The City of Kingston’s efforts to evict those living in the Belle Park encampment through the court system began Monday morning.
Although Monday’s short court proceedings did not focus on the eviction matter other than setting a future date for arguments, Justice Ryan Bell did institute an interim order Monday, banning any fires at the site of the encampment without a permit, and authorizing any city officials to extinguish any unlawful fires on site.
The city said fires at the site were causing “serious, imminent fire hazards,” that posed serious risks to those living in Belle Park and the people living and working around the site.
The Kingston Community Legal Clinic, representing 14 people from the encampment, will be able to argue their case against the interim fire ban in a virtual proceeding set for Aug. 23.
Right before the court proceedings began, a small protest gathered outside the courthouse, organized by the Katarowki Union of Tenants, decrying the city’s efforts to remove those living in tents and other temporary structures from the wooded area next to the city’s Integrated Care Hub (ICH).
The ICH provides a number of services for unhoused people including a safe injection site.
The group feels that forcing people away from services the ICH provides could lead to harm.
“It’s going to cost lives,” said John Jantunen, a harm reduction worker at the ICH who was protesting outside the courthouse Monday morning.
“Just last week we got a perfect example,” Jantunen said. “We had 30 people overdose, 30 people in a single day.”
The city announced it would be taking the eviction matter to court in June. A statement from the city said that serious incidents at the encampment posed health and safety concerns for those in and around the encampment.
Over the last several years, neighbours and local councillors have brought up an increase in crime in the area within the proximity of the ICH and Belle Park.
According to the city, trespass notices were issued in March 2023, but the municipality has not forcibly removed anyone, opting instead to focus on what it called a peaceful transition.
Back in June, the city also argued that there are enough shelter beds to house those remaining at Belle Park, but some have chosen not to use them.
Protesters outside the courthouse Monday disagreed, arguing that counts of local people experiencing homelessness far exceed available shelter spaces.
A recent report for the city’s housing and homelessness committee says numbers of people needing housing and support services are increasing, with 390 people in need of those services in February 2023. The report noted that not all those people were necessarily unhoused. Some were living in shelters, motels, with family, incarcerated or in hospital or living rough.
This number fluctuates each month, a count collected and updated by various housing and support organizations in the city to help streamline services for those who need them.
That same report lists 228 bed spaces in various different shelters and drop-in locations across the city.
“You can do the math, there’s not enough space,” said Sayyida Jaffer, a protester with Mutual Aid Katarokwi, referring to the report’s numbers.
John Done, the lawyer from the legal clinic representing those living in Belle Park, says the lack of shelter beds will be a main tenet of his constitutional challenge against the city’s eviction.
Done says under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, those living in the park encampment have the right to life, liberty and security.
“All of those three rights would be triggered by an order that would leave them staying out in the cold,” Done said Monday.
Done says he will also be arguing that the residents’ right to equality will be infringed upon if they’re removed from their proximity to the Integrated Care Hub.
“They have special needs, largely rising from their disabilities and specifically because many of them depend on fentanyl,” Done said.
Those arguments, as well as the city’s arguments for eviction, will be taken up in court in late October.
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