Hamilton councillors back ‘enhanced’ encampment enforcement
Hamilton city councillors have backed an enhanced" procedure for encampment enforcement designed to move people out of parks within 72 hours seven days a week.
The push for an amended parks bylaw led by Coun. Jason Farr came after roughly 40 delegates argued stepped-up efforts to clear encampments will do nothing to address homelessness - the root of the problem - and only do more harm to those struggling with it.
I know it doesn't look good to see a bunch of tents in a park, but the fact of the matter is take the tents away, people are still in a park," Marcie McIlveen, an outreach worker with the Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team, told councillors Tuesday.
It doesn't matter if they're sleeping on a bench or sleeping in a tent."
But Farr, who has consistently complained about tents pitched in his downtown ward, argued his motion boiled down to enforcing the bylaw as other cities do.
The tweak" is in response to a growing number of businesses and residents in Ward 2 who expressed concerns, he said.
The public sex, the drugs, the crimes of all sorts, on and off encampment sites," Farr said. The violence, the public urination and defecation, the all-night parties, and there's lots of those, threats that have occurred, and on and on and on."
His motion, which planning committee passed on a 4-2 vote, directs bylaw officers to complete the enforcement process, including informing police of trespass notices, within 12 to 72 hours of fielding complaints about tents pitched in parks. This enforcement is to take place seven days a week.
Farr said his motion stems from a spike in encampment sites to 40 from 20, with many entrenched" for months, after council scrapped a related protocol during an Aug. 9 emergency meeting.
It was a disaster in many of my parks, unfortunately."
The protocol, which sprung from a rights-based court challenge over encampments in 2020, allowed tents to remain for 14-day stretches and included provisions for acuity, such as mental illness and addiction.
A six-step process that made bylaw officers the first point of contact" for complaints, but emphasized outreach efforts to direct people to shelter or arrange for housing, replaced it.
On Tuesday, bylaw director Monica Ciriello told councillors the enforcement process wouldn't substantially" change apart from giving staff a little bit more direction to time frames."
But housing services will have to watch what staffing pressures" tighter enforcement might place on the eight-person street outreach team, director Edward John said.
These are individuals often in circumstances that we have to be mindful of meeting where they're at and the challenges that they're experiencing on any given day."
John noted staff know of 25 people living in tents but he expected numbers to rise with warmer weather.
So there will be a potential resource issue depending on what occurs through the summer."
On Thursday, staff are to make a pitch to councillors for a $305,000 pilot project that involves a new encampment co-ordination team led by a dedicated director that aims to better co-ordinate responses.
At the end of September, according to the latest available city figures, there were 1,375 people on Hamilton's by-name list, which includes those who have used shelters, drop-in centres and outreach efforts.
In particular, housing officials say they struggle to keep about 100 people with acute challenges - which can include mental illness - off the streets at any time. They have cited a gap in provincial health-related services to help people stay housed.
Between January 2020 and October 2020, the city's outreach team interacted" with about 565 people at encampments. Of those, 81 were housed via support programs and 430 went to shelters, the city says.
Those who stay in encampments cite various reasons for not going to shelters, including concerns over theft, violence, pests or drug use, while some can be barred due to behaviour linked to mental illness.
Meanwhile, shelters have struggled with capacity issues, despite city-booked hotel rooms and other overflow space created during the pandemic amid an increasingly out-of-reach housing market.
Sarah Jama, a member of the Hamilton Encampment Support Network, told Tuesday's planning committee her older brother, who has schizophrenia, has lived in encampments.
It's very easy to see how someone ends up in an encampment," Jama said, adding Farr's motion doesn't help the cause" and just deepens the divide" between council and the community.
Coun. John-Paul Danko expressed concern that setting a time frame for police involvement could spark further confrontations with advocates.
Right now as it stands, I'm confident in the professional judgment of our staff to proceed with enforcement as they see fit because every single one of these interventions is different."
Danko and Coun. Maureen Wilson voted against Farr's motion, while councillors Brenda Johnson, Lloyd Ferguson and Maria Pearson backed it.
The decision awaits a final consideration at council.
Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com