Service Depot locations that provide food, water, and hygiene to Londoners in encampments to close mid-winter

The future provision of basic needs to Londoners living in homeless encampments was thrown into doubt after a marathon debate by council’s Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC).

Service Depots are temporarily set up each day near encampments to offer a sandwich, water, and location for sanitation/bathroom stations.

On Tuesday, members of SPPC spent hours debating a staff report that incorporated council-approved criteria to map out viable sites where new Service Depots could be considered.

The vast majority of the locations were in east London.

“The concentration that we saw in this report, it’s quite frankly unacceptable,” said Coun. Hadleigh McAlister, who represents Ward 1 along Hamilton Road.

McAlister put forward a motion to “take no further action” on the staff report.

City staff emphasized that the motion would end the operation of existing Service Depots on Jan. 1, 2025.

Coun, Steve Lehman seconded the motion, “I would love to be able to bring food and clean [bathroom] facilities to all those sleeping rough. We just can't do it. Quite frankly, we need to focus our resources to finding beds.”

“If we don’t have Service Depots people will not have adequate washrooms or garbage pick-up,” warned Coun. Corrine Rahman. “The situation will not only get worse for those living unhoused, but it will also get worse for the people living in areas around the encampments.”

“I can understand the frustration that residents [experience] from having Service Depots located in their neighborhoods, but I cannot sit by and not provide water and food to people who have literally no alternative. We don't have enough shelter beds,” responded Coun. Skylar Franke.

Coun. David Ferreira warned that taking away the basic services might be seen as a violation of people’s Human Rights, “We are putting ourselves very close in my opinion, I'm not a lawyer, but closer to facing a Charter challenge.”

After almost two hours of debate, the committee voted 10-5 to recommend taking no further action on the proposed new Service Depot locations.

FOR:

• McAlister
• Deputy Mayor Lewis
• Cuddy
• Stevenson
• Pribil
• Lehman
• VanMeerbergen
• Peloza
• Hillier
• Mayor Morgan

AGAINST:

• Trosow
• Rahman
• Hopkins
• Ferreira
• Franke

Immediately afterwards, Franke put forward a motion asking staff to prepare a report about the possibility of providing mobile outreach in a different way than the current Service Depot model.

After city staff said the report would take several weeks to prepare and potentially operationalize, an amendment was added to extend the current Service Depot locations at Watson Park and Evergreen Park until Feb. 28.

Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis explained why he would not support the motion, “I appreciate why colleagues think that's something that they would like to support. I would rather support putting every dollar we can into overnight beds.”

“I don't want people to die until we can get them into those beds,” replied Franke.

The Committee voted 10-5 to recommend maintaining the current Service Depot locations until the end of February to give staff sufficient time to report back on a new model of basic needs delivery to encampments.

Council will consider finalizing its decisions on November 26.