Recent deaths prompt scrutiny of clothing donation bins in Ottawa

A pair of deaths in clothing donation bins in recent weeks — one in Vancouver and another in Toronto — has Ottawa Neighbourhood Services taking a closer precautionary look at their own use of the boxes.

“Listening to the radio last Friday, when I heard that about the gentleman being killed in the box in British Columbia that led to looking at our boxes,” Patricia Lemieux, president of Ottawa Neighbourhood Services, told 1310’s Rick Gibbons on Wednesday.

Lemieux said that the 18 boxes that are in use in Ottawa have never caused any safety concerns, partially because they are made out of wood. Both of the recent deaths were the result of metal donation bins, which include contraptions, similar to mailboxes, that allow people to put things in but prevent them from taking things out.

Ottawa Neighbourhood Services use different bins, however. “Ours are just wooden boxes, but they have chutes in them and people can just easily lift the bag or lift the donations and throw it in,” said Lemieux. “Most of ours have been around a long before I came along as president and and they were put out in the in the mid 90s.”

Listen to the full conversation here:

The 18 boxes that Ottawa Neighbourhood Services has are spread out from “Kinburn to Cumberland.” They are still all made of wood. Lemieux says that they’ve looked at going to metal boxes, but the price for each box — between $1,200 and $1,500 — is “too expensive.”

However, other organizations do use the metal boxes here in Ottawa.

The more complicated metal boxes are ostensibly designed with theft prevention in mind. But, despite the best intentions of designers, this can often have negative effects. Street-involved people often seek out the warm clothes in the box, especially as temperatures drop in the winter. But this can often lead to them getting trapped and ultimately dying.

Lemieux suggested that the design of the boxes should be kept simple, since keeping people out of the boxes 100 per cent of the time is proving to be a nearly impossible task.

“If someone really wants to get into any kind of a box or any kind of a bin they're going to,” said Lemieux. “They're going to do what it takes to get into it, and the easier it is for them to get into it, [the easier] they’re able to get out of it.

“We wanted something easy. That’s how we ended up with our box,” she said.

Still, the recent death of a woman in Toronto — a woman who occasionally accessed a women’s shelter, who was found on Tuesday morning, according to the CBC — prompted some extra scrutiny. “You can always always be looking for something there, sure,” said Lemieux. “Safety is always a consideration there for the public is concerned. Because anything can happen.”