‘Searching and searching’: Housing for Hamilton’s poorest harder to find

In a tent pitched along a trail overlooking a railway track in northeast Hamilton, Dan Graham mulls his next move.

The 59-year-old who has lived on the edge of the derelict parking lot north of Barton Street East just west of Rosslyn Avenue since July says he and a few others were told to clear out this week.

Graham says he's reluctant to start over, having done it more than once and lost belongings each time, but is resigned to the task ahead.

Packing up what he can in a cart is complicated further by the fact that Graham gets around on a prosthetic leg, the result of a traffic accident in childhood.

If they gave me a month to move, I would find a place and be gone. I'm not looking to cause any trouble."

Just west of Graham, on the vast expanse accessed via Linden Street, another Dan - Rogers - putters around a campsite strewn with junk that was torched by fire.

Rogers has already removed his belongings but has returned to see if there's anything else to salvage.

I'm staying in a friend's backyard right now."

But when they move out of town on March 20, he'll have to leave. Then I'm back to square one."

Rogers, 40, says he was living with someone but they were evicted.

And his disability pension isn't enough to rent a place, he says. It's impossible."

Social-assistance rates have lagged behind the cost of living for years while housing costs continue to spike.

The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton was $1,514 a month in February, according to Rentals.ca.

A single person on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) receives about $1,170 a month, but the shelter portion is just under $500, notes Don Seymour, executive director of Wesley Urban Ministries.

So how do you get a place in Hamilton for that amount?"

Overall, the escalating rental market punctuated by renovictions" - evictions for renovations and hiked rents - is increasingly out of reach for the most vulnerable, Seymour says.

You keep searching and searching. If they're in the shelter system, they continue to stay in the shelter system," he said.

Or people are just still subsisting on the street until something is found, and finding something is now a very long-term process for a lot of people."

The city, citing its most recent verified data, notes between January 2020 and September 2021, 485 households, or roughly 1,000 people, moved from homelessness to housing.

Between January 2020 and October 2021, the city's street outreach program interacted" with about 565 people in encampments. Of those, 81 were housed through support programs and 430 went to shelters.

Hamilton's byname" list of people who use services such as shelters and drop-in programs, included 1,375 people at the end of September.

The vast majority of individuals on our byname list are actually housed in the private market," said Edward John, the city's housing director, noting the percentage is 88 per cent.

The right support programs, including rent supplements, to not only get people in the door, but also ensure they stay housed is key, John says.

But some need additional support services to stay housed, notes Nadia Zelisko, the city's program manager of homelessness policy and programs.

There's 100 people, let's say, at any given time whose needs we can't meet, who are truly slipping through the gaps between housing and the health sector."

The city is a partner in a 14-tenant Intensive Supports Pilot with St. Joseph's Healthcare, the local Canadian Mental Health Association and the Coalition of Hamilton Indigenous Leadership that aims to bridge the gaps.

The collaboration helps secure affordable units for people who face complex barriers, such as severe mental-health and addiction issues, and provides wraparound" services.

In January, the city, along with hospital officials and others, made a $5-million pitch to the province for a health-supported initiative to house 100 people with such acute needs.

John said the city is still in discussions with the province about the request.

We've just got to provide a little more detail and, hopefully, we'll see some good luck and investment shortly."

Graham, meanwhile, says he hopes to line up a room at the downtown YMCA through a housing worker if he can't rent a place.

A few years ago, he had apartments, but accessibility - they had no bathtubs - was an issue, he says. And due to conflicts with the landlords, his stays didn't last long.

Graham recalls how he found refuge in a shuttered school on the Mountain before he injured his good knee and wound up in the hospital. Before then, he set up camp in the escarpment woods, but it became harder to haul things up the steep incline as he aged.

Packed shelters, he says, because of theft and personal conflicts that can arise, are not an option for him.

All the bullying and pushing and shoving, I don't take it very well."

He traces that - standing up for himself - back to when a bus crushed his leg at age two.

I've only had one leg my whole life. I can't run away, so I've always had to stand my ground, and that's how I am."

Encampment clearings led by the city's bylaw division have been a flashpoint of controversy, especially with more tents dotting the urban landscape during the pandemic.

This week, the Hamilton Encampment Support Network posted a video of Graham on social media and asked viewers to urge city officials to halt the unconscionable and cruel" enforcement without safe and dignified" housing lined up.

A bylaw prohibits pitching tents in public spaces, including parks, but it doesn't apply to the Linden Street land, which is private property, the city said Wednesday.

However, other bylaws, including yard maintenance, property standards, noise, zoning and trespassing apply to private property, a spokesperson wrote in an email. Police enforce trespassing matters."

The city's street outreach team, the Social Navigator, a collaboration between police and paramedics, and police have been to the site once or twice a week for several weeks, the city said.

Throughout this engagement staff have offered shelter options and other housing supports for all individuals at this location."

The city didn't say why the residents are being forced to leave now, but Graham figures the fire, which broke out in a couple's tent, might have increased the urgency for authorities.

They lost their dog," he said of the couple, who are now set up just a few steps down the trail, where items, including bike parts, luggage and furniture, are scattered. It was terrible."

In the meantime, Graham says he's thinking of where he might pitch a tent next if the YMCA doesn't work out.

I'm probably going to start looking for a place to do that right away," he said. And that will probably be somewhere along the escarpment."

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com