Addressing the growing homeless population across Lambton County took centre stage during Wednesday's council meeting.
Sarnia/County Councillor Chrissy McRoberts said currently, homeless individuals are taking up shelter in parks and in front of business doorways.
She's appealing for a place for individuals who don't have a bed at a shelter, to go.
"We now have the chronically homeless that they've been kicked out of every single spot that they find to be, they leave for food, they come back, their items have been discovered, removed, everything that they own is gone," said McRoberts. "And now we have PTSD, aggression, the police -- they're kind of caught in the middle of this because what do they do? I want these folks to be looked after."
McRoberts said the homeless issue in the city is coming to a head, and as elected officials, they're supposed to help the whole community.
"We need a space where these individuals can go because they don't want to stay in, or can not for mental health issues, stay somewhere like the Inn of the Good Shepherd Lodge," she said. "Where do we find a space for them where they can be looked after, their social workers can find them and medical help can come in?"
Lambton's Social Services GM Valerie Colasanti said the county is in the process of establishing a drop-in centre.
"Right now with the shelter systems, individuals need to exit at 12 p.m. and they can't come back in until 4:30 p.m. and that's often when we're seeing them in the lobby, in the downtown businesses, things like that," said Colasanti. "So they want somewhere to go, it's cold, it's raining or it's hot, so we are looking at opening a drop-in that would be low-barrier."
Colasanti said it's hoped the centre will be open by the end of the month. But, she said there is no quick fix for working with someone with severe mental health issues or drug use who doesn't want to use the shelter system, or go to a drop-in centre.
"If they're not willing to come into a drop-in centre and they're not willing to go into even a low-barrier shelter, I really don't know what a solution is," she said. "What we do know is that sometimes if we continue to work with our outreach team, and we try to gain sort of a little bit of mutual respect, and sort of develop a bit of a relationship then some trust is built. And that takes time, but once that trust is built then sometimes they will work with a mental health worker."
During Wednesday's meeting, council approved a spending plan for an additional $2 million in funding from the province including emergency shelter solutions and housing assistance.
