Ottawa identifies two sites for tent-like temporary housing for newcomers

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The city has identified two locations to build tent-like structures called “tensile membrane structures” to house asylum seekers and newcomers on a temporary basis — one near the Nepean Sportsplex and the other near the Eagleson Road Park and Ride in Kanata.

“The city will purchase and construct semi-permanent structures for the purpose of establishing up to two newcomer reception centres, as needed, that could be operational by the end of 2025,” said a memo to councillors from Clara Freire, the city’s general manager of community and social services released Thursday evening.

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The centres are meant to be a short-term housing solution, offering temporary lodging for up to 90 days.

While immigration falls within the federal government’s jurisdiction, the city has been pursuing medium- to long-term housing options to respond to the demand for immediate and transitional housing and to alleviate pressure on the local shelter system resulting from this irregular migration, said Freire’s memo.

There are currently 330 beds at temporary emergency overflow centres, two of which are operating out of city-owned recreation facilities. About 600 single individuals staying in shelters are newcomers, which represents 60 per cent of shelter users, according to city data.

“These newcomer reception centres are intended to provide a more dignified option for newcomers who are currently sleeping on bunk beds in recreational facilities that have not been designed for human habitation,” said Freire.

Answering questions from reporters Friday afternoon, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said the process for deciding sites was not decided by himself or city councillors.

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“This is not a political decision,” said Sutcliffe. “This is not, nor should it be, a process where city council gets around the table and decides, ‘Okay, where are we going to put a welcoming centre. Do you want it in your ward?’ ‘Well, no, there’s a bunch of people in my ward who don’t want it here, so it should go in your ward.’ The whole reason we take the politics out of it is to avoid exactly that.”

The next step will be advance planning applications and work with the NCC to obtain the necessary approvals for the location at 1645 Woodroffe Ave. in Nepean, according to the memo.

A zoning report for 40 Hearst Way in Kanata is expected to come before the planning and housing committee and city council in January.

Site plan applications for both sites are to be submitted in early 2025, and city staff expect building permit applications for the structures will be submitted by the end of March, and will then move through the procurement process.

Speculation over sites the structures has sparked protests in Barrhaven, which was not one of the two sites named in the end.

Sutcliffe said he had many conversations with councillors and people in Barrhaven, but it was not for him to interfere in the process.

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“The solution has to go somewhere. We know that not everyone will agree to that, but these a city-wide challenges that we have to face and the solutions will be somewhere.”

Community notification and consultation will form part of the planning application process to solicit feedback on site design, said the memo. The consultation process “does not consider the end users, or the type of structure used for the proposed development.”

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised about the speed at which the decision was made public.

Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine, whose ward includes the 1645 Woodroffe site, said he had no inkling that his ward was under consideration.

Devine said he got an email from city staff on Monday to setting up a meeting on Wednesday, where he learned the site was being listed as a “possibility,” with a report coming out next week.

Devine learned that the site was confirmed late Thursday afternoon.

Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley also had no idea a site in his ward was under consideration. He heard the news around 5:30 p.m. Thursday and was soon inundated with messages from residents, who learned at the same time.

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After talking to city staff on Friday, Hubley said he learned that the Kanata structure does not have funding.  “At this point, we do not have the money to build them both.”

However, it’s unclear what could happen in the future, said Hubley. There’s the potential for a huge influx of migrants across the border following newly elected president Donald Trump promised “mass deportations” of undocumented immigrants.

“If we get only a fraction, how are we going to absorb all of that?” he said. 

The city will be looking for a formal letter of commitment from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said the memo.

Work continues to transition single adult clients to the YMCA, and operationalize a former convent building on 1754 St. Joseph Blvd. as transitional housing. The city also plans to buy up to 20 four to five-bedroom, homes scattered throughout the city to be used as transitional housing to support up to 200 people at a time.

The update on locations for the structures is the latest news in a process that began in October 2023, when the city formed an emergency shelter task force to deal with high demand for shelter beds.

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The choice of sites was based on a number of considerations, including walkability and access to healthcare and other services, available wastewater and water services at the site, environmental considerations and transportation as well as “compatibility between the proposed development and the surrounding neighbourhood’s context with respect to density, built form, height and massing.”

Starting last February, the city looked at 92 potential sites, which was later whittled down to 23 sites.

The site at 1645 Woodroffe Avenue is a portion of the Nepean Sportsplex complex located at Woodroffe Avenue and West Hunt Club Road. The portion to be developed is bounded by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board education centre — the former Confederation High School— to the west, West Hunt Club Road to the north, a wooded area to the east, and the Nepean Sportsplex to the south.

The parcel is currently owned by the NCC. The city’s assessment of the site said the city has an existing lease for an under-utilized football field. The site has a somewhat low level of walkability, but it has access to bus rapid transit and is less than five kilometres to a future Phase 2 LRT station.

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“From an operations perspective, the co-location of the Nepean Sportsplex on site could allow for additional space for the reception centre,” said the report.

The assessment of 40 Hearst Way in Kanata said the site west of Eagleson Road is near a bus rapid transit station and about five kilometres from a future LRT station. Neighbourhood amenities include a grocery store about a 15-minute walk away.

The report also outlined other sites that had been under consideration and met many of the criteria. The report listed 1005/1045 Greenbank Rd., 3311 Woodroffe Avenue and 160 Lees Ave. as also being among the top five.

On Friday, Sutcliffe could not say where any of the other sites on the list would be under consideration if there was additional demand.

“I don’t think anybody forsees that at this point. But we don’t know what the future holds. There are many, many factors driving this global migration crisis, and the circumstances around the world are changing all the time,” he said.

“We’re not able to accurately forecast the future, and know all the different things that are going to happen — where wars are going to take place, how global migratin patterns are going to change, the impact of. the U.S. election, future decisions by the government of Canada.”

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Sutcliffe urged Ottawa residents to be welcoming.

“Right now, newcomers arriving in Ottawa are staying in community centres. Those community centres were not designed for that purpose. They were designed to be community centres for their neighbourhoods. Instead, we’re putting up bunk beds on gymnasiums, and that’s not ideal for newcomers, and it’s not ideal for those communities,” he said.

“We have a choice here,” said Devine. “Asylum seekers and migrants are coming to Ottawa. If we don’t have resources in place, our shelters downtown will be overwhelmed. If the goal is how to best manage what is coming, both for the newcomers and the residents, the best way is to ensure that they land on the most solid footing.”

Hubley said housing newcomers in tents upsets him. “I always remember that people are welcomed. Now they’re being told they have to live in a tent — and there’s no housing being built.”

The structures — sometimes referred to by the trademarked name “Sprung Structures” — are temporary, all-weather structures similar to the one built at The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus emergency department during the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, some councillors argued that modular construction would be a better option because these buildings could continue to be used for other purposes.

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However, the memo says tensile membrane structures cost around $15 per square foot up to $145 per square foot less than modular, depending on the type of modular construction utilized. A report commissioned by the city found that both building types could be built within around 12 months — but points out that a local modular project at 399-401 Bell St. South took two years to construct.

“The interior space of tensile membrane structures can be easily reconfigured in the future,” said the memo. “The interior space configuration for modular buildings needs to be determined in advance as interior layout is dependent on the size of the modules, unless using a combination of traditional and modular construction, which would increase project timelines. Both structure types can be disassembled and relocated; however, this would need to be factored in during [the] design of the modular building.”

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