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Editor’s note: The following is a submitted letter regarding the Crossroads Village housing project. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Kingstonist. This is an open letter to our Mayor, our Chief Administrative Officer, and the councillors of the City of Kingston, Let’s get the sleeping cabins that housed people at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour and Centre 70 out of storage and set up in the grassy lot behind Crossroads United Church. Every day in Kingston we see people carting their belongings around town, and we know that almost anywhere they stop to rest, they will be unwelcome. If they try to set up a shelter in daylight hours, they’ll be moved on. People without homes need your help now. I am asking City Council to allocate some of its housing and homelessness budget to Our Livable Solutions, the agency that successfully ran the sleeping cabin project through the COVID-19 pandemic. Why support this particular agency? Chrystal Wilson is the co-founder and currently the volunteer Acting Director of Our Livable Solutions (OLS). For the last few months, she has been writing a remarkable series of columns on the issue of homelessness, looking at both the lived reality and the policy response: https://substack.com/@kayakchk. Few people are called to help traumatized people who live on the streets, but Wilson seems to be one of them. She didn’t lose track of anyone that Our Livable Solutions (OLS) had helped after the cabin program was shuttered by the City. The OLS sleeping cabin program was a success, both in terms of helping its participants regain health and in not alienating its neighbours in Portsmouth Village and around Centre 70. That was no mean feat! OLS has also recently achieved full charitable status and has the support of the Community Foundation for Kingston and Area. The Foundation encouraged OLS to create a presentation explaining its mission, which is now available as a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLSupCBh-eE. Why use the Crossroads United Church location? I was amazed that Crossroads United Church stepped up to offer a home to the cabin community. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, this church regularly handed out grocery gift cards. Their congregation witnessed firsthand the suffering of poor and unhoused Kingstonians. They decided they could not turn their backs. They have leased the large grassy back lot on their church property to Our Livable Solutions for the cabins, for 10 years at one dollar per year. The goodwill and caring of the congregation at Crossroads United is something precious and not to be squandered. In this location, on Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard near Princess Street, the cabin residents would be close to Providence Village, the Kingston Centre, Trellis HIV and Community Care, Martha’s Table and other community support services, as well as near many rental apartment buildings. The location seems felicitous. One city councillor complained that the sleeping cabins (half of which, by the way, were built through private donations) were worse than dog houses. I think this councillor missed the point that these cabins are heated and air-conditioned bedrooms, and that it is the shared facilities building that brings the residents and staff together. Few people can go from living on the street directly to an apartment or room without feeling bereft and unable to cope. If the City built a modular facility with washrooms, kitchen, laundry, counselling, and common rooms at Crossroads United, and funded Our Livable Solutions for basic operating expenses, Crossroads Village could be up and running within months. Given the drastically reduced life expectancy for unhoused people, time is of the essence. City officials, and all Kingstonians, you are invited to a rousing benefit concert featuring Django’s Kitchen, Georgette Fry and Groupe du Jour, and Shout Sister Choir, on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, 2 to 4 p.m., at Crossroads United Church, 690 Sir John A MacDonald Blvd. Admission is Give What You Can to support the opening of Crossroads Village. Please come on out and witness for yourselves the strong public support for Crossroads Village. Very truly, Janice McAlpine Kingston resident
