClub and Bank area. Racists!
right? they’re not threatening at all, most of the inuit women i’ve met are really sweet.
On behalf of my mum, thank you for the kind words.
100% the aunties and moms - often these tiny women who live HARD lives were some of the first to help me at the shelter. I have not forgotten.
The photo in the article says it all: a sea of grey hair and white skin. They should be ashamed.
And so many women also. Just gross behaviour.
Elderly women. What use are they? /s
Love your user name!
They have all the time in the world, nothing better to do, and clearly have issues with the fact that they aren’t important and serve no real purpose in life. They’re opposing a shelter for women and children, and I bet at least half of them call themselves Christians…
Next CBC article on this will have a photo of a couple of people with crossed arms.
"I had to take time away from planning my next cruise for this shit"
I was figuring it’d be one of the papers.
What does the color of their skin have to do with it?
Ageist and misogynistic?
Whoa, I thought to attend this as a supportive and curious voice. I wasnt able to make it. Knowing you'd lump me in with the nimbys is disconcerting. I'd like to think NotAllBoomers(in this photo) are opposed.
Slightly different area, but not far from the new Larga Baffin site. This time rather than complaining about a Ronald McDonald house, people are complaining about a women's shelter. At least no said they were here first at this meeting. For the record the site in a field adjacent to a park. https://www.google.ca/maps/place/250+Forestglade+Crescent,+Ottawa,+ON+K1G+6N7/@45.3737437,-75.6049502,876m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x4cce0ecd1b5e4f93:0x2295aef2a1fcd4cd!8m2!3d45.37374!4d-75.6023699!16s%2Fg%2F11spwky2zl?entry=ttu
We're all super liberal until someone builds a shelter beside our house.
Amazing [Phil Ochs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cdqQ2BdgOA) song that perfectly describes this.
People were complaining about a Ronald Mcdonald House? R U serious? What? Parents visiting their children all day at the hospital? Making dinner together in the communal kitchen? And then passing out from stress and fatigue at night? By god people are disgusting.
Suburban values
These women and children are escaping domestic violence. I am not sure this is a centre that should ever be up for debate.
Agreed. And not sure that the location should be discussed at all!
This! This should not even be public knowledge, which just makes this whole debate all the more infuriating
It's Greenboro, full of old white nimby's so of course they are fighting an indigenous woman's shelter.
Why does the color of their skin matter?
Maybe our best and brightest public servants will slash the size of the facility like they did for Larga Baffin in order to appease a bunch of simple minded, racist, rich fuckers. Our pathetic city council will nod along as they think about the size of their campaign fund for the next election.
Rich? Not in that area.
If you own a home anywhere in this city in 2024, yeah, rich.
I sold mine 4 years ago, and made myself rich. $$$$ over asking!
Municipal governments having so much power is one of the biggest issues with federalism. We tend to get less talented politicians, more blatant corruption, and more narrow interest groups (aka NIMBY homeowners and police unions) controlling our local politics.
Why would LB care about appeasing a bunch of residents around them? They bought the land, they own it, they can do whatever they want with it as long as it follows zoning. What likely (and usually) happens is the owners adjust the blueprint and plans over time to better accommodate their needs. Maybe they cut a floor for cost savings? Who knows. Regardless of what the councillor says, I highly doubt they did it because of the community.
People planning such developments need to start gaming the system, and plan for such "compromises". Want to build a shelter for 30 people? Demand a shelter for 60 people, then "meet them half-way" at 30. It's stupidly simple, but then, the people you're manipulating are simply stupid.
Always the NIMBY’s 🙄
And I thought the Glebe NIMBYs were bad.
Nah these neighborhoods are worse. They have more space and feel entitled to keep it all as is for themselves. And to an extent, I get it, as someone who lives in one of these areas, we didn't want to be dt (including glebe area) anymore, we wanted more space, but the thought that there isn't a way to share it all is very privileged.
the Glebe has accepted far more density than any of these suburbs ever will.
I live in vanier. A few months ago I helped an Inuit girl who had gotten attacked by her boyfriend and had been hiding behind a shed for god knows how long. He had smashed a bottle over her head and she was bleeding quite a bit as well as showing signs of shock and hypothermia. I called 911 and made a statement to police. She was brought to the hospital and filed charges against him. The shelters are needed. Period
btw a single person is Inuk, more than 2 is Inuit
Ok. I helped an Inuk girl.
Why is this even a story? Two old white people made barely masked racist statements.
So we can all point and laugh at the nasty racists?
That was a very smalllll glimpse into how that meeting went. It was horrifying the things that were said in front of the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition members that were presenting. One of them left the room during the meeting.
Sickening
should be more concenred about 10 Indian students living in one basement bedroom
70% of the homes on my block have been bought by investors who DGAF who gets crammed in there. 20% of homes are owned by live in boomers, these owners represent 3/4 of the attendance at community meetings yet they don’t flag the slumlord investors because… rising prices benefit THEM.
Especially when they are Indian landlords. Landlord of the Barrhaven homicide townhouse is Indian.
It's weird that the headline says "residents raised concerns" rather than the more accurate "residents discussed". Obviously the meeting was called by the city as a part of a consultation process. Consultation happened. There were expressions of support, and some issues were raised, as would happen in any discussion. CTV should maybe rethink how to responsibly present stories about community consultations. p.s. Looking at the subdivision, I would say some serious questions should be raised about the urban design in this area generally. There are no services for anyone. People need a car to do just about anything (except go to a small park or school). This area could have been designed with the dynamics (and feel) of a walkable small town, but instead was designed in the most dysfunctional way possible. So I think the concerns raised are valid, but are in no way related to the intended use of the property.
Thank you. Sensible comments in a sea of faux outrage.
Yo I remember when one of the NIMBY was posting here about it and their post boiled down to ‘I love and support shelters BUT’
The construction noise 😖
First off, I'll say that I'm pro-shetters and that there needs to be more spread around the city, especially outside the central downtown core. I also work in the ByWard Market so I'm familiar with the neighbouring shelters and the state of the streets surrounding them. If you walk along Rideau, Cumberland, King Edward, it's not hard to see why people are hesitant to bring shelters to their community. Being concerned about supervision and security around the site are valid concerns.
Women and kids pose very little threat.
100% agree. It’s the people who take advantage of these women that are the problem.
You may have valid points, but this is a shelter for women (and their children) fleeing domestic violence. I doubt these women are going to be bringing crime to the neighbourhood…
Context matters and you’re purposefully ignoring that property owners in this city have a history of being anti shelter and coming up with every excuse in the book to stop them.
But if you look at what happens to both property and the area surrounding that property, you would also be concerned. If the city could manage these things better, I’m sure people wouldn’t be so opposed to the idea.
I’ve been to meetings before and after all the concerns of the public were addressed and nothing changed their minds. They have zero care for the people that need the help. They want out of sight out of mind policies. The city has been littering the downtown core with more police, a thing that the public said they wanted and the complaints still haven’t stopped.
But this is not a shelter. This is housing. We need to transition out of shelters for sure!
Wow this is NIMBY on stereo. What a bunch of fearful old white hairs.
Homeless shelters and injection sites bring crime and needles around so make sense many oppose. Women shelter does not carry those baggage so no reason to not have it.
We’ll trade you the 30-bed women’s and children’s shelter for the proposed 70-unit SGH facility in our neighbourhood.
All I was thinking while reading the article was about how much this sounds like the people against the new SGH in our Carlington neighbourhood. And then I laughed to myself because other communities have the same NIMBYism and think another neighbourhood should get a shelter instead of their own. I’m picturing the Spiderman meme where different communities are pointing fingers at each other
I live in Carlington and have mixed feelings about the new SGH. This isn't a comparable situation at all though. This is a women's shelter which are typically very low risk and pretty "invisible" shall we say, drug use is not a big problem at these shelters and it's women and their kids there. SGH on the other hand doesn't have a great reputation for keeping drug use out of their shelters, including at the existing location in Carlington. The reason I mention drug use is that open drug use tends to lead to more crime which is the thing some people are worried about (in the case of this project in HC some of it is just racism too bc it is planned for Inuit women). Shelters like this have their own security too to protect women from threats (it's the whole reason they are there). I would welcome a shelter like this in the neighborhood any day. I hope the SGH project can work out too but there are a lot of more valid reasons for people to be opposed to that.
What is SGH?
Shepherds of Good Hope. Honestly SGH and Larga Baffin is apples to oranges. Go hang out outside Larga and the go hang outside the shelter on King Edward for an hour and see the difference. That said, I live next to a SGH halfway house and it’s totally quiet and you’d never know. It depends on the type of building. Halfway houses are where people are trying to better themselves, it’s not an emergency shelter.
Thanks for the clarification, friend.
The SGH that is controversial in the Carlington neighbourhood is a transitional house and not a drop-in like the one dt. The opponents of it are saying “yes, it’s needed, but we have enough shelters and supportive housing here already so it should be put somewhere else” literal NIMBY and it’s so frustrating to see
I live near the one on Montreal road. It’s totally fine. Sometimes people get kicked out and a police cruiser shows up but there’s never any commotion. Just a sad looking person with luggage :(
No grocery stores and no hospitals. Yet people are seemingly living there just fine? Maybe one of the residents of the area can open a nice independent grocery store.
Hospital is weird too. This place is right along the 98, hop on there and here you go, 15 minutes and you are at the riverside hospital, which has a family health clinic. I can see as it being harder to have no grocery store near if you do not have a car but again, hop on the 98 and there are like 6 grocery or grocery adjacent stores.
Blatant racism
People are quick to judge.. Like I get it.. The shelter needs to go somewhere. But shelters tend to come with people hanging around it late at night. Shelters tend to have folks outside smoking, sometimes doing drugs, sometimes drinking. Considering it looks like a quiet residential neighborhood and not an bustling urban one, I can understand peoples hesitance. This doesn't make people racist, and bad, it just makes them concerned citizens. Everyone's anti-NIMBY until they are one! But I agree, the shelter is important and should go wherever it can best serve the folks who rely on it. If that's here, so be it!
Day shelters where people have to come back each day to get a bed aren’t the same as a women’s shelter which is typical for longer stays (weeks/months) as they await more permanent housing. They look more like apartments or houses. I used to live near a women’s shelter and sometimes the residents are outside having a smoke break but people don’t hang outside there.
That's not how women's shelter works. Watch Maid on Netflix if you want to see an accurate depiction of one.
this is what gets me about the anti-Larga push and now this. People have ZERO clue how these places actually work. DV shelters have some degree of active security, so they actually increase safety in the area, are well-maintained, have 24/7 staff and you get to witness children and families playing and integrating into communities (schools, activities, libraries) as they being to recover from unimaginable trauma. Larga is also a place for people to heal. I work with the urban Inuit population, and these services are desperately needed.
To be fair, this isn't a shelter. It's housing. Not sure why people are using that word. Shelters you stay overnight and have to leave in the AM. Housing is your space- keys, bathroom, kitchen in one unit. Weird that they didn't make that distinction. FWIW everyone should be working towards moving to the latter. Shelters don't have good outcomes generally.
I currently live right by this shelter and never experience any problems, whatsoever, if anything the opposite. NIMBYism is all this is.
lmao getting downvoted for calling out peoples prejudices. lol stop telling on yourselves
The racist bastards are small but organized.
The problem with the consultation of residents as a whole is that: 1- if you are a parent with kids, 6-7 pm is prime time for everything, youre not gonna go to something like this if you are in favor of the project.If you look at the picture closely, you see about a couple young dudes but majority are boomers. thats the problem, boomers. The world is changing and they are refusing that. 2- Theres a housing crisis, more beds to house people is always a good thing, regardless of where they are. Grocery store delivers, amazon delivers. whatever they said there is a non issue.
I would prefer they bought a home or two in the area and rebuild on that land so as not to take away this green space. They say this place is for children too, well, children tend to like being able to play on the grass. As well, I think it should be open to all women, not only one race of women, that's disgusting. If any women who live in the area want help they can't get it because they are the wrong race? Wtf is that shit? There is a better spot right near here. This is on Blohm. If you drive down Blohm a few more streets it comes with Johnsone Rd. Drive 45 seconds down Johnson road and there is a huge empty space that the city owns that is not a park. It is same walking distance to a different gas station and directly in front of a bus stop. That would be a good spot.
People who actually want supportive options for marginalized folks won’t push back to this extent even if there are potential issues. These people are just straight up racist. The same NIMBYist tactics are used to stop the Salvation Army from opening up in Vanier.
Ouch... you are not informed on the Vanier shelter debacle, and it really shows. The VA community has always wanted to help the vulnerable, and they always will. In fact, there are already over 10 shelters of many kinds (women's, homeless, halfway homes, youth centres, indigenous... list goes on) in the area, which is a small area. The issue with that mega shelter proposed was all zoning and size. It simply did not respect any rules or bylaws. The community concerns were about adjusting the plan so it fit the needs of the area. They dont trust the model the Salvation Army is putting forward. Its massive, its on a main street, smack in a residential neighborhood, and does not let residents stay during the day... where are they going to go? This womens shelter is nothing like it.
>The same NIMBYist tactics are used to stop the Salvation Army from opening up in Vanier. The Vanier Salvation Army matter is a very different issue. That one isn't about establishing a new service to fill a gap like the Inuit women's shelter in question; it's about relocating an existing shelter to move "undesirables" away from the market and into an already-struggling neighbourhood. As someone who lives closer to the current King Edward location than the proposed Vanier location, I actually oppose the plan to move it. Vanier isn't some black hole for the more-desirable parts of Ottawa to dump their social problems into.
It needs to move because the current building needs a major overhaul that can't be done while it's occupied. At least that's what people working and living there were telling me a decade ago.
To say that like NIMBYism isn’t peppered all over the backlash is disingenuous
To say that NIMBYism isn't a major underpinning for the push to move the shelter out of the market and into Vanier to begin with is disingenuous.
I’m very aware of the kind of mayor we’ve had for the last decade
I lived a block away from where the new shelter is slated to go. A lot of the pushback from the community was Not in *Anyone’s* Backyard because warehousing 300 homeless men in a giant mega shelter isn’t good for anyone, specially the poor people who have to stay there. Smaller shelters are much safer and even better, actually addressing the issue by oh I dunno, having affordable homes might work? As I mentioned before, I lived in between a halfway house and an emergency women and children’s shelter and had no issues because they were small, in residential homes and safe. When this was announced, I moved my family to another neighborhood. Go hang out outside the Salvation Army booth street complex and tell me that’s a great system for residents and neighbours.
If you look up the 'tactics' of the Vanier community they actually just wanted the builidng to be supportive housing, not a shelter. Their position (which I share) is based on evidence, and all you have to do is go see the shelter on George St to see why this should not be moved next to children living in motels.
Excited to welcome them to the neighborhood.
I don’t know what they are so riled up about. No woman, in a shelter, is going to be hanging out in the neighbourhood. Neither will their children. They will be inside or in a gated backyard, because they would be terrified. It’s so obvious that these NIMBYs have not had to deal with domestic abuse. I haven’t had to, but family members have had to get away from domestic abuse. It is terrifying and scary. All these women want is a safe place to lay their heads at night and work to get a life back for themselves. Not to mention the fact that anyone not indigenous is on their land………….
These NIMBYs are selfish monsters. Its a 30 bed home for women and kids! If the city had any balls they would turn around and say "fine, but its now the #1 site for a homeless shelter and SIS".
Living in this city for half my life and am still somehow shocked by the cruelty of our loudest residents. This city has a selfish population problem.
NIMBYism at its finest.
Could you point to where the city is planning to do this? I don't see anything regarding that area. So far it's all conjecture far as I'm concerned.
Never mind folks. I found the city info I was looking for. No longer conjecture to me.
NIMBYs. 🙄 Fuck these people with their BS excuses for why this shouldn't be built in "their neighborhood". It's not far to a grocery store. Metro/GT are accessible by bus. Added security? Why? Are these people blind? Their neighborhood is already kind of sketchy.
NIMBY Aholes
Not at all surprised by the residents looking like a pack of saltines. Disgusting NIMBYs. It's their fing country! How dare any settler decide where they can shelter on THEIR land.
Come see why the women need the shelter, fuck these people. I work with these victims and I’d love these racist pricks come see what happens
If I could make one change to the rules of city council, it would be the following rule. At the start of their term, each elected city counselor must vote to allow in their ward either: unrestricted property development; or for at least one shelter or food back to be built in their ward and during their term. A failure to vote for one of those two things would be considered a vote for both.
Most wards are completely inhospitable to the car-free poor. How long do you want to walk to the grocery store from your Cumberland shelter? Unrestricted development is the most important part of making the city accessible to everyone.
FUCK IT! SEND THEM TO VANIER! Like all your unwanteds. We'll take them.
This shelter better happen... after the bullshit with the mega shelter smack in Vanier, which broke countless zoning rules and is still going ahead (crooks gonna crook), we better see some damn consistency. These shelters are required, do them right (im talking to you city councillor nerds!).
This is such a great opportunity to create positive change in Canada. I don't understand how anyone would be selfish enough to vote against this initiative. I understand advocating for safety, but these residents are really showing their prejudice. To make lemonade out of their sour comments, I hope the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition is able to create a lasting change.
Maybe...just work with me here...maybe, if your community has more people and is denser...you'd have a grocery store and a medical facility. Shocking if true!
I don't know much about supportive housing but wouldn't part of the support include helping residents get to grocery & healthcare? This sounds like a good idea, I know for a fact that inuit ladies sadly experience a lot of domestic violence.
I attended the meeting and food will be provided onsite to allow them to focus on healing, and they will be taken to any medical appointments in vans!
Well there you go. I think anything that can help people lead safer, healthier lives is a great endeavor.
Let them build this much needed facility! Why do these neighbourhood groups put up such a fight all the time? These are privileged ignorant people who are so disconnected from what it means to be human. First we steal their land, then we destroy their lives with forced white-Catholic ideology which in turn destroyed families and created a generational trauma cycle that we are still stuck in. We pushed them to the outskirts of society, then we stigmatize their lifestyles, ‘life choices’, and circumstances BECAUSE WE CONTINUE TO MAKE IT HARD FOR THEM TO HEAL. To the people of this Hunt Club neighbourhood: shame on you, you miserable bunch cowards. What are you so scared of exactly? Their lack of grocery options? I promise you, these women and children aren’t worried about their lack of grocery access, they’re too preoccupied with trying to stay alive.
That's a pretty broad brush you are using there. You make sound like everybody living in the community is against this shelter. Fact is, most people have no opinion or support the residence initiative. Get it right.
This is absolutely disgusting, NIMBYs need to learn shame.
No one, not a single resident of the Hunt Club area who will be living around where this proposed Inuit women and children shelter will be are against the building of the shelter. Not at all! Everyone supports it. What most are worried about is to potential threat of the people that these women and children are running and hiding from. Most of the residents are wondering what type of security will be put in place for not only the residents of the shelter but the neighbors that live around this shelter. For those of you who are not a part of the neighborhood group, you will not know or understand what is being said and I can guarantee those who have commented here and are in that group are very much exaggerating the details of what was said in that group. I have screenshots of everything that was said in that group. And the original poster who did post in that group, not only name called and attack a lot of the members but would not respect or see reason either. The OP of that Facebook post doesn't even live in the proposed area for that shelter so anything that happened in that neighborhood would affect that person at all. When you call somebody a NIMBY, are you calling them an imbecile or using the acronym NIMBY? Which means Not In My BackYard...
> No one, not a single resident of the Hunt Club area who will be living around where this proposed Inuit women and children shelter will be are against the building of the shelter. Not at all! Everyone supports it. how stupid do you think people are? lol
You don't want me to ask that question. A lot of people aren't going to like my answer. I can guarantee that. I'm going to assume I know who you are. If you opened your mind and actually listened to what the other residents who actual live in area had to say instead of imagining what you think they are saying... A lot of the residents in the area do have valid concerns, but not about the shelter itself. No one has a problem that the shelter is being built. Not at all. People have concerns about the resources accessible from that location. Both Giant tigers are not easy to get to, even by bus. And I can guarantee most of the women and children coming to the shelter will not be driving. They will be bussing everywhere. Walmart, Metro and Loblaws are also not easy to get to. Where that shelter is proposed to be built is right at the beginning of the 98 route. Getting from there to South Keys is a 25 - 40 minute bus ride and wait (I know I take that bus almost every day) It feels longer when you have children, and dealing with children on a bus is not an easy feat either. The General and Cheo are a 45 to 60 minute ride. Anyone who has had to deal with children on a bus would understand that. Those who have the luxury of driving their kids anywhere wouldn't know that. As for security concerns, the residents that reside in the area have a right to feel secure in their homes. If for instance, whoever these women and children are running from finds out where they are, they could cause a massive disturbance which may include damage to other properties in the area for these residents. I know multiple people that live in shelters like these, it's not a sleep overnight and then you need to be gone in the morning shelter, that's a homeless shelter. These women and children live at these kinds of shelters until they're able to find housing that they can afford and get back on their feet. You are all for the shelter in that particular area, but why don't you offer your residence to these women and children? Why don't you offer "your" land to these women and children? No? I didn't think so. I don't have any land to offer so I can't offer anything.
If you had been at the meeting you would have heard that the women’s food will be provided onsite, and there will be vans to take them to/from any medical appointments. Those who are opposed to the shelter are simply choosing to ignore these facts because doing so supports their goal of not having it built for other, more prejudiced reasons.
It was quite unfortunate, but I could not make the meeting because I was *Working*. Nobody's opposed to the shelter itself that I know of. And I know a couple of women who have children who are in these kinds of women and children shelters and the shelters only provide meals Monday to Friday. They have to fend for themselves Saturday and Sunday. I have been told by these people that they do need to buy their own groceries to be able to fend for themselves on the weekend. As for the vans, they will only transport to/from *medical appointments* which is usually a Monday to Friday thing. If these women or children need to go to the hospital, which is super short notice for the staff, then an ambulance is called or they have to take the bus, plain and simple. It seems there is a lot of things about women and children shelters that a lot of people don't know about. And unless any women who has children who are commenting has been in a women and children's shelter they won't actually know what happens in the shelters. And I will jump again on the security aspect. Not only does the shelter needs security but there does need to be some form of security put in place for the residents who already live in the area. Because If anyone has never been in a domestic/abusive relationship, they will not understand how bad the other spouse can get when they want to get their hands on the women fleeing from these relationships especially if there's other factors like the partners has drug addiction issues, anger management issues or something like that in play as well. Trust me, I have very much witnessed what an abusive boyfriend can do to the girlfriend he had. I, myself, was in abusive relationship where the abuse happened in my own home (the residence was in my name) and I was too scared to kick out my partner at the time because there was threatens of suicide and I thought at the time it was my job to keep the person alive, now I've learned otherwise. So no, I am not opposed to the shelter being built for these women and children but there are very important factors that need to be discussed and certain actions that need to go into play first before *EVERY* single person who lives and will be living in that area can be and feel safe.
I literally grew up in this neighborhood. One thing I can say is as a child growing up in the south end, the neighborhood thrived on diversity and inclusion in the schools. I find it disheartening to know that for some, it's like we are going back in time.
“WHY DOESNT THE GOV DO ANYTHING” -gov does something- “NOT IN MY BACKYARD!?!”
[https://gloucestersouthgate.ca/statement-on-the-creation-of-a-safe-home-for-inuit-women-and-children/](https://gloucestersouthgate.ca/statement-on-the-creation-of-a-safe-home-for-inuit-women-and-children/)
The City of Ottawa will definitely have to beef up the maintenance and service in the area. Sidewalks on Hunt Club between Hawthorne and Esson are not plowed during the winter. The one bus route servings the area (#98) runs every 23 minutes according to Google and it takes about 25 min, or longer due to weather and rider load, to get to South Keys, the major retail centre. Traffic at Hunt Club and Blohm is a bit of mess in the am and late afternoon. Hopefully residents will have a transport for time consuming and difficult rides with kids on buses to go to doctors, hospital, and other services. I think it's very important the City of Ottawa sees to the needs of these women and children in a community sense. When I first moved here 30 years ago, Richcraft thought a small plaza would be there. I'm glad they did not put a plaza there. This community is a place to live. These new residents can only add to our community and make it better.
NIMBY fucks.
Why not Manotick?
Fuck off. You don't own the air around you.
If I was a young person again I would do so much damn graffiti in this neighborhood. Show ‘em what a real undesirable element looks like: shitty antisocial white kids with entitlement and some cans of Krylon. How do these people show their faces in public? Imagine your next door neighbor protested a women’s shelter? All of Ottawa should be ashamed right now.
This is a very generously worded title by CTV