They hashed it over for hours but Chatham-Kent council couldn’t decide on a location where a homeless encampment can legally take shape on municipal property.
Instead, elected officials opted to push a decision to the Aug. 25 council meeting, following a motion from East Kent Coun. John Wright to defer the matter, saying more time and information is needed.
Wright made the comments at the Aug. 11 meeting after council voted to change the setbacks of the C-K encampment protocol, effectively eliminating all municipally owned properties in Chatham where an encampment can be legally located.
Council also stopped short of approving a new encampment bylaw, putting the issue in limbo.
“We’ve solved nothing here,” a frustrated Wright told council. “We went backwards on it. We need to take another night to resolve this.”
South Kent Coun. Trevor Thompson agreed, saying council needs to come back to issue “fresh.” He pointed out the discussion wasn’t getting anywhere after almost five hours.
Thompson acknowledged homeowners and business owners located close to the current encampment near the Chatham water treatment plant at will be upset by the delay.
“To the residents, I get it,” Thompson said. “August 25 is a long way out.”
Originally, it looked like council was going to allow an encampment to take shape at the Thames Grove Conservation Area, one of four municipal properties where an encampment could be legally located.
In the end, council approved a 10-point motion put forward by Mayor Darrin Canniff. However, a recommendation to change the recreational facilities piece that would pave the way for an encampment at Thames Grove proved to be a sticking point.
The mayor tried unsuccessfully to raise the issue a second time, stating he wanted to change his yes vote to no on amending the recreation setback at Thames Grove, noting he did not want to single out the conservation area as the only location for an encampment.
Currently, Thames Grove serves as a disc golf course and the use does not comply with the current encampment protocol.
Canniff said he doesn’t want to see any encampments in C-K but that’s the reality.
“As one of the richest countries in the world, we shouldn’t have people living in encampments. But we do,” the mayor said after the meeting. “This is not something you want to see from a humanitarian perspective.”
Similar to the last council meeting in July, dissent echoed through the gallery, with several deputations imploring council to move the encampment away from its current site at the Chatham water treatment plant.
One, from a Windfield Crescent resident whose property abuts the water treatment plant property, said he’s afraid for his three-year-old daughter’s safety due to violent acts at the site.
“I’m here urging you to relocate the encampment immediately,” Mike McPherson told council, noting that while he sympathizes with the plight of the homeless, the encampment on Grand has brought fear to the neighbourhood.
“My daughter and the children in this neighbourhood are in danger every day this encampment stays,” he said. “No child should grow up fearing her own backyard.”
McPherson also took aim at the work of R.O.C.K. Missions, stating the organization is “making things worse” by handing out needles without proper disposal methods.
According to McPherson, the Thames Grove site is a better fit for an encampment than the PUC property, but won’t be used because it would interfere with the disc golf course.
“So, I guess frisbee is more important than my daughter’s safety,” he said.
Another deputation targeted encampments and R.O.C.K. Missions. Stephani Shill spoke of how addiction has impacted her family calling a homeless encampment a “slow-motion coffin.
“Families who love addicts know the hardest truth,” Shill said, stressing that handouts and free living in encampments spare the addicted from hitting rock bottom “When you keep someone alive but addicted, you aren’t saving them, you’re stretching out time until they die. We need to make the road to recovery easier than the road to staying in a tent.”
Always controversial, the homelessness issue has dominated council business as of late. An encampment located on the north side of the Thames River near the Third Street Bridge moved to the Chatham water treatment plant property in July.
Since that time, residents in the neighbourhood have grappled with noise, traffic and social disorder concerns.
Which direction C-K council will take going forward remains unclear. Based on the adoption of new setbacks within the encampment protocol, no municipal properties are eligible for a legal homeless encampment.
Changes in the protocol include: a 100-metre setback from a residential property, a 100-metre setback from a business, 25 metres from a construction site and 10 metres from a recreational trail.
Councillors Melissa Harrigan and Aaron Hall were absent for the meeting. Coun. Marjorie Crew abstained from voting, citing a conflict of interest.
According to Dave Taylor, C-K’s director of legal services, the municipality has been working under Ontario caselaw guidelines, meaning the homeless have the right to shelter on municipal lands if appropriate housing is not available to them.
The Victoria Park Place homeless shelter, with its 50 beds, however, was not at full capacity.
The tiny cabins project is slated to open this week.
