County still needs overflow shelter beds: report

Heather Wright/The Independent

Tony Gioiosa seems resigned to the fact shelter space will be needed for people who are homeless for some time to come.

But the neighbour of Lambton County’s shelter at former Laurel Lea Church in Sarnia is glad to hear the county is searching for a more permanent solution at another location.

Neighbours surrounding the old church started asking the county and the city to do something about the crime and drug use in the area around the 35 bed-shelter about a year after it was set up in 2023. Some councillors, including Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley and City/County Councillor Bill Dennis, insisted on a firm closing date for building.

In November 2025, county staff set an “optimistic” goal of a spring closure but cautioned it would depend on the amount of people facing homelessness and how much new, affordable housing was available for people using the shelter. Officials promised a full report in April.

April 2, Ian Hanney, manager of homelessness prevention for Lambton County told local politicians the number of people becoming homeless is at “record highs” and it can’t close a Sarnia overflow shelter yet.

Hanney says the county is looking at finding a new home for the shelter since the number of people facing homelessness each month is still growing. In February, for example 58 people became homeless while only 36 came off of the county’s list; 19 of whom found housing. That increased that list of people without shelter from 325 people to 339.

“In the last handful of months, the demand for homelessness prevention services is at record levels… We have early indication that there will be a long-term need for and therefore a goal related to adding to permanent shelter beds. As such, we’re exploring alternative options to the overflow shelter,” Hanney told the media after updating council.

Hanney says “there is a growing level of housing in security in our community” due to high food and rent costs. Without the overflow shelter for the “couple of dozen people” who use it nightly, he says, “we would suddenly see all of those individuals reside in unsheltered settings. We would see encampments spike.”

The county along with emergency responders have been meeting with the neighbours of the shelter to deal with some of their long-standing concerns. Gioiosa says those meetings helped improve the situation somewhat, particularly since the services offered in the day have moved to the HART Hub. County officials say calls to Sarnia Police from the neighbours are down 80 per cent since the meetings began.

Hanney says operations at the overflow shelter on Indian Road have changed; originally, the shelter provided services for those living on the streets during the day. That ended when the new HART Hub opened earlier this year. Now, people in need of shelter are directed there by the Inn of the Good Shepherd, which runs the facility, and stay only from 5 pm to Recently, the county reduced the number of beds available there from 35 to 25.

Gioiosa says the problems in the neighbourhood around the shelter are not as acute as in 2025.

“During the day we could have seen well over 150 people in the community accessing that property, and that’s in addition to the shelter piece that was happening during the night. So that day program has now been relocated, so most of that traffic has gone away the day program traffic, but the community is still exposed to the traffic that is generated by those accessing the shelter,” he says.

“To say that it’s gone away or that the things that are happening are not disruptive, would be a false statement,” Gioiosa said.

“I’m glad to see that they’ve announced that they’d like to find another location,” he added. But Gioiosa added the problem is not going away anytime soon.

“We are concerned, I guess is what the word is, because the number of unhoused individuals is growing and we’re very comfortable with the fact that they express the desire to close down the shelter, but there’s concern that it may not happen.

“The (county staff) report did say that they are looking for alternative locations, which is good; which is something our group has said they should do repeatedly.”

Hanney says the county has been talking with the Inn of the Good Shepherd, which runs the overflow shelter for Lambton, about expansion. Executive Director Jack Christie says those talks are preliminary and he did not want to comment whether was more space at the existing Good Shepherd’s Lodge on Confederation Street.

Hanney says for now, it is important for people facing homelessness to know “there are beds available for them to come see us and work towards their long term housing outcomes.”

.