Tents not the problem, Hamilton outreach group says amid council criticism
If James Braun were offered a place to live, he'd take it.
Yeah, of course."
But for now, the 33-year-old lives in a tent outside the Wesley Day Centre on Ferguson Avenue North.
His was one of nearly 20 that dotted the grass on both sides of the street near the social and medical services hub Tuesday afternoon.
The encampment - the latest large one to form during the COVID-19 pandemic - is a stark sign of Hamilton's ongoing struggle with homelessness.
Moved to help, people have donated tents to street outreach groups for those in need.
But the tents have become a sore point for Coun. Jason Farr, who says he has fielded complaints about the Ferguson cluster and another outside FirstOntario Centre on York Boulevard.
In particular, Farr said his Ward 2 constituents have complained about feeling unsafe, garbage, public drug use, as well as fights and shouting.
He applauds people for donating to the cause. I get it. This is a city that is very sympathetic."
But the Wild West" encampments violate rules that prohibit camping out in the city, Farr said.
In this case, I'm an elected official. I'm here to work with the bylaws that we have."
Keeping Six, a harm-reduction group that's distributed roughly 30 donated tents during the pandemic, argues Farr's concerns are misplaced.
We are responding to what we're hearing from people on the streets when we're out there every day," member Lisa Nussey said Tuesday. They're asking us for tents. We're providing them.
If I was given a tent, if Farr was given a tent, if you were given a tent, it would never occur to us to go pitch it on Ferguson (Avenue). So the tents are not the problem."
The problem, she said, is a lack of affordable and supportive housing, and access to it.
Sharon Crowe, a lawyer with the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, challenged Farr's take on bylaws, noting it's within council's power to change them to respond to community needs.
There's also room for discretion when it comes to enforcement, Crowe added. We are seeing that discretion right now where the city has not dismantled encampments after being threatened with litigation."
The legal clinic, along with lawyer Wade Poziomka of Ross & McBride, Keeping Six and the Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team, have urged the city to stop clearing away tents unless inhabitants are given acceptable alternatives.
Dismantlement clashes with human rights and disperses vulnerable people who may be receiving care from street outreach doctors, they argued in written delegations to the city last week.
In turn, city officials say they have helped lift people out of homelessness during the pandemic.
That involved roughly 80 portable housing benefits allocated to people who were in shelters, hotels or sleeping rough between April 1 and June 30.
The city's approach is to deploy outreach workers to encampments to offer services while setting deadlines for dismantlement.
But a lack of mental-health and supportive-housing programs has been an obstacle, Paul Johnson, general manager of healthy and safe communities, told councillors last week. We are struggling to find all of the places that we need to move people to," Johnson said, noting additional staff have been added to the street outreach team.
A recent staff report noted the city will have spent roughly $9.2 million of the $9.5 million it has received from senior levels of government for homelessness services by Aug. 31. The year's bill is expected to hit $19.8 million.
Leonard Foster, who lives in an apartment building on Ferguson Avenue North, says the growing encampment is making life miserable.
Older tenants are especially worried, Foster says. They're actually afraid to leave this building because of what's going on."
Braun says before he received his tent a week ago, he slept on the street.
Like others, he's reluctant to stay in shelters, where theft, drug use and sharing quarters with adversaries are common complaints. You get more freedom. I find that you have more choice," Braun said about sleeping in a tent.
Outside the Wesley Day Centre, people make sure he's OK and provide water, he added.
A 45-year-old man who pitched a tent near Braun said it makes sense to let people stay put. Why shuffle everybody around over and over again. If they want us to be stable and start getting stable, why would they do that?" said Robert, who withheld his last name because he worried about embarrassing his family.
Farr, meanwhile, says he's willing to explore a designated inner-city site where people could pitch tents. But he doesn't know where that could be, noting parks and streets are off-limits.
Teviah Moro is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: tmoro@thespec.com