London’s homeless encampment strategy facing criticism just a month after council’s endorsement

A month after city council placed new restrictions on the location of homeless encampments, the effectiveness of the changes is being questioned by stakeholders in the Old East Village (OEV).

Ellen, who asked not to be identified, lives across the street from the municipal parking lot on Queens Avenue east of Dundas Street.

“In the last couple of weeks, I've seen more encampments over there,” she told CTV News.

On June 25, city council endorsed an updated Encampment Strategy that extended the minimum setback distances between encampments and sensitive land uses,

Under the new rules, an encampment cannot be within 150 metres of an elementary school or daycare and not within 100 metres of a residential property with a dwelling on it, a playground, pools, spray pads, and sports fields.

In addition, encampments in a list of so-called “no-go zones” will face rapid removal.

That list include 14 core area parks, sidewalks, pathways, and municipal parking lots.

Ellen had expected to see a more rapid response to her complaints about the municipal parking lot across from her house, “I expected it to be a no-go,” she said. “It's unrealistic to think there's never going to be someone there for a short time, but now it's like it's a “go-go zone” as far as I'm concerned.”

City staff told CTV News in a statement, “While the CIR (Community Informed Response) team is out at parking lots multiple times a day, they cannot be at each and every location all day.”

However, it’s not just neighbours disappointed by the initial results of the encampment strategy.

34-year-old Danai has been homeless for several years and believes the new strategy is moving people around in a way that is destabilizing.

“It’s very emotionally distressing, very frustrating,” she explained. “You get comfortable in one spot then the next morning, you don't know if you're going to be kicked out of there.”

A few hours after CTV News asked civic administration for an interview about the encampment strategy’s effectiveness, a CIR team arrived and cleaned up the parking lot.

The city’s statement describes the updated encampment response plan as, “grounded in a human rights-based approach. It outlines how transformational outreach works, and how each intentional engagement with an individual living unsheltered is to eventually support a transition into housing.”

But Danai points to the rising number of homeless Londoners putting their possessions into shopping carts and wheeled wagons as evidence that they’re feeling displaced.

“As you see, a lot of our stuff is in wagons, [on] wheels. Our tents get torn down and thrown out.”