Kingston's go-to source for news, events, arts & culture, restaurants, sports and recreation.
Support services such as counseling, mental health, and therapy have moved online, and demand for such services has increased as people deal with not only pandemic worries, but their personal challenges. According to an estimate, approximately 28,000 children and youth across Ontario are on wait lists for mental health care.
Read more
Last year, City Council approved Princess Street United Church’s conversion into a new youth centre, Kingston Youth Services Hub, to cater to the needs of at-risk homeless youth in the community. The leading organization for the project, Home Base Housing (HBH), responsible for planning and managing the youth hub, is
Read more
With temperatures plunging as low as -20 °C with the wind chill, residents of a housing complex on Joseph Street were forced outside as a fire consumed parts of their building. The fire broke out just before 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021 at the complex, which is operated
Read more
The following is a submitted letter to the editor. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of The Kingstonist. Our neighbours, who declared they’d had enough of dysfunctional shelters, bug ridden housing, and support services which are disjointed and not supportive, took their well-being into their own
Read more
Kingston City Council voted on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020 to approve the demolition of a heritage building at the corner of Albert and Princess Streets. The removal will make way for a new Youth Services Hub, operated by Home Base Housing (HBH). “It is a loss,” Mayor Bryan Paterson said
Read more
The following is a letter to the editor. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of The Kingstonist. At its 3 November meeting, Council deferred the application to approve the Youth Services Hub development at the corner of Princess and Albert Streets to the 17 November meeting.
Read more
City Councillor Mary Rita Holland is calling for more transparency around the outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness in Kingston after they interact with City bylaw enforcement officers. At the council meeting on Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2020, Holland will table a motion for a review of the City bylaw number 2009-76,
Read more
Home Base Housing has announced some changes that are currently taking place, as well as a shift in how their services will be carried out in the future. The local not-for-profit supportive housing organization announced on Thursday, Jul. 6, 2020 that it will be “moving towards a new emergency housing
Read more
Two Kingston residents have raised $1,500 for lumber and building supplies for the campers at Belle Park, despite the looming deadline for their occupancy of Friday, Jul. 31. Tabassum Pasha and Christina Zheng, both fourth-year commerce students at Queen’s University, met their fundraising goal on GoFundMe.com in just under three
Read more
Approximately 200 people came out in solidarity with the homeless occupants of Belle Park at an on-site rally on the evening of Tuesday, Jul. 7, 2020. Hosted by Mutual Aid Katarokwi Kingston (MAKK), the event saw park residents and community supporters take turns speaking and playing music before a masked,
Read more
A Kingston restaurant owner and his community partners have provided over 1,600 meals to Kingston’s most vulnerable since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic through a program he calls ‘Sharing the Caring.’ Tommy Hunter, owner of Tommy’s Diner and Smoke ‘N’ Barrel, said he started preparing take-out meals for Kingston’s
Read more
Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) Public Health and the City of Kingston facilitated a mobile health and services clinic at the Belle Park homeless encampment on Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2020. A registered nurse and doctor from public health offered COVID-19 and sexually transmitted infection (STI) tests, as well as
Read more