It should be idyllic.

Kate’s Rest, on a three-acre waterfront property on Big Island, has offered a roof, regular meals, and peace to those facing homelessness since 2007.

It calls itself a “permanent supportive housing residence for low-income individuals and families who are in immediate danger of becoming homeless or were homeless.”

The property was purchased in 2006 by Brian Hart, an ordained priest and former Pastor of St. Gregory the Great in Picton and St. Frances of Rome in Wellington. Mr. Hart was removed from his position as pastor by the Archbishop, whose concerns included alleged fraudulent use of parish funds.

Mr. Hart opened a boarding house in 2007. He has since donated the property to the Kate’s Rest Foundation, the registered charity he created in 2021 to help fund his work.

Tax filings say Kate’s Rest “provide[s] food, transportation, and assistance in programs, while connecting the residents to education, legal, health, and social services.” Mr. Hart refers to residents as his “friends,” and he lives and boards in the house right alongside them.

Advertising on social media stresses peer support, harm reduction, access to counselling, education, and opportunities to work. Residents can garden, paint, or help put on a new roof.

But Kate’s Rest is not a true “supportive housing” facility. It does not offer the kinds of supports that must come with that designation. That has created confusion.

“It’s a good concept,” said one former resident, who spoke to the Gazette on the condition that he not be named. Though grateful Kate’s Rest was there in a time of great need, he noted the facility didn’t offer everything it claims to.

“The way they pitch the place is like ‘oh we’ll help you get you back on your feet’ and get your life together and stuff, but once you’re out there there’s nothing around, there’s no mode of transportation, they’re not willing to take you anywhere so you’re just kind of stuck,” said another former resident, who also did not want to be named.

Addictions and Mental Health Ontario defines “supportive housing” as offering both housing assistance and “wraparound support services” — counselling, addiction, and peer supports.

But at Kate’s Rest, “no one is set up with counsellors or support workers,” said a former resident.

Kate’s Rest spokesperson Mary Di Mambro is clear: “This is a residence, not a treatment facility, and not a mental health facility,” she said. “It’s a place for shelter and food.”

As Mr. Hart puts it, “We are not licensed, nor do we have qualified staff to provide medical or mental health services or other resident care programs. We are just plainly not that kind of a place.”

But, he notes, “It would be wrong to assume then that we are negligent or do not provide proper supervision of the residents.

“We are more closely akin to an apartment building with people who live there that help each other out.”

Few Options

Residents find their way to Kate’s Rest through referrals from social service agencies including Ontario Works (OW) and Belleville’s John Howard Society. Some referrals come from the OPP. Mr. Hart also notes referrals from the Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services; hospital social workers; and the clergy.

There is also The Bridge, an integrated care hub for those suffering addiction in Belleville, where Kate’s Rest’s President, and resident, Ryan Brough, also works.

These social services agencies provide clients in need with a list of housing resources. Clients choose where they would like to go — that means the agency is not responsible for where they end up, or for oversight over the options it lists.

Social service workers note that Kate’s Rest is one of the very few choices available to those facing homelessness in the region. Those who arrive may also be struggling with severe dependencies and mental health challenges.

Mr. Hart stresses, however, that professional support is neither immediately available, nor accessible in a structured way.

“There are no programs per se,” he told the Gazette. “When someone arrives, they need to become de-stressed,” he explains, adding, “we let them be for a few months.”

It leaves some residents wondering where the professed support is, and what the expectations are.

“Is there a goal to reeducate? to get them clean?” asks one former resident. “There’s no guidance.”

“Peer support” at Kate’s Rest is grounded in “companionships of empowerment,” a Christian philosophy of collective spiritual growth that Mr. Hart made central to the organization’s original by-laws.

When asked about specific peer-support programs, however, Mr. Hart says, “I sit with them during court appearances. I’ve gone into doctor’s offices, gone into dentist’s offices and held their hands.” He shops with people. He even teaches them to drive in his car.

As Ms. Di Mambro puts it, “it’s a one-man show.”

While Mr. Hart has a vision, former residents describe isolation and dependency on a rural property deep in Demorestville. Many do not have phones, never mind cars. Some cannot drive.

They said transportation was ad hoc, often offered as a kind of favour, or when it suited Mr. Hart. Without reliable transport, making a commitment to attend work or school was out of reach.

Those looking for structured peer support, such as that offered through Alcoholics Anonymous, couldn’t rely on regular transportation to get there. One resident recounts that when he asked for an assurance of regular transportation so he could attend a college class, it was denied.

When they did get a ride somewhere, they note, Mr. Hart rarely let them out of his sight.

Meanwhile, without addiction support, drug use is unsupervised, and out in the open.

Both former residents report that drug dealing occurs openly on the property. They were rarely given notice when a new tenant moved in. One walked into a common space to find a new face taking fentanyl on the couch.

Money Matters

Most residents board with Mr. Hart in a two-story, nine-bedroom house. Others, occasionally including families with young children, live in one of five small cabins on the grounds. There can be anywhere from 19 to 23 residents at a given time. Currently there are 20.

The facility has always operated as a standard rooming house, offering shelter in exchange for rent.

It charges $600 per month for a room in the house, $700 for the cabins, and $25 for internet. The rent coincides with the income allotted through Ontario Works and ODSB social assistance cheques.

As one former resident notes, many can’t afford a cell phone because there is no money left after the rent is paid. The house has no landline. Residents rely on borrowing each other’s phones — or, on occasion, Mr. Hart’s.

15 boarders paying $600 or $700 each comes to about $10,000 a month in income for Kate’s Rest, or $120,000 a year.

Yet a Kate’s Rest tax return filed in 2022, obtained by the Gazette through a Freedom of Information request, claimed rental income of just $23,469. In 2021, it reported rental income of $0.

Reported expenses, too, were at the bare minimum. $1,144 for vehicles and transportation. Nothing for education and training for staff and volunteers. In 2021 nothing was paid in compensation.

At most, one staff person is paid in any given year; total staff compensation in 2024 was $18k.

Mr. Hart says the facility is, “very cost effective per person,” boasting a tight ship in comparison to Leeward House, a transitional housing facility that serves half the number of clients and is fully funded by Prince Edward Lennox and Addington Social Services’s Homelessness Prevention Program.

County Spokesperson Mark Kerr notes Leeward House “provides a full range of on-site supports to residents using international best standards of care — Housing First, trauma informed, harm reduction.”

Kate’s Rest became a registered charity with a Board of Directors in 2021. That transition paved the way to federal, provincial and municipal grants. In 2024, it reported over $40,000 in combined Federal and Municipal Grants, $100,000 in revenue from other charities, and another $57,000 in unspecified non-government grants.

It also declared $88,000 in rental income.

But the residents say none of the funding seems to translate into more assistance or even facility improvements. They said the main house and cabins were in a state of disrepair: black mold in the main house and unsafe well water.

“Unless it was donated, we rarely got anything,” said a former resident, adding, “90 percent of the food comes from the food bank.”

Prince Edward Lennox and Addington Social Services (PELASS) provided a one-time contribution of $162,000 to support a new septic system in 2022, which has been installed. It also granted $50,000 in operating funding for the 2022/23 fiscal year. Otherwise, it says, it has little to do with Kate’s Rest, beyond including it on its community resources list.

Work Opportunities

Mr. Hart runs Kate’s Rest with the help of Mr. Brough, another resident employed as President. They offer residents manual work around the property as an opportunity to get involved and earn some money.

But the former residents say there is no a system in place to distinguish between chores and paid tasks, or to assign either. Favourtism rules, as well as degrading, dirty, and chaotic conditions.

“They’ve got it so people won’t clean up after themselves because they figure if they leave it long enough someone will get paid to do it,” said a former resident. “It results in massive amounts of flies and insects.”

They also say they got paid in gift cards.

When asked if there was a set wage for work, Mr. Hart said, “no, not really.”

The residents say they got gift cards, redeemable for groceries at Metro, at Amazon, or at Oasis Fuels in Tyendinaga. “Most people would use grocery store cards to buy Beer Store cards,” noted one.

While Mr. Hart denied former residents’ claims that work is paid in gift cards, the charity’s 2024 tax return lists gift cards as an operating expense.

Mr. Hart did acknowledge he receives gift cards from the food bank and other donors.

“How are they going to get money to do anything?” asked one former resident. “They rely on working on the property — then they get paid in gift cards.”

Complaints could be met with “passive” reprisals from Mr. Hart and Mr. Brough in the form of withheld rides, work opportunities — or even food.

“Say someone’s got a dietary restriction, they’ll make sure food is not edible for that person. Or the food will get very bare.”

The former residents also say Mr. Hart could retaliate by cutting people with addictions from their liquor supply.

“You get a lot of people in there who have substance abuse issues, and he enables it. If someone’s got a problem with alcohol, he’ll give them money for alcohol,” said one.

The result is that it is very difficult for residents to establish independence.

“I think they like to keep people there for whatever reason,” another noted. “There’s a lot of help when people move in —but when it comes to moving out, you’re on your own.”

An Ongoing Crisis

Kate’s Rest is one of few emergency housing facilities for people facing homelessness in the region. There is a seven-year waitlist for subsidized housing in Prince Edward County.

While affordable and supportive housing units are in the works for the former Queen Elizabeth School and at Nicholas Street, they are not coming anytime soon. Those who rely on social assistance to survive have been left behind by inflation and the austere funding from the province. Ontario Works benefits have not increased since 2018, when they went up 1.5%. Open Policy Ontario data shows between 2012 and 2022, ODSP increased by approximately half the rate of inflation.

The former residents of Kate’s Rest said it was a key place to go in dire circumstances.

But they were also clear that it needs more oversight, and its residents need more support to re-enter the community on their own terms.

—with files from Karen Valihora

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