'An outhouse is one of the best things': Temporary homeless depots begin in city parks

A meal, water and a portable washroom was a nice surprise for Neil Hammell, who is living in an encampment off Wellington Valley Park in London, Ont., near the Thames River.

“There's no clean down here, there's just different levels of dirty,” said Hammell, who has been living in a tent for the past two months after losing his roommates and no longer being able to rent a home.

“The outhouse brings it up a notch, and that’s one of the best things right now,” he added.

It's day one of a program to bring basic human needs to those living rough.

City council approved $100,000 for London Cares and the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) to fund the strategy which will set up in parks for 90 minutes per day.

An additional $255,000 has been approved from a reserve fund for garbage cleanup.

“It's a temporary table providing meals, water, access to a toilet, garbage bags, garbage collection, and then we pack up, go on to the next site and we do this seven days a week,” explained Kevin Dickins, deputy city manager of social health and development.

Hammell feels it is time the city stepped up to provide some additional services.

London Cares provides basic human needs to a woman living in an encampment near the Thames River in London, Ont. on July 4, 2023. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

“The water, the food, we do pretty good out here,” said Hammell. “We got a lot of organizations who come down and help us. This is a growing issue and it’s not going to stop and it's just nice to see that the city is finally doing things.”

Over the next 90 days, these temporary depots will be setup in four London parks with established encampments. Those parks are Wellington Valley Park, Watson Street Park, Ann Street Park and Cavendish Park.

“Some individuals might not have the ability to say go downtown for meals because they don't want to leave their encampment or they don't have access to water,” said Chantelle McDonald, director of service at London Cares.

“We're bringing basic human rights to these individuals in hopes of decreasing desperation,” she added.

That desperation sometimes leads to mental health issues, and death.

The London Homeless Coalition is reporting 28 deaths to date this year in the homeless community.

London Cares provides basic human needs to a woman living in an encampment near the Thames River in London, Ont. on July 4, 2023. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)“I’ve had two at my camp in the past two months,” said Hammell. “I had to pull one out of my tent, and he was a buddy of 30 years so it happens.”

London Cares believes this program will make an impact and save lives as they continue to work towards the more permanent hubs in the Whole of Community Response.

“We're seeing a really high level of desperation that I’ve never seen before in London,” said McDonald. “So we're trying to kind of tackle the complexity of homelessness by a really simple, simple solution, which is providing basic human rights. We're hoping that by providing basic human rights, we'll be able to alleviate some of that desperation we're seeing.”

Hammell said seeing the temporary depots on Tuesday provided a boost to him and his neighbours.

“We get forgotten down here,” he said. “It does a lot to the people's morale. Seeing this definitely helps them.”