Drew Dobson, owner of Finnigan’s Pub in the heart of Vanier, said the new proposed shelter will hurt an already “vulnerable” community.

On June 22, Drew Dobson was struck by the news that the City of Ottawa is proposing a 350-bed Salvation Army homeless shelter to be built in Vanier. That night, much of the neighbourhood gathered at his bar on Montreal Road to express their grievances.

“[This shelter] will hinder and stall the progress we made, and set it back 10 years,” Dobson, owner of Finnigan’s Pub for the last 16 and a half years, said.

Vanier is tucked away in Ottawa’s core, adjacent to the affluent area of Rockliffe Park, where the Prime Minister lives. But Vanier is no 24 Sussex Drive.

One of Ottawa’s oldest neighbourhoods, Vanier boasts the lowest median income in the city, with an average of $38,000 in 2015, according to analyzed data compiled by Statistics Canada. Data also shows that most areas of Vanier has seen a decrease in median income since 2005.

The proposed homeless shelter will hurt an already “vulnerable” neighbourhood, Dobson said. He started an online petition upon hearing of the proposal, and was soon relaying the neighbourhood’s concerns on local and national news outlets.

“I’m opposed to it because of how it is going to affect the residents, and my customers and my friends and my family,” Dobson said. He added he is mainly concerned about how the community will adapt to the introduction of this new shelter.

“I don’t think it can adapt, I think it will enter a downward spiral,” Dobson said. ” … Vanier is one of the poorest areas in Ottawa right now … It’s a have-not area, it needs help, it needs a step-up, not a step-down.”

Dobson said he believes the shelter will cause affluent residents and businesses in the neighbourhood to leave, ultimately “ghettoizing” Vanier.

His grievances are shared by Nathalie Carrier, the executive director of Quartier Vanier BIA, which oversees many of the businesses in the area. Carreir said Vanier has already been struggling due to other decisions made by the city earlier in the year.

“The crime rate in Vanier has risen since June and the direct correlation with that was the, quote-unquote ‘cleaning up’ of the downtown core for Canada Day, and so lots of crime and crime-driven people … were redirected towards Vanier,” Carrier said.

She added there were “some influential companies” that were looking at opening spaces in or around Montreal Road, who have since backed out or halted their progress since the news of the proposed homeless shelter broke.

As a result of the shelter, and other planning decisions like the high concentration of social services in the neighbourhood, Dobson said Vanier is being treated like “a dumping ground” by the City of Ottawa.

“If you want to put it somewhere, put it in Vanier, no one will notice,” he said. “Out of sight, out of mind.”

Montreal Road, the area’s main pass and home to Dobson’s pub, has become “social service ghetto,” he said, attracting the poorer populations of Ottawa to Vanier.

But Carrier is quick to say that Vanier is not the crime-ridden, hopeless neighbourhood people around the city make it out to be, and the proposed shelter has put light on a solidarity that exists between residents, and showing “a community that desperately cares about its neighbourhood and the area in which they live.”

The proposed shelter passed in council on Nov. 22. This decision is now being appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board. Mattieu Fleury, city-councillor for Rideau-Vanier, wrote on his website that “the fight is far from over.”

“Vanier has worked hard to remove the stigma of criminality that’s haunted it since the 1990’s. The community of Vanier is improving, but it is far from being on solid ground,” Fleury wrote.

Shahroze Akram and his family have lived in Ottawa’s west-end for the last seven years. Photo: Submitted by Akram.

A shopping mall, public schools, and a community centre all within a few steps from each other – it’s what a small area in Ottawa’s west-end has to offer, and newcomers seem to be catching on.

A small residential area adjacent to Bayshore Mall, Ottawa’s second-largest shopping centre, has seen the greatest increase in newcomers, with over 1,100 recent immigrants calling the small division of Ottawa’s west-end home, according to an analysis of data provided by Statistics Canada.

The area mostly encompasses a collection of apartment buildings and townhomes under the umbrella of Accora Village, which is owned by Ferguslea Properties Limited. The properties are scattered around Woodridge Crescent – where Shahroze Akram and his family have lived for the last seven years.

“At the time [of us moving], Bayshore was mainly popular because there were a lot of our community that used to live here,” Akram, who is Pakistani-Canadian, said. “Naturally you want to move somewhere where there is a lot of your community, but there was also ease of access to a lot of things.”

Akram said having a grocery store, a shopping mall, and a major bus station nearby makes his neighbourhood a convenient place to live for any newcomer. But the area is particularly attractive for the Muslim community, he said.

A significant Muslim population has lived in the area for years, Akram said, making it a safe haven for other Muslims who wish to find a place in Ottawa to call home. The nearest mosque, he added, is only a four-minute car ride away.

“Life here is just a little bit easier to integrate into Ottawa overall,” he said.

An interactive map showing the number of recent immigrants that settled into Ottawa, using data compiled from Statistics Canada’s 2016 census. The areas in yellow signify the hotspots for the largest number of recent immigrants, while the areas in pink signify the lowest. View larger map

Basia Mair, the settlement counsellor at Ottawa-Carleton Immigrant Services Organization, said the Accora Village area has always been a hotspot for newcomers, mainly due to word-of-mouth.

“[Newcomers] hear good things about the place … Some people recommend it to their friends if they are happy and their home is at a reasonable price,” Mair said.

Tina Fisher, spokesperson for Accora Village, said via email that the company does not gather data on the background of their residents, but their properties “are a community of diverse residents, from many backgrounds and demographics.”

As for average cost of rental, Fisher said Accora Village’s “price point is not the lowest in the marketplace,” reflecting a higher lifestyle and service offerings.

According to the Village’s website, average monthly rent for a three-bedroom home is $1,500 to $1,700 a month. Most of these larger-family homes are currently occupied, with a waitlist system currently set in place for those who wish to move-in.

Mair said cost of rent is the bottom-line for any immigrant family wishing to get settled in the city. And while Accora Village is attracting the largest amount of newcomers, Mair said other pockets within the city have seen significant increases as well, mainly in Kanata and Merivale.

The data is in line with Mair’s comments, showing an increase of more than 600 recent immigrants settling further east in Kanata, and more than 530 settling inwards into the city near Merivale.

But for Akram, while his home in Accora Village isn’t considered the most affordable, his family’s bottom-line has always been a sense of community they aren’t able to find elsewhere in the city.

He added this sentiment is echoed by the new neighbours he meets regularly, who are now choosing to live in the rental area long term, as opposed to paying monthly mortgage and moving elsewhere.

“They consider [this area] a safer community, because they have a lot of their people here,” Akram said.

Residents of Ottawa’s core continue to be the source of most complaints for noisy festivals in the city, according to data compiled by Ottawa 3-1-1.

Somerset Ward, which encompasses the neighbourhoods of Downtown Ottawa, Centretown, and Lebreton Flats, was the source of 38 per cent of festival-related noise complaints made to Ottawa 3-1-1 — the highest of any other ward in the city.

Most of the calls, the 2016 data shows, were made in the height of the summer, during prominent music festivals like RBC Bluesfest and the electronic music festival Escapade, both of which are held at Lebreton Flats.

But noise disruptions due to these big ticket festivals, especially Bluesfest, have been decreasing over the last few years, according to Somerset Ward resident Jacob Billingsley.

“Admittedly, it used to be a lot worse,” Billingsley, who lives on Walnut Court, in front of Albert Street, said. “[A few years ago] my windows were shaking, you can hear the music loud and clear from my living room and it was quite disruptive.”

Billingsley said Bluesfest has since changed their stage set-up, having them face away from dense residential neighbourhoods around the area. This change was made after a lot residents complained to the city, he added.

The festival has also enforced a stricter 11:00 p.m. curfew on artists as a result of residents’ complaints, he said.

However, a decent amount of noise continues to be a reality of living in Somerset Ward, and music festivals can get especially loud at night when concert-goers are heading home, Billingsley said.

“It’s never bothered me personally,” he said. “But I can sympathize with the parents [in the area] who have to put little kids to bed when the music is really loud . . .  I can see that being really frustrating.”

According to the City of Ottawa, there is a spike in noise-related complaints following big sporting events and concerts due to spectators moving to entertainment districts or private parties.

However, the city said in a report released earlier this year that “most festivals are recurring annual events that are expected and accepted within the community,” and therefore the number of calls has dwindled over the years.

According to the city’s website, festival planners are required to submit an noise-bylaw exemption application to the city prior to their event. However, there are restrictions, including an 11-day limit on festivals and a curfew of 11 p.m., no exceptions, from Sunday to Thursday.

While Somerset Ward is the source of the highest number of complaints for festivals, data from 2014 to 2016 shows it is  second to Rideau-Vanier for overall noise complaints in the city, where calls are more frequently made for general music and shouting. Capital ward, located just south of Downtown Ottawa, comes in third.

Despite living in one of the loudest areas in Ottawa, Billingsley has made Somerset Ward his home for almost 10 years, and the area has its perks due to close proximity to the O-Train and Ottawa’s downtown core.

“The benefits of this location far out weigh the noise levels . . .  the concerts add background noise, but you only really notice it if you pay attention.” Billingsley said.

In their noise bylaw report released this year, the city acknowledges “cultural and economic” benefits to the growing number of festivals in the city. The city has also considered extending the curfew for Landsdowne Park in Capital Ward, as more events and festivals are moving to the area.

This is a test from  Nadine Yousif.