A tired, confused, and frustrated Chatham-Kent council did the right thing at its most recent meeting by deferring a final decision about the homeless encampment situation.
The five-hour meeting (following a four-hour meeting two weeks earlier) ended without a vote on a bylaw regarding encampment location and standards.
About the only thing the numerous delegations and councillors could agree on was that the issue is about people.
But what kind of people?
Some anti-encampment folks believe that the camp is rife with people who are content to live where and how they do, living off the system.
Some on the other side of the issue label residents near the encampment as intolerant, uncaring, and insensitive to the challenges facing the homeless.
Residents anywhere in Chatham-Kent deserve to enjoy their property without the well-documented crime, vandalism, and rampant drug abuse associated with encampments, not just in Chatham-Kent but across society.
Those whose daily lives are scarred by poverty and drug abuse deserve the opportunity to better their situation.
It’s that simple … and that complex.
Council is chasing its tail on this issue.
Is there a perfect location for an encampment in Chatham-Kent that would satisfy nearby residents and business owners, while offering support for the homeless? No.
Until council ensures more supportive housing (unlikely without provincial and federal support) we are stuck with encampments, and no knee-jerk reaction will solve the problem.
The community also needs a comprehensive approach to address drug addiction, a significant problem among the homeless. Providing the means for addicts to continue their drug use (however well-intentioned) without corresponding methods to treat addiction only allows the cycle to continue.
Residents angry at council need to redirect some of that feeling to their well-insulated members of federal and provincial parliament. It’s much easier to attend a council meeting, but placing the blame on local elected officials, who have neither the expertise or the resources to solve the problem, isn’t the answer.
Perhaps if municipal administration hadn’t blundered so badly in its handling of the move, councillors may have been able to better address (not solve) the issue.
Whatever reasoning left councillors in the dark on the encampment move from downtown Chatham to Grand Avenue needs to be revisited.
Why not move the encampment to the forest area near the black bridge? As I understand it the scrap yard on Colborne owns it and the could be included in the negotiations. That area is not near residential space. It is not far from the “tiny homes” on Park East established for the homeless.
Put them in jail its a place to live an get fed