Public speaks out on homeless camp

Residents living near the homeless encampment on Grand Avenue East are worried.

Their concerns, prompted by the recent relocation of the downtown Chatham encampment to the Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission green space, led to a slew of deputations at the July 28 council meeting.

Many were calling for a better solution.

But a quick fix isn’t in the cards. Council has tasked staff with exploring other municipal properties where an encampment could be located, with a report to come back to council Aug. 11.

Several of the deputations detailed problems that have arisen since the encampment moved in early July.

Amanda Leidl whose family has lived on the edge of the PUC property for 17 years, was emotional as she described a scary encounter.

According to Leidl, her husband discovered an unconscious male lying face down beside the public walking path July 16. She said she was conflicted about who to call as police had asked the public not to call 911 with encampment complaints. However, she was connected to a dispatcher who talked her through what to do.

“I felt so guilty,” Leidl said. “I was afraid to approach the individual due to his location and potential circumstances. I was unsure of what I was doing was right.”

Police arrived to deal with the matter, Leidl said, but that wasn’t the end of it. The next day someone deposited a pile of human excrement at the home’s back gate.

She said her family no longer feels safe.

“My heart hurts because our children can no longer go out in their yard,” the woman told council, adding the couple has contacted realtors to discuss their options.

Tyler McKaig, representing the Scrub Hub Dog Wash & Car Wash, Beez Kneez Ice Cream, Chatham youth beach volleyball and Chatham youth soccer, spoke about the negative impacts of the tent village.

According to McKaig, coin machines at Scrub Hub, which is located across the street from the encampment, have been targeted repeatedly since the tents moved in.

“In the last two weeks we have seen a massive increase in attempted break-ins, vandalism and harassment,” he told council, noting many calls have been made to police.

McKaig said he’s personally confronted people who were attempting to break into the machines and mechanical room right while he was standing there.

“These aren’t customers. This is private property and we no longer feel safe on it,” he said. “We’ve literally had an issue every single day since the tents started moving over there.”

He said he’s considering shutting down the ice cream business this summer.

McKaig said if the municipality doesn’t fix the problem quickly, it sends the wrong message to young families and those who want to invest in C-K.

Claire McDowell, another resident living near the encampment, said she approved of the ideas put forward by Mayor Darrin Canniff as they have been successful in other jurisdictions.

McDowell said she has witnessed people coming to heckle the unhoused and would like to see a buffer zone created between the public and the tents.

According to McDowell, there’s been a “constant stream” of traffic past the encampment with “gawkers” driving by taking photos and videos of the homeless and sometimes yelling obscenities.

On the flip side, deputations from advocates of the homeless and mentally ill pointed out people don’t choose to live in tents out in the elements.

Reach Out Chatham-Kent (R.O.C.K.) Missions executive director Renee Geniole said she understands people are angry.

“We hear you. We are angry too. We are angry that more and more people in our community are forced to live without the basic human right of safe, stable housing.”

Geniole said the community should be angry at systems that keep people down and “stuck on the margins of society.”

She stressed that directing anger at the people in the encampments is “misplaced and harmful to us all.

“Sleeping rough is not a choice, it’s the only option left,” Geniole stressed, noting decisions about the homeless need to be based on truth, not “rage bait videos.”

Moving the homeless on without providing solutions ends up costing everyone, she said, noting encampment stayers are more likely to be victims of violence, rather than causing violence.

“Not all behaviour that makes us uncomfortable is unsafe,” Geniole said, stressing the fact encampments put addiction, mental health and poverty issues on display.

“To enact the change we are all seeking, we must ask ourselves if someone poses a genuine threat or if it’s just discomfort, we are feeling,” she said, noting the solutions rest on investments in supportive housing, mental health care, trauma-informed outreach and upstream prevention.

“Remember, people living in encampments are not them – they’re us,” she said. “And they are worth the effort.”

Hope Haven general manager Loree Bailey expressed similar concerns, but admitted she doesn’t know the answer to the problem.

“How do we help people when we have nowhere to send them?” she asked.

When speaking about managing the encampment, Chatham-Kent Police Service Chief Kirk Earley stressed police are a “partner agency” working in tandem with municipal housing services and organizations such as R.O.C.K. Missions.

“This is not something we can arrest our way out of,” Earley told council, adding that for the most part, encampment dwellers adhere to the rules.

But there are “outliers,” he added, and arrests are made when necessary.

The consistent lack of funding from the provincial and federal governments to support housing and homelessness initiatives was also raised by South Kent Coun. Anthony Ceccacci.

He pointed out Chatham-Kent funding gets far less than neighbouring municipalities with similar issues.

In response, general manager of health and human services manager Jodi Guilmette said it’s puzzling, calling it a “million-dollar question.”