An April 8 Flour Mill Community Action Network meeting over neighbourhood concerns about a drop-in centre for people who are homeless highlights the ongoing challenges of the city’s homelessness and drug addiction crises.
The approximately 70 people who attended the April 8 meeting were asked to sign an attendance form and fill out a questionnaire upon entering the room at the Liuna Local 593 building on Clinton Street. Sudbury.com did ask the reason we weren’t welcome, to which Landry-Altmann responded that the media was not invited. “And I’ll tell you why,” she said. But when Sudbury.com turned on a recorder to get the statement on the record, she changed her mind. “No, on second thought, speak to me tomorrow. You need to leave.”
In 2023, SCTC received $59,100 from the Ontario Trillium Foundations Resilient Community Fund, and United Steelworkers Local 6500 covered seven months of SCTC’s building lease. What happened at the meeting As stated earlier, those invited to the meeting were asked to fill out a questionnaire. The type of questions asked on the form seem to highlight the discomfort some residents feel about the Sudbury Centre for Transitional Care’s presence in the neighbourhood.
From the videos provided to Sudbury.com, it seems Landry-Altmann was deciding who could speak and couldn’t speak at the meeting. She told the group that five business owners and then five residents would be allowed to speak, chosen in the order they signed up. Others who spoke were more aggressive in their comments. One person suggested the SCTC should be burned down while another said it should be moved to the bush. Another speaker said the people seeking services at the centre don’t deserve care at all.