Sudbury business group looking to ease tensions downtown

Downtown Sudbury is looking to enlist professionals to help ease tensions between businesses and the city's vulnerable population that frequents the area.

The program is called Welcoming Streets and Kyle Marcus, a local business owner and managing director of the Downtown Sudbury Business Improvement Area (BIA) said it has been tried and tested in many communities throughout Ontario.

Downtown Sudbury December 10, 2019 (Alana Everson/CTV Northern Ontario)

"It's something we’re trying to bring here and one that doesn’t duplicate services that currently exist," Marcus said.

The program will require outreach workers who are experts in mental health.

"They would have a two-prong purpose and one is to create a relationship with our vulnerable population, our houseless populations, but also to be there as a resource for our businesses," Marcus said.

It will look at ways to work with both parties to help point people who need assistance in the right direction by finding a peaceful solution that doesn’t involve the police.

"Say someone is having a mental episode on a patio or someone is sleeping in your doorway, instead of calling police for things that are not typically police jobs, we can call who is trained in de-escalation," Marcus said.

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Greater Sudbury’s Mayor Paul Lefebvre said he is open to the idea.

"The fact that the downtown BIA, that means the business owners downtown, saying 'what more can we do and how can we work with the city, the police, and the downtown businesses to do even better?' So that’s why we’re more than happy to support and see how we can improve things," Lefebvre said.

Although the program is still in the development phase, as the $250,000 is being raised to move forward, the BIA is looking at a launch date of later this year.