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If the city gives the thumbs up to legalized encampments this week and is looking for spots to put them, it should start in some councillors' neighbourhoods.
Leading from the front, we'll call it.
On Wednesday, council will ponder the idea of creating sanctioned encampment sites around town (with rules governing them) in which tent cities could exist without risk of being removed by authorities.
Whether this is the answer to an incredibly complex problem is unclear. But it's highly contentious and you know not everyone is going to be on board.
Many 2023 budget drivers were funding for housing and homelessness supports," Coun. John-Paul Danko wrote on Twitter. Municipal taxpayers are sacrificing far more than their fair share to address the housing crisis in (Hamilton). I don't see taxpayers accepting funding these programs AND encampments in their neighbourhoods."
He's almost certainly correct. Hence, this idea.
If councillors are going to ask residents - some of who will be strong opposed - to accept this, they should be willing to as well. Meaning, any who intend to support this because they believe in it should ask staff to place one of the first in their own neighbourhood. Show themselves to be anti-NIMBYs.
If the concerns about fires and violence and drug use and garbage being strewn about and noise and crime and all the other things that are regularly mentioned in this debate are exaggerated or untrue, councillors should want to welcome such a program to their part of town to prove this isn't the case.
After all, if there are going to be sanctioned encampments, they have to be somewhere. Which means they're going to be near someone. Why shouldn't that be the people making the decision?
It's easy to demand things of others, especially when you're in a position of power. Much harder - but much more meaningful - is doing it yourself.
There's a misconception going on with this issue. Namely the idea that having concerns about encampments is proof of a lack of sympathy. That's unfair. Most people have compassion for folks on the street dealing with mental health or addiction issues for which there are no easy answers. People generally care. They want a solution.
At the same time, they also have concerns for their kids, for themselves, for their neighbours and for their home. Which they're allowed to have without being labelled cold or uncaring or callous.
If councillors want to assuage those worries because they believe they're overblown, they have an opportunity to do that by bringing the tents into their own backyard. Figuratively, of course. Though, truth is there's nothing stopping them from doing it literally, either.
If this program can be run with as little impact as its supporters will surely argue, those around the council horseshoe will be able to talk about that while espousing the benefits to all.
If, on the other hand, it can't, they'll have a better first-hand understanding of why some people aren't sold on the concept and maybe have some deeper insights about what can or can't be done.
Either way, they should step forward and volunteer to be first. Because that's what leaders do.
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com