“I’m pretty confident that we’ve been able to identify about three people that we believe are involved in these types of cases,” N1’s Sonny Spina said at a Downtown Association meeting last night. “These are people who have high needs, who need help,” Spina said. “We have detected no malicious intent behind this. We have identified people who need help.” “I’m really grateful that, with everyone’s help, we’ve been able to identify the small group of people that we believe are responsible for a lot of what we’ve been seeing.” Now that the bins’ identities are known, N1 was able to call street workers from the Canadian Mental Health Association’s new Downtown Ambassadors program. “They come very quickly when we call them. They come in a group.” “They leave and get whatever resources they need, they come back.” “They do a good job helping these people when we can find them,” Spina said. N1 has also connected people with resources from the city, Sault Ste. Marie Police Service and District of Sault Ste. Marie Board of Social Services. “I hope this helps reduce the social disruption that was going on.” Spina also reported that not a single needle has been recovered by N1 officers in recent weeks. Downtown Association board members heard that a significant number of downtown incidents occur outside of the hours the N1 is patrolled. The council voted to consider changing patrol hours. “I don’t know that we need security to report that trash has been overturned,” said board member Nicholas Rossett. “Is there a better benefit for members to have safety patrols during the day to help counter the stigma that downtown is unsafe,” Rosset asked. Of the 40 reports received during the most recent safety reporting period, littering complaints were by far the largest category, accounting for 35 percent (14 incidents) of the 40 reports. There were two reports of loitering, two of vandalism and one of a suspicious person.
