‘Where I am supposed to go?’: With residents ire rising, city seeks next steps in ‘billion-dollar problem’ of homelessness

She and her boyfriend have witnessed the kindness of strangers who have dropped off donations at their neatly kept camp, Pfleger says.

“I really appreciate that.”

But Pfleger, who receives a disability pension, finds herself in a desperate, nerve-fraying wait for housing she can afford.

And with the gauntlet of life outside taking its toll, physically and mentally, the spectre of being forced to find another spot to camp brings her to tears.

“I would devastated because I would be asking them where I am supposed to go?”

It’s a looming question as city councillors consider changes to Hamilton’s encampment protocol with a mind to ban tents from specific parks in their wards.

Complaints from constituents, a growing outdoor population and thickening politics at city hall give rise to the potential policy shifts.

In particular, an 8-8 decision last week to bar tents from Strachan Linear Park, a long, skinny stretch of grass and asphalt in the North End, has sparked the calls for similar prohibitions elsewhere.

Coun. Cameron Kroetsch argues Strachan is a special case: this summer, the community will be consulted on plans to add proper amenities, whether it’s picnic tables, a sports court or playground.

“It’s not actually a park yet,” the Ward 2 councillor told The Spectator. “When you’re trying to incubate a new space like this, there’s a lot that goes on.”

Moreover, the debate is about “equity,” but not “equality,” as some of this colleagues argue, Kroetsch says.

Ward 2, which includes the North End and downtown, is also thick with encampments. “And so there’s not a lot of green space in this part of the city for those kinds of amenities.”

Staff also point out that allowing people to pitch tents on Strachan, only to force them to leave for redevelopment, would be harmful.

“We didn’t want to disrupt individuals as they utilize that spot, just to turn around and have to ask them to move yet again,” Grace Mater, general manager of healthy and safe communities, told council.

This is not the first time that Strachan Linear Park has been in the spotlight.

A plan to establish a community of small cabins for homeless people there as a pilot project generated stiff local resistance, which, in part, contributed to the grassroots organizers’ decision to withdraw from the site in October.

But opponents of the decision “are trying to weaponize the situation here to do something that’s going to be harmful overall,” he contends.

One of them, Coun. Matt Francis, however, argues the stated rationale for Strachan’s special status amounts to “a lot of lame excuses.”

In turn, the Ward 5 councillor says he can offer “great reasons” not to allow encampments in “every single one of my parks.”

Coun. John-Paul Danko, meanwhile, has given notice of a motion calling for Mountain brow parks Sam Lawrence (which is undergoing redevelopment) and Southam (which has changes on the horizon) to be encampment no-go zones.

The Ward 8 councillor suggests the Strachan exception represents a significant U-turn.

“The argument for Strachan was, ‘Well, we can’t have encampments here because it’s not compatible with the planned use for this space,’” Danko told The Spectator.

That’s a “complete reversal” from the majority of council’s insistence last summer on applying the allowances and rules of the encampment protocol uniformly across Hamilton parks, he argues.

Likewise, Coun. Esther Pauls, whose Ward 7 also includes Sam Lawrence Park, eyes a comparable tent ban for Inch Park, which she notes is slated for upcoming improvements.

“If it’s a destination park, there’s no way we’re going to have tents in it.”

Ditto for Coun. Tom Jackson, who wants an exemption for Mountain Drive Park, which is also scheduled for a second phase of improvements this year.

“I will be using the same redevelopment argument, which is legitimate, honest.”

But from the get-go, Jackson emphasizes, he opposed the protocol, which allows for clusters of up to five tents as long as they abide by a series of rules and prescribed distances from certain community uses.

“Parks are not an acceptable solution, period,” the east Mountain councillor said.

Last week, after a staff review, council approved revisions to the protocol, including increased minimum distances — at least 100 metres — from funeral homes, long-term-care residences and spaces meant for children.

As well, city politicians agreed to invest another $1.8 million into resources for shelters, drop-in programs and support services this year in an effort to help tame the rising tide of homelessness.

Danko’s taking a surgical approach with tent bans particular to Sam Lawrence and Southam based on redevelopment, but he also echoes broader constituent complaints of trash, open drug-use, violence and defecation in parks.

“Everyday taxpayers, residents, they’re at the end of their rope. They’ve had it,” he told council.

In an interview, Coun. Tammy Hwang also noted a “lot of fatigue in the community” over encampments.

“They’re also tired of feeling unsafe in a park that they want to enjoy, especially with nice weather,” the east-end councillor said.

They mentioned a range of grievances — aggressive behaviour, discarded needles, fires, violence — and frustration over a lack of prompt enforcement in response to their complaints.

The “insanity” is driving emergency calls for a “small group of vulnerable individuals struggling with mental health and addictions,” said Jodi Formosi, who called for more health services.

Further, the east Mountain resident “vehemently” rejected the notion that “anyone who doesn’t support the outpatient asylum that my city has become” is “lacking in compassion and understanding.”

Such outrage is not limited to a “rogue group,” Jackson told The Spectator, but indicative of a growing “rage index” toward encampments in parks.

The Ward 6 councillor says he’d like to ban tents in all of his ward’s parks but calls that a “pipe dream” under the “flawed” protocol.

“So until that’s settled, we have to be careful that we don’t change policy in a way that could impact that court case, because that will be a precedent-setting case for all municipalities in Canada.”

So far, the city has declined an offer to settle, Sharon Crowe, a member of the legal team representing a contingent of encampment residents seeking damages, said via email.

“While we can’t comment on the content of our offer, adding any new restrictions to the protocol during a time where there continues to be a significant shortage of suitable indoor alternatives has the potential to be unconstitutional, because this poses a risk to the safety and health of unhoused individuals.”

Court hearings are schedule for Oct. 16 and 17.

Overall, Hamilton’s unhoused hovers at about 1,600 people. Of those, more than 200 live outside across upwards of 100 encampment sites, mostly in the inner city, but spreading farther afield to suburban parks in sparser numbers.

That helped inform staff’s recommendations for the current protocol, which followed an initial policy document that sprung from a legal agreement after lawyers, doctors and advocates took the city to court in 2020 over its approach to encampments.

City officials have acknowledged the protocol isn’t perfect but represents an attempt to strike a balance.

“We’re on a very difficult journey as a community. We’re dealing with some serious, serious issues of basic humanity, and the staff are doing their best and councillors are doing their best, to find solutions that make sense for our community,” Mayor Andrea Horwath said last week.

Opposing the Strachan tent ban, she warned councillors of the potential outcome.

“I would just ask members of council not to go down a slippery slope that is going to create a very bad ending.”

Yes, there is a lack of shelter space in Hamilton, Jackson notes.

But some people who live outside don’t want to abide by shelter rules, including curfews and drug-use prohibitions, he points out.

“The housed segment of our city is catching on to all of this.”

And the “court of public opinion” on the encampment issue “has changed dramatically” in recent years, Jackson says.

But Kroetsch cautions against blaming those who are actually suffering through homelessness.

“The solution is not to turn our ire, our frustration, our anger on the very people who need the supports the most.”

At Mountain Drive Park, unprompted, Theresa Pfleger volunteers that she and her boyfriend don’t drink or use drugs.

“But we do love coffee and cigarettes and food.”

Pfleger also points out they keep their small camp neat and tidy to avoid calls to clear out. She has placed faux flowers in a busted umbrella pole to brighten their tent’s curb appeal.

It was a “renoviction” from an apartment that put them on the streets, she recalls. Later, the couple left another place that was infested with bedbugs and operated by a threatening landlord they’d grown to fear.

They tried their luck in Niagara Falls for a spell, thinking housing would be more reasonable, but soon returned to Hamilton, where there are more services for people who are homeless.

Pfleger says she stayed in a women’s shelter but left at the end of February to be with her boyfriend, who was living outside.

“We decided to just do it and face everything together.”

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Hamilton opened shelter spaces for couples in hotel rooms but then suspended the program pending a safety review due to concerns of domestic violence.

Among council’s approvals last week is for staff to report back on the cost and feasibility of creating new shelter beds, including for couples and people who have pets.

“I’m really grateful to hear that,” Pfleger says of potential solutions for couples. “Sign me up now.”

Yes, public frustration over the symptoms of homelessness is building, says Andrew Matthews, manager of outreach and seniors programs with St. Matthew’s House.

“I agree the temperature’s rising.”

But what gets lost in the outrage is what has fuelled encampments in the first place: A lack of other options with shelters at capacity, which the city is trying to rectify, says Matthews, whose agency seconds staff for the city’s encampment outreach team.

“There’s simply more unhoused people and more precariously housed people than the shelter system can support.”

More supportive housing for people for mental illnesses and addictions is an important part of the solution, Matthews notes.

But a perfect storm of escalating rents, other rising household costs and stagnating social-assistance rates is also driving the crisis, he suggests.

Rising rents and increased demand for apartments, in particular, is exerting downward pressure on the most precariously housed, making it harder to even land rooms for them.

“Back five years ago, I used to be able to help clients get a room in one of those houses for like $400 or $500,” Matthews says.

But now those same rooms are going for as high as $1,000, he says. “So even those are becoming prohibitively expensive.”

For those left out in the cold, or heat, it makes sense to pitch tents in the core near services, but some set up farther afield and away from the crowd, Matthews says.

It can be about safety, like Pfleger says, but also sobriety.

“There are people who are unhoused and are currently sober and they’re saying, ‘If I go back downtown, I’m not going to be sober,’” Matthews says.

Further restricting where people can live outside will force them to shuffle from one park to another, or to more isolated areas, where the risks, such as deadly overdoses, run higher.

“There’s no one even close to check on them.”

When people move to other sites, it can also hamper efforts to get them off the street, Matthews points out.

For instance, if outreach workers line up a CityHousing unit for someone, they have to find that person and set up an appointment.

That becomes a “logistical challenge” if they’ve moved and can’t be found, Matthews explains.

“They’re trying to get positive outcomes and trying to get people housed, while at the same time, people are getting moved and shuffled around and maybe disappearing for awhile.”

That’s the advantage of a policy that allows people to stay put, Coun. Maureen Wilson pointed out for her colleagues at city hall last week.

“And in the absence of that, we’re just chasing them around the city …. That’s what we were doing prior to the protocol.”

City politicians don’t see eye on eye on how to manage the symptoms of the homelessness crisis.

But there’s solid common ground on the theme of help — or lack thereof — from senior levels of government.

In fact, the city is playing an outsize role, says Danko, pointing out it’s “investing millions of dollars” in shelter capacity, and affordable and supportive housing.

Kroetsch calls the crisis a “billion-dollar problem” that has left the city deciding how best to apply its limited resources.

Horwath, in an emailed statement, reiterated her remarks to council.

The mayor said “finding more solutions is an absolute necessity, one that ultimately needs more help from upper levels of government, and we are pushing for that.”

Those solutions must be “the best for the entire community — and that’s why taking a whole-of-Hamilton approach is necessary,” she wrote. “I am hoping all members of council reflect on our responsibility to govern in the best interests of the entire city.”