The Gilbert Centre is on the hunt for a new space in a location it says will offer its clients more “dignity and respect.”
Despite moving from a suite inside the Barrie by the Bay building on Bradford Street to a new one with an exterior entrance earlier this year, after also expanding its services to include a harm-reduction program, the Gilbert Centre will completely relocate after receiving complaints regarding its clientele, explained Champagne Thomson, community outreach and fundraising senior manager for the Barrie-based organization.
“We are looking to relocate to a space where we can invest our overhead dollars in a property management company that better aligns with our values of dignity and respect for everyone,” she told BarrieToday.
She said the organization is looking for a landlord with more of a “yes in my backyard” — or YIMBY — mentality, who is comfortable with the centre’s drop-in program, as well as being barrier-free and supportive of all individuals, regardless of their socioeconomic status, gender expression or sexual identity.
The Gilbert Centre has been located at 80 Bradford St. for more than five years, Thomson noted, adding it had previously been located in Suite 555, moving to Suite 525 in the last year in the hopes of better accommodating the centre’s harm-reduction drop-in space with a location that had an exterior door.
“Unfortunately, that hasn’t resolved the concerns and so therefore we are looking to move to a space that is more suitable to our needs,” she said, adding clients have shared concerns about feeling a lack of safety or dignity when approaching the space.
“I do know that landlords balance very challenging agendas. We are in a plaza and there are other non-profits there, but balancing the needs of other non-profits as well as us can be challenging.”
There has also been some “negative feedback” from the nearby community following the move to Suite 525 earlier this year, Thomson said.
“We have received some negative complaints, including complaints of loitering of individuals outside of the space who are merely existing in pockets of shade that they could find before our cooling centre was up and running,” she said of the new facility, which became operational July 24.
“It’s just individuals who can be stereotypically categorized as low-income, low on the socioeconomic scale and potentially unhoused is problematized in this particular location,” she added, acknowledging it’s not the square footage of the space it has outgrown but rather the neighbourhood.
“We are just looking to go somewhere that better aligns with our values of dignity and respect and radical compassion for all.”
Steve Sperling, president of Aerarium Development Corporation, which owns the Barrie by the Bay building, said he isn’t happy about being painted as a bad guy, telling BarrieToday he has been trying to make it a safe place not only for the Gilbert Centre, but for all of the other tenants, too, with “very little co-operation.”
“I have been trying now for weeks to try to sort out this problem,” he said, adding the company has incurred some additional costs, having to hire security for the building. “A lot of their clients don’t really concern themselves with what they’re doing within the building … and we have cameras. I can’t continue that way.
“I am trying to be a Solomon to keep everybody happy. I am not their mother (or) their father. I am their landlord. We are providing affordable office space for a lot of agencies. When it starts to impact our other tenants, I have to take a stance.”
The Barrie by the Bay building is home to several organizations involved with social services, including the John Howard Society, as well as offices linked to the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre. A space at the rear of the property has also been selected as the preferred location of a supervised consumption site, but it has not yet gained provincial approval and associated funding.
“There are 140 tenants in this building. We treat this building as if it’s a village. There are many tenants in this building that are involved in helping the community. There are also many tenants in the building that are not involved in community work, like accountants, chiropractors, psychotherapists … It’s very important that the tenants work together. We are not having that,” said Sperling.
“Gilbert is not co-operating and they are not concerning themselves with their clients who will tend to loiter or get involved in drugs on the exterior of the building.”
Gilbert Centre officials have been searching for a new location but as of yet have been unsuccessful, noted Thomson.
“We have looked at a couple of spaces, but, unfortunately, it’s challenging to fit the depth and breadth of what we offer under one roof sometimes,” she said. “To be able to go into a space is going to come with exorbitant moving costs, which we’ve already incurred this year just from moving from one unit to another.”
An additional challenge will be trying to retrofit a space architecturally that can house all of the other services the Gilbert Centre provides, Thomson noted, as a new location would need to have at least six to eight administrative offices, a community space and a drop-in space, and be easily accessible both physically and location-wise.
“Our goal is to be as accessible as possible, as low-barrier as possible and as connected to community as possible,” she said.
Ideally, the goal would be to maintain all of the Gilbert Centre’s services under the same roof.
“Reality may dictate otherwise, but our goal, and what we are hoping to do, is to ensure all staff can get together under one roof and provide the same services we currently provide without having to silo our programs off,” Thomson said.
Although there is no firm deadline for the move, Thomson said the Gilbert Centre is “being encouraged” to continue the search in a timely manner.
“One of the big things for us is just ensuring we can uphold that sense of dignity, safety and respect for all people. We are a value- and client-centred organization, so therefore we will follow what the clients need as well as where our values lead us,” she said.
The Gilbert Centre also operates the cooling centre out of the Bradford Street location, which is slated to run until mid-September.
