Scott Radley: Why the answer to homelessness may lie outside downtown Hamilton
When we talk about issues around homelessness - and we've done a lot of that over the past while - the discussion commonly defaults to a question of where in the downtown would be the best place to properly house the people who need it.
But has anyone asked the people themselves if that's where they want to be?
Actually, yes.
As part of an investigation into the idea of building a community of tiny homes as a transitional step for those who are living on the street, the Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters (HATS) asked three dozen recently or currently homeless people what they'd prefer. And?
Twenty-two of those said they wanted to live somewhere outside the core but within a 20- to 40-minute walk of the downtown. Not smack in the dead centre of the most urban area of town. Which is a bit of a shocker.
It goes against my initial thoughts on it," says Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction director Tom Cooper.
It flies in the face of general orthodoxy," says HATS co-ordinator Tony D'Amato Stortz.
The reasons offered were fascinating. Many of those asked wanted to change their lives and the downtown represented what they want to change from. Others recognized there were elements in the core from which they were trying to escape but couldn't when they were still there.
One thing I've learned about street life is, it's sticky," D'Amato Stortz says.
Like that line from The Godfather? Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in?
That is dead on," he says. Absolutely dead on."
So what does this mean? Clearly, there's more study to be done and it was a small sample size.
But if some feel being stuck in the downtown is actually hurting their chances at getting their lives back - and if programs in other cities that have done that have proven successful - perhaps we should at least be looking elsewhere to house them.
Except that's bound to get tricky.
A 20- to 40-minute walk from the downtown could mean somewhere in the north end, nudging into the industrial area. Would that be seen by some as simply shoving the city's disadvantaged people out of sight and therefore out of mind?
However, a walk of that distance in other directions could mean locating them in the Westdale, Strathcona, Kirkendall, Corktown, West Harbour or Stinson neighbourhoods. Maybe even to the Mountain via the Chedoke or Dundurn Stairs. Would folks there be OK if the solution landed in their neighbourhood?
Of course we'd be OK with it, people who live there are probably saying. We're not elitist. We're good people. We support actions to help the less fortunate.
Even if the site chosen was the park at the end of your street where your kids play?
Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr - whose ward has been at the forefront of the encampment issue and says he's been hearing from many residents about it - says that's a nice sentiment, but it might be a tougher sell for those who live in whatever area was ultimately designated. Would the local councillor get complaints then?
One hundred per cent," he says. Absolutely."
Here's where it gets interesting. Among those councillors who've spoken most passionately about finding solutions to this are Ward 1's Maureen Wilson and Ward 3's Nrinder Nann. That 20- to 40-minute walking radius would almost certainly put such a project in one of their wards. Or John-Paul Danko's Ward 8.
Would they be open to this?
Danko says if the details and partnerships could be worked out, he's confident his residents would support it. Wilson says she'd need the support of involved groups and users and would need to get the OK from her residents, but if that happened, she wouldn't object. Nann said HATS' solution is not location specific," as part of a longer answer.
That's not an unconditional yes. But it's not a hard no, either. Which could mean there's an opportunity here.
One that may not have been expected but one that certainly merits some further exploration.
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com