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Rooming house residents wander downtown streets for safety's sake, says Springwater mayor

Stabbings and violence in rooming houses create "poisonous ecosystem", says councillor, and rent supplements shouldn't support them.
murder house
A fatal stabbing occurred in this rooming house in early 2015. It is one of three rooming houses currently for sale on Ross Street. Laurie Watt for Barrie Today

A stabbing in a downtown Barrie rooming house is prompting a local mayor to reject using Simcoe County social services cash to help people live in rooming houses.

The county has the option of restricting provincial affordable housing rent-supplement funding it receives from the province to help only those in “self-contained units” – that is, units that have a kitchen and a bathroom – or begin opening up the money to help people live in rooming houses.

“I have firsthand experience with the dangers in our current system of rooming houses. Three years ago, my brother-in-law was murdered in a rooming house in Barrie, because it was like a battle zone. He had to lock his door.

“One of the residents kicked down the door and strangled him to death,” recalled Springwater Township Mayor Bill French.

In November 2013, a 52-year-old man was fatally strangled in another rooming house not far from the city core.

In February 2015 in a downtown Barrie rooming house, a 55-year-old man died after being stabbed repeatedly.

County staff recommended declining the province’s “offer of flexibility” with funding for rooming house residents based on concerns about their rights under the Residential Tenancies Act and safety.

Barrie Councillor Arif Khan – one of Barrie’s councillors who can vote on human services matters at Simcoe County – said he worries about a tenant’s lack of legal rights and safety. He encouraged the county to stick with its refusal of the flexibility.

“In rooming houses downtown, they get the lion’s share of calls for police and ambulance. They have created a dangerous ecosystem, a poisonous ecosystem,” he told the region’s mayors and deputy mayors.

“You take people at their most vulnerable and they don’t necessarily have the caseworkers to look out for their wellbeing and their rights. Their environment perpetuates the downward spiral.”

County Warden Gerry Marshall said the value of having a warm place needs to be noted, especially as the county struggles to add 2,685 new affordable units by 2024.

“A roof over someone’s head, your health and safety is improved over whether you’re under a culvert or in a cold street,” said Marshall.

But French maintained the streets in downtown Barrie area a lot safer than the rooming houses, collective dwellings in which residents share a kitchen and bathroom.

“A lot of the tenants would leave in the morning in the warm weather, because it was a lot safer to wander the streets of downtown Barrie than to stay in the rooming house.”

The issue will go to the county’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee for further discussion.