Could Barrie Jail one day be home to affordable housing?
City councillors will consider a motion Monday that staff investigate the feasibility of purchasing the shuttered Mulcaster Street facility, for the purposes of preservation and affordable housing, from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and/or Infrastructure Ontario, the province’s property manager, and report back.
This motion, sponsored by Coun. Mike McCann, is an item for discussion on the agenda.
“It’s been sitting idle for decades and I feel it needs some Barrie love to preserve, renovate and repurpose,” he said of the old jail. “Secondly, we need to build housing affordability for our residents.
“I think this is an initiative that could really make a difference. Lots of cities have looked at older infrastructure like this as an opportunity to address the affordable housing crisis,” McCann said.
“The Barrie Jail was one of the first regional infrastructure investments back in the 1800s. It played an important role in kick-starting Barrie into a city.”
McCann said he would ask the province to sell Barrie Jail to the city for $10 and the Ward 10 councillor would pay for that out of his own pocket.
Coun. Natalie Harris said she needs to take a closer look at McCann’s motion, and speak to Barrie’s MPPs - Doug Downey of Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte and Andrea Khanjin of Barrie-Innisfil - before deciding on its merits.
“But what I can say is that our city needs to make some bold steps to improve not only our affordable housing stock, but also our attainable housing stock,” she said.
“Our city needs more planners and to look closer at reducing exclusionary zoning. If we continue to simply make baby steps with respect to even attempting to meet the needs of our residents in this city with respect to housing, we will continue to be very far behind with what we can affordably offer buyers and renters," said Harris.
“Renters need to be given a stronger voice. That is why Coun. (Sergio) Morales and I are requesting that city council create a renters' committee.”
Their motion on Monday’s agenda, also an item for discussion, asks that city staff include for the 2022-2026 council’s consideration the establishment of a renters’ committee that would bring forward issues of renters, including but not limited to rental rates and regulations associated with rental units, to be considered by as part of council’s committee appointments.
“I am now a renter. I have experienced first-hand how difficult it is to find even reasonably priced housing in our city,” Harris said. “We need to stop allowing NIMBY residents to primarily dictate how our planners and developers do their jobs. They already have a home.
“And what a precious thing that is these days. I encourage homeowners to broaden their minds and ask questions about how the city can grow affordably without building higher?” she said. “If we want to protect green space, we need to limit sprawl. And that means we need more units per hectare.”
Barrie Jail opened in 1841 and closed in 2001. Barrie Historical Archive says it was not just criminals that ended up in the Barrie Jail. In the late 1800s, it was a catch-all for law-breakers, the homeless, elderly, mentally ill, heavy drinkers and the disabled when there was nowhere else to place them.
A government official clarified the status of the property:
“Infrastructure Ontario (IO) manages the former Barrie Jail, which is a Provincial Heritage Property of Provincial Significance, on behalf of the provincial government,” said Alanna Myles, IO communications advisor. “While the former jail facility is surplus, it’s part of a site that remains in use in the delivery of ministry programs.”
