Napanee man getting local support after final notice to evict homeless residents

By Tyson Nayler

BELLEVILLE – After seven months of housing homeless people in trailers outside his property, a Napanee man is now forced to stop due to zoning bylaws.

On Nov. 03, Scott Drader received his final notice from the township, requiring him to remove all 13 trailers off of his property by Dec. 3, leaving the residents homeless. If these demands are not met, there will be a $10,000 fine for each trailer that is still in his yard. Drader currently has 13 trailers, 10 of which are being rented, while the remaining three are used as storage.

Since his story started getting attention this past June, Drader says the support from the local community has been growing.

“I’ve got my own website called Stepping Stone Community Services Society that has almost 300 members,” Drader said. “We have people from all over sending us food. I even have people from Brockville coming to help. If I need blankets or something like that, I can have it here in 15 minutes to help these guys.”

Many people from around the area have donated items to help support the residents, including Malcolm White, a local college student who agrees with what Drader is doing.

“I think what he’s been doing is great and needs to be supported, especially now that the colder months are here and there isn’t anywhere else safe for these people to stay,” White said outside Drader’s property.

Although this is something that Drader says the city has been trying to stop for months, he says that Napanee OPP and Family and Children’s Services of Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington Societies have moved multiple men, women and children to Drader’s property, as a way to remove them from the street. 

“For the first two months, social services started calling me to see if I could get more trailers,” Draper said. “Now its CAS  who is calling me because there kids between 17 to 20 years old that nobody will take in. So now I’ve got four foster kids from CAS living in these trailers.”

John Suart, the manager of community relations at the children’s aid society, declined to confirm whether these claims are true due to a confidentiality agreement with clients.

Along with housing troubled youth, Drader says he also has many people with substances abuse problems coming to stay. Outside of cannabis, he says that there are zero drugs allowed on his property. Because of this, sniffing dogs are brought to the trailers once a month to make sure the residence remains clean.

QNet News also reached out to Lennox and Addington Poverty Reduction on this situation, but they declined to comment.