Cornwall groups are calling for a further 60 days for hotel asylum seekers

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Fifteen organizations from Cornwall and the surrounding area have co-signed a letter to three federal ministers calling for an extension of the Dev Center’s accommodation contract for asylum seekers.

United Way Centraide SDG, Senator Bernadette Clement and Association des communautés francophones de l’Ontario – Stormont, Dundas, et Glengarry (ACFO-SDG) wrote the letter. It was written after a meeting of 60 people representing 43 organisations, which took place on 17 July. A full list of all participants was not made public, but the authors said the consensus at the meeting was that more time was needed.

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The letter, co-signed by 15 organizations that attended the meeting, was sent to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC) Minister Marc Miller, Housing and Infrastructure Minister Sean Fraser and Treasury Board President Anita Anand.

IRCC notified those housed at the Dev Center earlier this month that its contract with the hotel and conference center ends on July 31. live and provide other services to asylum seekers from the summer of 2022. As of July 17, where 514 people were living at the Dev Centre.

The concerns cited by organizations that have supported people living at the Dev Center broadly fall into two issues: that a 30-day notice is not enough time for residents to find alternative housing, meaning they will likely be sent to another hotel in Ontario that is under an IRCC Contract in another community where they will need to re-connect in Cornwall; and, that more than 200 of those who live at Dev have jobs in the Cornwall area and those employers will be left out if IRCC relocates them to another community.

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The concerns have evolved from those expressed by some organizations when they first learned of the end of the IRCC contract, fearing that the Cornwall area would be left trying to absorb more than 500 new residents at a time when there are few vacancies in publicly subsidized housing and low availability. of affordable housing on the market. The letter notes this reality and that housing markets in other communities are similar.

IRCC told the Ottawa Citizen last week that anyone from Dev who still needs housing will not be relocated to Ottawa. IRCC said it has been working with Dev residents for months to transition to permanent housing without overwhelming the shelter systems in Cornwall, Ottawa and surrounding communities. The ministry has temporary accommodation contracts in Ottawa, along with Kingston, Mississauga, Niagara Falls and Windsor.

IRCC’s contract with Dev provided residents with room and board, some medical services, and access to social and housing information while they sought permanent housing and waited for information on the status of their asylum claims. In 2022-23, more than 1,800 people spent time at Dev while they waited for their next steps, with the majority choosing to move to other communities once their time in Cornwall was over.

The City of Ottawa said last week that it does not expect any of the Dev residents to be placed in Ottawa.

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