Neighbours pushing back against proposal for a third homeless hub along the same street

There’s growing concern that city council will agree to permit a third low-barrier service hub for Londoners experiencing homelessness along a short stretch of Wellington Road near Westminster Ponds.

“We’ve been going door-to-door talking to neighbours, and most of them are scared,” said Marc Simard, who lives next to the former radio station at 743 Wellington Rd.

“We’ve already had a lot of problems with the homeless coming here because there’s two hubs just down the street. Now they want to open [another hub] right here,” Simard added.

The new property owner has submitted a rezoning application to add “Emergency Care Establishments” and “Clinics” to the list of permitted uses.

“The subject lands are intended to become a potential ‘Hub’ location as a part of the ‘London’s Health & Homelessness Response: Proposed Hubs Implementation Plan,’” reads a letter from a planning consultant representing the owner.

London’s Whole of Community Response to Homelessness is a council-endorsed plan to create 600 units of highly-supportive housing, plus up to 15 low-barrier service hubs where individuals can receive basic services and stabilize.

Two hubs opened late last year:

• A youth hub operated by Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) on the LHSC’s Victoria Hospital property
• An Indigenous hub operated by Atlohsa Family Healing Services on the Parkwood Institute property

A map showing homeless hub locations in London, Ont. (CTV News)

The former radio station is a short distance south on Wellington Road.

Businesses in the shopping plaza door fundraise for agencies that assist homeless Londoners— but they’re very concerned about clustering too many hubs in one area.

“We are not against them, but we found it is not safe for both these homeless [people] and the citizens in this community,” said Phuong Pham, the plaza’s manager.

“There are already two [hubs] within 600 metres of this location,” said Coun. Elizabeth Peloza, who represents the area. “Although [the property] does meet other criteria— how many is too much for one neighbourhood when we’re supposed to be spreading them throughout the city?”

“Right across the street you have the [Tourism London] Welcome Centre, which is not going to look good on London, and then you have an old age home (Dearness Home) over there too,” warned Simard.

New owner of a former radio station at 743 Wellington Rd., seen on April 4, 2024, is applying to permit a service hub for Londoners experiencing homelessness on the property (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)

However, the planning justification letter from the property owner’s planning consultant states, “It is our professional opinion that the location of the proposed uses within the existing building will not result in any significant undue impacts to the surrounding neighbourhood and proximate land uses.”

Peloza has been told by city staff that additional hub locations are not being actively pursued at this time, but the property owner wanted to add a hub to the list of possible tenants.

“The city has confirmed that we don’t have an operator in place, we don’t have a location, or an application to open up in this location,” she explained.

Written comments about the proposed rezoning must be sent to the city by April 19 to appear on the public agenda of the Planning and Environment Committee.

A public participation meeting about the rezoning application is scheduled for May 22.