{"id":35954,"date":"2025-03-06T17:08:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T22:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35954"},"modified":"2025-03-06T17:08:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T22:08:30","slug":"we-have-had-enough-residents-opposed-to-emergency-housing-plan-speak-out-at-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/we-have-had-enough-residents-opposed-to-emergency-housing-plan-speak-out-at-council\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe have had enough!\u201d \u2013 Residents opposed to emergency housing plan speak out at Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A motion to invite the Region of York back to the table to re-apply for an emergency and transitional housing facility for men in Aurora\u2019s south end brought community opposition to Council Chambers last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five community members took to the podium on February 25 to express their opposition to a motion brought forward by Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo which would have revived formal discussions around 55-bed proposal voted down by local lawmakers last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Councillor Gallo made the motion following a lack of action in finding alternative sites for the build, residents expressed frustration that Council had not yet turned the page at the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter years of extensive public debate, thorough resident feedback regarding the suitability of this site, and a democratic vote rejecting this proposal in February 2024, I find it concerning that this motion is now being introduced without consulting the very residents it impacts,\u201d said Rosie Mandla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou once stated, Councillor Gallo, and quite passionately, I might add, \u2018I have said this to anyone who has contacted me on both sides that my overwhelming issue is the sewage station and I have repeated this over and over that nothing would be built there. You wouldn\u2019t put a Belinda\u2019s Place there. It would have been a non-starter. You wouldn\u2019t put a youth centre there, it would be a non-starter\u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere we are one year later and you have a change of heart without presenting any relevant new information. I respectfully point out that suggesting these men face a stark choice between the cold and a bad location is misleading. There are other options. I also question how much has been done to advance genuine alternatives like repurposing existing buildings before bringing this motion forward. From my perspective, this motion appears to be little more than political posturing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The matter, she concluded, \u201conly creates division,\u201d and this was reflected in the delegation of Mike Zelyony who said he \u201creally struggled\u201d with what he wanted to say to lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to lead with understanding. I want to lead with the fact that every single person in this room is struggling with something: relationships, finances, some know someone who is homeless \u2013 serious, serious issues. I think we have an opportunity here where we can work together and find a location that makes sense, that will get approved, and that will be the right location for the people that will be living there,\u201d he said, adding the community near the proposed site \u201chas been put through a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s enough. We\u2019ve had enough. It\u2019s gone through a democratic process and it failed. They are not bringing this back. Let\u2019s work together and find a proper location. Councillor Gallo, I urge you to withdraw your motion\u2026. Stop playing around with this community. We\u2019ve had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resident Zhiying Huang had similar concerns about location, stating it was \u201cnot about placing buildings on a map, it\u2019s about people, sustainability, and responsible decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe site is isolated, surrounded by a woodland, and a pump station with no nearby public space or community hub, which provide the vulnerable individual a chance to connect with the society as well as rebuild a sense of belonging,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you truly care about vulnerable individuals, we should place them in a location where they have a real chance to renew their life, not in an unsafe, isolated, inaccessible area. If you truly respect the community, we should listen to the residents to work together to find a better solution rather than insisting\u2026 on a site that has already been rejected. If you truly believe in sustainability, we must make thoughtful, responsible decisions, one that our future generations can look back on with pride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resident Harbinder Thandi said the motion in question \u201cseems to be a very crafty way of playing chess,\u201d wondering whether the motion was really about a shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCouncillor John Gallo, we listened to your voice. You inspired a lot of us, actually. You actually made some of the most valid comments towards York Region about the reason why you\u2019re voting against the shelter. We talked about non-optimal locations the last time we were here. We talked about a variety of things \u2013 how between the sewage pumping station and the railway track, it\u2019s not where we should put our most vulnerable but I can\u2019t help but feel [this has] anything to do with the shelter or its location. It seems like there\u2019s people that have more political aspirations and that is the reason why we\u2019re here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all know it is a non-optimal location. We know that this is not the place where York Region has an appetite to bring this back and I don\u2019t understand why you\u2019re playing with the emotions of members of the public, members of Aurora, and especially all the other Councillors. We have to be here tonight to speak to you about this again and again and I hope this is the last time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A final voice against the motion came from resident Roy Cohen who agreed the community had issues with \u201csafety and property values,\u201d including kids riding their bikes on a trail slated to be built nearby the proposed site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we need to do is come together as a community, as a unit, to find the right solution. There should be some sort of inter-municipal collaboration where we\u2019re speaking to all the other municipalities and working towards finding a greater solution and we can do it, but we need to do it properly. It\u2019s not fair for one ward, one group of residents, that don\u2019t want it in their ward. Call them whatever you want, say whatever you want, they just don\u2019t want it. You were elected by us and you have a fiduciary duty to ensure we\u2019re in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A motion to invite the Region of York back to the table to re-apply for an emergency and transitional housing facility for men in Aurora\u2019s south end brought community opposition to Council Chambers last week. Five community members took to the podium on February 25 to express their opposition to a motion brought forward by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9lU","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 09:41:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35955,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35954\/revisions\/35955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}