'People have stopped coming': Longtime volunteer at the Palace Theatre pleads with city not to bring more homeless services to Old East Village

Located near the epicentre of London’s homelessness crisis, the Palace Theatre continues to bring the performing arts to the Old East Village, but volunteer and former board chair David Long is blunt about its outlook.

“People have stopped coming or are telling us they won't come because of the issues outside of our building,” he told CTV News. “[It] doesn't matter what's on the stage. You have to get people in the door, and if they don't feel safe, they don't come in the door.”

Long has been volunteering with the Palace Theatre for 47 years and the stage was renamed in his honour last year.

He wants city hall to develop a plan to address the homelessness crisis that doesn’t include more frontline agencies/services within the Old East Village Business Improvement Area (BIA).

“They're just throwing money at it and seeing where it sticks on the wall. There is no plan,” Long told CTV News. “It's really difficult, and they're destroying the businesses in this neighborhood in the process.”

On Tuesday, a majority of city council backed a motion forbidding London’s share of the $250 million federal encampment program from being spent on daytime or overnight resting spaces located on the main street of BIA’s.

Volunteer and former board chair David Long speaks with CTV News on Friday, November 8, 2024 (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)

“Every part of the city should be doing their fair share to take on these problems. And at the moment, that's not happening,” Long asserted.

He expects other neighbourhoods to push back against having resources for homeless Londoners spread more evenly throughout the city—but OEV can’t handle any more.

“It should be all across the city. We do not need this many agencies within two blocks of the theatre,” he added.

The new federal funding to address encampments is expected to be distributed to municipalities before winter.

London’s share has yet to be announced.