City re-locates volunteer-run Sudbury Outreach Services to tent city, without electricity

The City of Greater Sudbury said it has moved a volunteer-run organization called Sudbury Outreach Services, also known as SOS, to the Energy Court tent encampment to increase the servies being offered there.

In a statement, a city spokesperson says the re-location of SOS "aligned well with the focus on services to be offered at that location. No other locations were considered."

The city, in collaboration with Sudbury police, has been carrying out what it calls a "downtown transformation" to prevent open drug use, loitering and trespassing on downtown streets since the beginning of the month.

Instead, people have been urged to seek help and shelter at a parking lot off Energy Court, where the Go-Give Project operates a 24-hour warming centre.

SOS founder Denise Sandul said she wasn't given a choice about the move, and she has some misgivings about the new site, including lack of electricity.

For the past four years, her organization has been operating out of sea can containers at the old farmers' market off Elgin Street, handing out donated clothing and toiletries to those in need on Sunday afternoons.

Sandul says the need has grown since then and where they used to give out 200 items, she said they now give out 2,000.

She and volunteers also starting serving hot food and recently a barber volunteered to cut hair

On the first day in the re-located sea cans at the tent city, last Sunday, Sandul said someone provided a generator so the barber could run his tools, heater and lighting, but they can't offer a warm meal.

Sandul said she's worried the new location will be inaccessible to some of their clients who don't live in the encampment.

"There's some people that are afraid to go to the tent city. Even though they're living on the streets themselves," she said.

"And there are other people with mobility issues that will not be able to get there. [Last Sunday] we had two women arrive in wheelchairs that came from downtown, which was amazing, but how is that going to work, come snow?".

Sandul, who lost her son to an opioid overdose, said she thinks about the dignity of the people she helps, but the new location is a little close to the tents for anyone's comfort.

"We're very close to their home, so this is where they have their domestics, this is where they have their disputes with their neighbors. This is where they're using substances," she said.