North Hastings Community Trust officials are asking for empathy in the fight to end homelessness.
Carly O’Neill , Trust social worker and Lorie Bird, board member, spoke to MyBancroftNow after the town shut down public parks on the weekend. Town officials were worried that people who had been staying in the since closed Trust-run overnight shelter, would set up an encampment in one.
The Trurst workers say they’re heartbroken by the divisiveness the issue has caused on social media. Mayor Paul Jenkins, in a weekend Facebook post, wrote that an illegal encampment was being set up by Community Trust.
O’Neill says that wasn’t the case.
“The accusations that were put out in the community that the Trust was organizing an encampment, that was not the case, whatsoever,” she says. “What we did do was a call out to the community for support with basic survival equipment. And then we supported people in the community and took them to where they wanted to go. And I assure you, that was not in public spaces.”
Both women say they’d appreciate more collaboration with the council in efforts to address homelessness.