Worlds collide: Why encampments may be setting up closer to residential neighbourhoods
Worlds may be about to collide in the city of London’s efforts to fight homelessness.
A new staff report calls for homeless encampments to be allowed even closer to residential neighbourhoods, reducing the buffer zone from 100 metres to 25 metres.
For couple Antonio and Maria Alas, this is disheartening news. They’ve lived in their Watson Street home for 23 years, but in just the last three years encampments have started popping up at the nearby Watson Street Park, just off of Wellington Road in Soho.
“It’s scary,” said Maria. “Because before it was peaceful until after they settled in the park on Watson. One time they [broke into] in our backyard, they stole stuff, and my neighbour too… they [entered their] garage and they stole mostly everything… it was really bad,” she explained.
The elderly couple has even had to deal directly with violence, said Maria.
“One of the guys living in the park attacked him (Antonio) with a knife. Because he has problem with hearing, and they were demanding money, and he didn’t hear that. And when you got closer, he pulled a knife and start attacking him,” she said.
Maria and Antonio Alas at their Watson Street home, October 25, 2024 (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)
Meanwhile, just off Wharncliffe Road, Chris Sinclair, who lives rough, told CTV News he’s just trying to survive. He’s been staying at a busy encampment at Evergreen Park with his two dogs.
“They bring bagged lunches down here and stuff like that, so that’s why I’m sticking around this area,” said Sinclair. “We’re not getting pushed out, we’re not bothering people near their lawns - but I really wish there was more shelters and more places for these young guys, they shouldn’t be out here,” he added.
Finding the balance between helping those in need and making sure area residents feel safe is proving a formidable challenge for city staff.
Kevin Dickins, Deputy City Manager, Social and Health Development, said it would be easier to help those in encampments, if the encampments were easier to reach. That’s partly why he’d like to see encampments allowed closer to neighbourhoods.
Evergreen Park, October 25, 2024 (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)
“And so, when we move those people repeatedly, we push them further away, both from a trust and relationship standpoint, but also from a physical standpoint where it becomes very difficult to either traverse the terrain to get to them, but also to get those services and those resources to them,” he explained.
Councillors are also being asked to approve funding to continue service depots until the end of 2025 at a cost of $2.5 million.
Meanwhile, Ark Aid Street Mission is seeking $4.3 million dollars annually to keep shelter beds open at its William Street location until March, 2027.
London Mayor Josh Morgan said municipal tax-payers can’t be asked to take on the fight against homelessness alone. He’s calling on senior governments to step up with funding.
“I have no intention of wanting to use the operating budget, contingency reserve, or municipal dollars to continue to fund these. I think we need to continue to create a backstop for the funding, but ultimately ask for the resources to come from the allocations that other levels of government have already agreed to,” said Morgan.
The Whole of Community Response – Community Encampment Plan goes before council’s Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee meeting next Tuesday, October 29.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Canada's jobless rate jumps to near 8-year high of 6.8% in November
Canada's unemployment rate rose more than expected to 6.8 per cent in November, a near-eight-year high excluding the pandemic years, even as the economy added a net 50,500 jobs, data showed on Friday, likely boosting chances of a large interest rate cut next week.
3 climbers from the U.S. and Canada are believed to have died in a fall on New Zealand's highest peak
Three mountain climbers — two from the U.S. and one from Canada — missing for five days on Aoraki, New Zealand's tallest peak, are believed to have died in a fall, the authorities said Friday.
Purolator, UPS pause shipments from couriers amid Canada Post strike
Purolator and UPS have paused shipments from some courier companies as they try to work through a deluge of deliveries brought on by the Canada Post strike.
DEVELOPING Police scour New York for suspect two days after UnitedHealth executive gunned down
Armed with a growing file of clues, New York police on Friday were scouring surveillance videos and asking the public for help in their search for the masked assailant who gunned down a UnitedHealth executive on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk.
opinion How will the weak Canadian dollar affect your holiday and travel plans?
As the Canadian dollar loses ground against major global currencies, personal finance contributor Christopher Liew explains how current exchange rates can impact your travel plans, and shares tips to help you plan smarter and protect your wallet.
The world has been warming faster than expected. Scientists now think they know why
Last year was the hottest on record, oceans boiled, glaciers melted at alarming rates, and it left scientists scrambling to understand exactly why.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim admits to being 'orange pilled' in Bitcoin interview
Bitcoin is soaring to all-time highs, and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim wants the city to get in on the action.
German island festival passes peacefully after criticism over practice of men hitting women
An annual festival on a German North Sea island that had drawn criticism over a practice of men hitting women with cow's horns passed without reports of assaults this year, police said Friday.
Could the discovery of an injured, emaciated dog help solve the mystery of a missing B.C. man?
When paramedic Jim Barnes left his home in Fort St. John to go hunting on Oct. 18, he asked his partner Micaela Sawyer — who’s also a paramedic — if she wanted to join him. She declined, so Barnes took the couple’s dog Murphy, an 18-month-old red golden retriever with him.