Tiny home housing homeless Orillia man in the woods, torn down

For the last few months, Robert Godin had been living in a tiny home built in the woods by his son-in-law to stay warm during the winter. On Tuesday, it was torn down by the city

For the last few months, Robert Godin had been living in a tiny home built in the woods by his son-in-law to stay warm during the winter.

On Tuesday, it was torn down by the city.

Jesse Damery built the fully-insulated structure just before Christmas, not wanting Godin, who has schizophrenia and has been struggling with homelessness for the last few years, to sleep outside.

While he knew it was illegal to build the structure on city property, he hoped it would stay up until the winter months were over, since Godin is unable to stay with family or in shared shelter spaces.

After gaining media attention, Damery said he had seen “nothing but support” from local police, who helped get a CMHA worker out to his father-in-law, “telling him that we’re going to get you into housing and so on,” he said.

“It just came out of nowhere,” he said.

“They showed up in the morning basically ordering him out of the structure, and said if he didn’t leave they would cut a hole in the side to get him out,” he said. “Police ended up pulling a taser on him and detaining him to take him downtown so he wouldn’t interfere with what they were trying to do.”

Police spokesperson Scott Tracey said officers were there to assist bylaw officials, and while a taser was pulled, it wasn’t deployed.

“While on scene a male who was found inside a wooden structure became physically aggressive and threatening towards police and bylaw officers,” Tracey said.

“A conducted energy weapon was drawn in order to gain the male’s compliance and de-escalate the situation, however it was not deployed.”

Tracey said the man was taken to the police station “so arrangements could be made for him to obtain temporary accommodation, following which he was released without charges.”

Damery said knowing his father has schizophrenia, it would have made sense to have a mental health worker on-site to help de-escalate the situation, rather than police pulling out a taser.

Now, Godin is in a hotel, paid for by the city until Feb. 9.

But after that, Damery says they’re “pretty much back to square one.”

“This is not a solution in my eyes,” he said. “A better approach would have been to give him an option. That’s all we’re looking for.”

During the demolition, Damery said everything was being tossed in a big steel bin, including Godin’s food and clothing.

Godin’s daughter, Kayla, was able to grab some of his clothing and personal effects, “but everything else went in the garbage I guess,” he said.

The city did not answer specific questions about why the structure was taken down or whether any complaints were made to bylaw.

“Out of a matter of respect for this individual, we cannot comment further on the status of the case,” said communications officer Kyle Howard.

“However, the involvement of City bylaw comes from a community safety standpoint,” he said. “The County of Wellington provides social services in the City of Guelph, and in situations like these we connect individuals directly with the county housing services team, who ensures they are offered alternate accommodations / shelter options.”

In terms of his belongings, Hayward noted the items “found at the site are stored in a secure location for retrieval by the owners.”

Damery was also upset by the large machinery used to take the structure down, which he said resulted in destruction of the trees in the space to widen the pathway.

“They cut trees down. It’s heartbreaking actually, just how much destruction they did. They had no care in the world. Just plowed their way in there and destroyed it as quick as possible,” he said.

While the pathway was significantly wider than before, Hayward said contractors confirmed “no trees were removed during the course of their work.”

“Some branches were trimmed or damaged as necessary to complete the work safely and to ensure the safety of the crew,” Hayward said.

“He’s just kind of defeated,” Damery said. “I’m exhausted. Why couldn’t they just let him stay there for two months and then take it down? I would have taken it down.”

He said they were told there was help on the way to get him into some sort of program, or bumped up on the housing list.

“If we had options, we wouldn’t have done this.”

“I just wanted to show an example of what happens when you take a mentally ill man who has lost everything and has no hope, you give him a little eight by 10 area to stay warm and safe,” he said.

“He was just starting to become organized. He had a place to hang up his clothes. His whole demeanour had changed, and now they just took that from him. Now he’s just another statistic swept under the rug.”