The MPP for Hastings-Lennox & Addington says he’s working to address Bancroft’s homelessness problem with a sense of urgency.
Ric Bresee says he’s been speaking with the Minister of Infrastructure about finding available provincially-owned land in Bancroft where a mobile shelter can be placed this winter.
Bresee says funding for Bancroft to run the unit is available, through the province’s Homelessness Prevention Program but the logistics are still being worked out.
Officials are hoping to place it on provincially-owned land, because Bancroft doesn’t have much municipally-owned land.
“We knew in the spring that we needed to get this done,” Bresee says. “It’s very frustrating to me that this has taken this long and I’ll take that. The province has gone slowly, the municipalities have gone slowly. Now we’re back into approaching winter and it becomes more of a crisis.”
“I am hopeful, we’ll have a facility up and running, all I can say is, as quickly as possible.”
People who work closely with Bancroft’s unhoused, believe there are about 25 people in the area still sleeping outdoors, in temperatures that are now below freezing on most nights.