A Call for Practical and Compassionate Solutions
There has been a lot of discussion lately, concern, and even legislation focusing on encampments in our communities. The Metamorphosis Network, which comprises over 100 community service providers that serve many of those who live in those encampments, is deeply worried about this issue.
Despite many conflicting and impassioned views, there is a core goal we all share. No one wants people living on the streets.
No one thinks people should be abandoned to make-shift clusters of tents, in unsafe and unhealthy settings, especially as some struggle with serious challenges like mental health and addictions, or shouldering deep poverty, or scrambling to navigate a collapsing refugee system.
But moving forward requires more than knowing what we don’t want; we need real and practical solutions, and many of the plans proposed in the legislation simply won’t work.
Long before we get to the ethical issues of suspending civil rights or criminalizing mental health issues, we need to face the practical issues presented by the new policies and new legislation being proposed.
“Clearing encampments” sounds good in theory. But is it really practical? There are 37 separate encampments scattered across Peel, and Peel’s shelters are at 135% capacity (before you count asylum seekers). There are no beds to go to. People “cleared” from one area will simply set up encampments somewhere else, recreating the same problem in another neighbourhood. And then another one after that.
“Mandatory treatment” may seem attractive to some, but the waiting list for voluntary treatment is already backlogged. Who will deliver the mandated care? Where will all the added addictions beds come from? We’re already sending patients to Oakville for existing programs.
“Cracking down” on repeat offenders, and “enforcing prohibitions” on open drug use seem compelling, but those models have been tried, and have failed. Ticketing homeless people was abandoned as a serious strategy years ago as tickets got paid less than 5% of the time, and the cost of administering tickets rose into the millions. Arresting people for homelessness means funding a $345 per night jail cell when we can’t seem to afford to pay for a $170 per night shelter bed.
Even if we liked the idea of moving homelessness around, can we afford it? Toronto spent $1 million having dozens of police officers clear Trinity Bellwoods park in a high profile effort to end encampments only to have encampments expand, blocks away in Dufferin Grove. Do we have that much money, and so many more officers, that we can afford to pursue these fruitless approaches that are already proven ineffective and overly expensive?
There are models that move people off the streets. Proven approaches that have real impact. “Housing first” strategies have been successful in cities across North America. When we get housing workers, and mental health staff, and settlement workers, to intervene to move people to homes, and provide them with the necessary wrap-around services, it has an impact. But we need homes for them to go to and services for them to access. The Ontario Government has not been willing to shoulder its share of that cost for deeply affordable housing.
That’s the heart of the problem.
If the Ontario Government has funding for more police and more jails, why haven’t they chipped in their share of Peel’s housing strategy, as the Region pointed out in their housing report? Why does our community services sector get $858 million each year less than other communities, stranding homeless youth and mental health patients on waiting lists?
To solve a problem we have to understand it. These aren’t just encampments, or tent cities; they are people. They are people facing a range of challenges that have left them unable to afford or sustain a home. Solving the “encampment problem” means getting the people who live there the care they need to address their challenges, and access to homes they can actually afford.
The solution is real investment in affordable homes, and the supports that people need. Addressing those root causes is a tried and true way to fix this problem.
Let’s do that.
Let’s step back from this expensive, ineffective, and arguably unconstitutional strategy. It will leave us right where we started, with the challenges only getting deeper, a few million dollars and few months from now.
Collectively, let us find the best working solution to the issue of homelessness by housing people in affordable and supportive manner.
Metamorphosis is ready and willing to work with you. Are you up for joining us?
