Homelessness, policing front and centre at Ward 2 debate
A televised debate between Ward 2 council candidates Tuesday night was largely what you'd expect: an exchange of ideas sprinkled with the odd jab.
Until around the 50-minute mark.
That's when incumbent Jason Farr took Cameron Kroetsch to task about what he perceives as a pro-encampment, anti-police agenda, posing questions that led to a testy back-and-forth between the pair.
Reading from a piece of paper, Farr pressed Kroetsch about tweets he posted during the pandemic. They included comments such as encampment evictions are not the answer" to the homelessness crisis and pledges of support to the Hamilton Encampment Support Network, an advocacy group that has staged several protests at encampment clearings and city hall.
You participated in a protest hoping to physically block police from enforcing the law at Central Park, and you publicly called for defunding the police in July 2020," Farr said.
The downtown councillor, first elected in 2010, noted one tweet in particular in which Kroetsch called for a 20 per cent reduction to the police budget, which Farr said would amount to $35 million and taking 279 officers off the streets.
How do you, Cameron, ensure a safer community when the public record demonstrates over and over again that you want to reduce the number of professionals sworn to protect us by 279 officers?"
Given a minute to respond, Kroetsch said his comment was taken out of context before grilling Farr about his record as president of CityHousing Hamilton.
No one I've ever spoken to has supported encampments as a solution to anything ... The solution is dealing with the upstream causes of homelessness, which you, frankly, have neglected as CityHousing Hamilton president," Kroetsch said, claiming the city's largest housing provider has sold more units than it has built in recent years.
We have to have compassion for folks, we have to provide affordable housing to them and we have to give them wraparound supports."
First-time candidate Raquel Rakovac chimed in, questioning Farr's lack of presence at encampments.
When was the last time over the last three years you were on the ground helping your constituents survive?" she asked the incumbent. I've been there and haven't seen you."
Saturday," Farr said, cutting her off. He later pointed to his work at CityHousing, which he said helped house about 1,100 homeless people during the pandemic. Nobody does better at addressing housing and homelessness in the city of Hamilton - no one has proven me wrong on that."
At the debate - one of several presented by Cable 14 and The Spectator in the run-up to the Oct. 24 election - all five Ward 2 candidates agreed that tackling the twin crises of homelessness and affordable housing should be front and centre in the next council term.
Robin McKee pitched two ideas to voters, one of which included building pint-sized cabins on a strip of land along Strachan Street East, where encampments have frequently popped up. He further suggested the shuttered Sir John A. Macdonald high school could be turned into a mission or hostel, a place for these people to be warm, clean and (have access to) washrooms."
The candidates also agreed that homelessness and rampant opioid consumption - Hamilton recorded a record 166 overdose deaths in 2021 - are not mutually exclusive problems and should be addressed in concert.
That means boosting the city's stock of affordable housing and creating more safe-consumption sites, argued candidate Shahan Aaron.
We need to invest more capital toward these rather than designating it toward massive condo developments," he said.
Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com
Who was there
PresentShahan Aaron, Jason Farr (incumbent), Cameron Kroetsch, Robin McKee, Raquel Rakovac
AbsentNone