The dust and the mud at the Alvinston Pro Rodeo
File Photo
A tent community at Rainbow Park in January 2025. Today, the tents are gone and Lambton's warden hopes 2026 will see the housing crisis ease as new housing becomes available.
Warden hopeful housing crisis will ease in 2026
January 10, 2026
Heather Wright/The Independent
Lambton County Warden Kevin Marriott is hopeful the housing crisis will ease in 2026.
He tells The Independent four projects, including a number of affordable housing developments, should provide some relief to those without a home and in need of mental health and addictions help.
During the pandemic, Lambton officials opened the county’s first emergency shelter, hoping to help the 260 people in need of housing. The crisis eased by 2023, with 175 people seeking shelter – about 100 chronically homeless.
But the high cost of rent made the situation worse with a tent city popping up in Rainbow Park. The county opened what was billed as a temporary shelter in Sarnia. It is still open today.
By March 2024, 345 people were unhoused with between 180 to 220 people considered chronically unhoused.
The number of people looking for a place to live peaked at 314 in 2025 with between 180 and 220 people chronically unhoused.
That’s still more than double of those homeless in 2023.
Marriott is hopeful “the pieces keep coming together” which will open up more housing including new affordable housing units at Maxwell Park Place and Kathleen Avenue. He adds that will take “immediate pressure” off the shelter at the former Laurel Lea Church saying it will be a “big turnaround” from the crisis which has unfolded since the pandemic.
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