As mentioned in our weekly newsletter on September 26, the Council was set to meet September 30 – October 1 to discuss Motion MM23.28, brought by Councillor Wong-Tam.
In advance of this meeting, the CRA sent a letter to all Councilors and the Mayor, in which we reiterated our concerns about neighbourhood safety and security:
“The Cabbagetown Residents Association’s objection to the siting of a drop-in and respite centre at 233 Carlton Street (in the heart of the commercial strip in Cabbagetown) has been driven, from the outset, by an overriding concern for the safety and security of residents and local businesses. Council is surely aware of the challenges brought about by pimps and drug dealers operating in the Sherbourne and Dundas neighbourhood around the Margaret’s Respite Centre. Our concern is that these same predators will migrate north to prey on the female clientele of this new respite centre. This is a real community concern, born out by the troubles that arose so rapidly, so extremely and so publicly in midtown communities adjacent to the Roehampton Hotel.”
In this letter we asked Council to demand clear, detailed, and unequivocal responses to each of Councillor Wong Tam’s questions. We also asked them to consider addressing a number of other questions that have gone unanswered since the 233 Carlton Street project was kicked-off by the Shelter, Support & Housing Administration (SSHA) in mid 2019.
Similar letters were also submitted by other local residents associations and concerned neighbours.
In advance of the Council session, the city published a ‘Report for Action’, as a response to the three questions in Motion MM23.28. Unfortunately, this report provided no substantive or objective insights into the SSHAs decision making process when leasing this property.
The Cabbagetown Coalition sent an email response to this ‘Report for Action’ to its own subscriber database, pointing out the various deficiencies in the report. This email was also copied to members of the Council.
All of these communications were appended to the supporting documents related to Councillor Wong-Tam’s Motion. Unfortunately, the Council meeting was extended through October 2, and Councillor Wong-Tam’s motion came up 5 minutes before the end. To ensure proper review, she deferred the motion to the next Council meeting, scheduled for October 28-29.
This is an ongoing story and we will provide additional updates as they become available.
6 replies on “233 Carlton Street Update – Oct 3, 2020”
I want to highly commend the efforts of Cabbagetown Residents Association for posting this update and being completely transparent to the residents and businesses of Cabbagetown, in a timely manner regarding the motion. I believe the sense of urgency is a form of commitment to the community and I applaud this organization for setting the standards high for other associations to follow suit. Nonetheless, I truly appreciate the update and look forward to finding out more about initiatives that were made to fully source out the rotten root that has compromised so many of our lives, particularly our health and safety. As in my case, being a resident and business owner on Carlton St. for 21 years, next door to 218 Carlton St, (the other Kielberger/ We Charity property that was eventually awarded to the City of Toronto via a sale made between We Charity and MOD Developments, a condo developer, for 2.75 million.. and then sold to the City of Toronto for $2.00 tas a converted 20-Units of affordable housing. This deal was made for MOD Developments to have bylaws amended in order to demolish existing rental housing for the purposes of building their condo building at 55 Charles. Considering I have proven that there are direct links to this property and the the shady deals with 233 Carlton St, I really hope that ALL Cabbagetown resident associations and groups are representing the entire community properly in their attempts at pulling out all the rotten roots associated with 233 Carlton St. This issue affects many of us and I hope that our resident associations have ALL of our best interests in place and not fixate on only 233 Carlton St. but rather the entire branches of rotten roots that have no place in our neighbourhood. On that note, what efforts have been made to address the concerns with 218 Carlton St., and the direct links to 233 Carlton St. that I have outlined in my video series entitled Future Cabbagetown, available to view on YouTube. Thanks, I await your response and once again I really appreciate the professionalism and due diligence that was shown to the people of Cabbagetown by your fast acting efforts to provide immediate updates!! Well done! A true residents association! BRAVO!
We dont need any more shelters,rooming houses, safe drugs injection sites, street health for drugs and addiction etc. We need Cabbagetown back to.the families, kids and businesses .
There are 13 shelters in this Ward and no Ward in Ontario has to many . Usually they have 1-3 of these kind of facilities.
Councillor Wong-Tam’s motions are always connected with bringing homeless, addicts and crimminals from all all over GTA and Ontario into her ward. She loves being surrounded by homeless and people in need because she “buys them” for votes for her next ellection.
ENOUGH Councillor Wong-Tam’s !!!
We dont want Cabbagetown to turn and look like ghetto or slum !
I agree with the comment above. The city is turning cabbagetown into a ghetto and a slum. Enough. Not just for cabbagetown but for long term health of the city itself. Very frustrated with how the city is pushing all the social services into one area of the city.
Some of the attitudes I see online basically feel like “make cabbagetown great again” – ironic considering most of the original of the neighbourhood inhabitants were low income immigrants, I wonder how welcome they would feel in today’s cabbagetown. Anyway, considering we do in fact live in a densely populated urban area, I’m all for social services and trying to help people in the community. If we are concerned about “safety of residents” that includes individuals who are residents of our streets and shelters. I’m sure everyone who is opposed to this potential development is furiously writing their MPP and our soon to be new MP calling for investments in social services, street outreach, and affordable housing, it can’t just be nimbyism, right?
I agree with Rosssays wholeheartedly. As a downtown community, what makes Cabbagetown so wonderful is its diversity and inclusivity. I look forward to finding ways to get involved and support these social service efforts!
I also support 233 Carlton St in becoming a Women’s Resource Centre and 24 Drop-in. I also support 218 Carlton St which is going to be converted to 20-Units of affordable housing. What I DO NOT support is any further re-zoning of commercial and or commercial/residential properties within our small and volotile neighbourhood business area…especially on main streets. These properties have historically been for businesses and “live/work” opportunities for young entrepreneurs, like myself 21 years ago, who depended on mixed use properties to build a business and raise a family under one roof. Now we have entire sections of these rare properties re-zoned away from the business community. SSHA changed the rules for selecting properties for shelters and other services….yet they keep re-zoning these RARE, affordable, live/work properties on main streets in small business areas – WHY???