‘Blindsided’: Controversy surrounds Oxford County closed-door decision to buy former YMCA for homeless centre

The former YMCA building on Dundas Street in Woodstock, Ont. is seen in this undated image. (Sean Irvine/CTV News London)

A closed-door decision by Oxford County Council to turn the former Woodstock YMCA building into a homelessness support centre is not sitting well with some in the community.

“I call blindsided everybody,” said neighbour Travis Toes.

He lives directly behind the Dundas Street building, and says he’s upset neighbours were never given the opportunity to provide input on the decision.

“The grocery carts and everything else that gets pushed around. When you see these carts, you see stuff laying on the ground everywhere. There could be needles and stuff when I go to rake my leaves. I have neighbours with young, very young kids directly beside me. They’re going to step outside, they’re going to see the same thing,” he said.

Earlier this week Oxford County announced council approved the building purchase, which took place during a closed-door session last month.

County Coun. Deb Tait, also a Woodstock councillor, concedes she voted in favour of the property purchase. But she says she became upset when she later found out the transaction would not be considered in open session.

“After doing all my research, and realizing nobody knew, and they weren’t going to tell the public, I was like, ‘You can’t do business like this. You have to tell people what’s going on.’ So that’s my issue. And trust me, I am fully supportive of a new location for the shelter, because we know we need one,” said Tait.

The cost to both Woodstock and Oxford County taxpayers is $4.55 million. Tait says with renovations it will go up to $8 million. She says there are no details on expected capacity, or who will operate the site.

Oxford County Warden Marcus Ryan stands by the closed-door decision, saying the county doesn’t negotiate property acquisitions in public.

“By going into closed session to consider the purchase of the property we saved taxpayers $580,000 by getting it for less than what we were prepared to pay,” he said.

Ryan says he would expect opposition no matter where the site is built.

“Council’s job is to pick a place. We cannot continuously chase where is it going to go and find a place that everybody’s going to love. That’s not going to happen. You’re not going to find a place where everybody’s going to say that’s the right place to do it. And we’ve seen municipalities all across the province, especially in southwestern Ontario, struggle with locations where they find a location that’s not in the urban core, where the homeless population is. They put it somewhere outside that, and then it doesn’t work because you can’t make people go to it,” he commented.

The sale is set to close by the end of this month, with an opening date for the homelessness support centre expected in early 2028.

“No one in the neighbourhood has heard anything about this, and we should have,” Toes concluded.