A Sarnia councillor wants Lambton County council to do more to lessen the impact an overflow shelter on Exmouth Street is having on the neighbourhood around it.

“We have an entire community that is being torn apart,” Coun. Chrissy McRoberts told a county council committee meeting earlier this month. “There is drug use and there is violence.”

An overflow shelter, opened in March 2023 in a former church building at the corner of Exmouth and Melrose streets in Sarnia, has drawn complaints from neighbours about trespassing, drug use and property damage. Residents circulated a petition calling for the shelter to close.

“What more can we do to protect the community,” McRoberts asked during the committee meeting. “We’ve got to figure something out.”

Initially opened as a temporary, seasonal,

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