Kitchener youth shelter wants to hire security after logging 22 critical incidents in December
Staff believe increase in incident reports may have to do with opening of new shelter nearby
Staff at OneRoof Youth Services want to hire security for their supportive housing complexes in Kitchener, Ont., after staff logged 22 critical incidents that involved unknown adults on their properties talking to young people staying there.
CEO Sandy Dietrich-Bell shared her concerns during a regional council community and health services committee on Tuesday, saying it was the highest number of critical incident reports she's seen in her 18 years as CEO. She asked regional council for funding to hire their own in-house security.
Dietrich-Bell said critical incident reports often involve violence, drug sales, sex trafficking or grooming. It can also involve overdoses or threats to staff or youth on the property.
Dietrich-Bell said the safety of the youth they serve is why they have strict protocols on who is allowed to be on their property.
"We're finding many of the critical and non-critical issues we're experiencing actually involve adults milling about the campus. Many are not invited guests, but have made their way onto our property to try to engage on vulnerable impressionable young people," she told regional councillors.
Dietrich-Bell said it's believed the increase in adults on their sites is related to the opening of a shelter in the former Schwaben Club on King Street.
Dietrich-Bell also says it's important to hire in-house security because during the pandemic, the shelter hired an outside agency to help with shift coverage, but many of the youth didn't feel comfortable having non-OneRoof staff on site.
"These new hires could act in the capacity of security, most definitely, but would also be seen as part of the shift team and youth would come to know them as OneRoof staff," she said.
Region to look at security at shelters across the region
Regional Coun. Rob Deutschmann and North Dumfries Mayor Sue Foxton, who also serves as a regional councillor, shared their concern about the issue during Tuesday's meeting.
"Given that we're dealing with a vulnerable group, youth, in our community, I would like to see staff meet with Sandy and see what options are available and come back with options for us to consider during the budget process," Deutschmann said.
Foxton also asked about whether police should be involved.
"I find it confusing because I think this definitely falls under their mandate, so I would ask police board members [in council] to please bring this forward because I think this should be a police issue," she said.
Peter Sweeney, the region's commissioner of community services, said security has been a concern at the King Street shelter as well as at others.
"One of the challenges we've had with the King Street shelter is around the request for security around the site, so we build into that contract the provision of 24-7 security on the site," Sweeney said, adding the region has also taken similar steps at the 100 Victoria Street encampment in Kitchener and at 150 Main Street in Cambridge.
"We have been asked numerous times by local businesses, local residents and others to provide security across the entire neighbourhood and as you can imagine, our funding envelope doesn't not have capacity to respond to that."
Regional councillors ultimately directed staff to look into the issue of security around shelters as a whole across the region and report back at a later date.