Portable toilets added at the Wolfe Street encampment in Peterborough, Ont., are the latest concern for area residents and businesses.
For months, a number of people experiencing homelessness have pitched tents in the parking lot adjacent to the city’s emergency overflow shelter.
In the spring, city council approved establishing 50 temporary modular housing units in the Wolfe Street lot and adjacent Rehill parking lot. Last week, construction fencing went up around the lots, causing some people at the encampment to relocate.
Portable toilets have now been added at the site — another part of the city’s homelessness response plan.
“Putting in temporary washrooms at this time is part of the action to support the site and the neighbourhood in the interim ahead of the construction of the modular temporary housing,” stated Brendan Wedley, the city’s communication services manager.
The toilets are being welcomed by some, including Heidi McKinnon, who says she has been homeless for around two and a half years. However, she remains hesitant to use the toilets at night.
She says as a woman, life without washroom facilities is difficult.
“I was like, ‘I’m not peeing in the bush,'” she said. “It’s kind of like, it’s hard to deal with.”
Alex Kempf, chair of the Wolfe Street and Area Neighbourhood Association, says the portable toilets were one of the initial requests made by the association when tents began to pop up on the parking lot.
City councillor Alex. Bierk during a Jan. 30 council meeting proposed the city look into the cost of adding portable toilets and a dumpster at the encampment. However, the motion was defeated.
“One of the businesses on our block I know certainly has had some violent encounters with people trying to come in use their (washroom) facilities and has lost customers as a result,” said Kempf.
She says while the portable toilets do resolve some problems, she views them as a “double-edged sword.”
“It indicates a level of permanency that we were really trying to avoid,” she said.
Kempf says residents are unhappy with the city’s rollout of its temporary modular housing plan, claiming a lack of communication on the fencing and now the toilets. She says violence in the area has increased since the fencing was installed.
“The main issue is safety — just last night, I had to call 911 for somebody who was being attacked on my front lawn and that’s normal now,” she told Global News Peterborough on Monday.
The city insists it has established a liaison committee with the neighbourhood, however, Kempf says there’s a pattern of leaving residents out of the planning process.
And she says business owners are also afraid of speaking out on the plan.
“They’re afraid of bad press, of their customers who may be in favour of some of the things that are happening over here being upset at them,” she said.
The city notes the toilets and constructing fencing aren’t permanent fixtures. The overflow shelter bed building will be upgraded with accessible washrooms, showers and other amenities as part of the modular housing project.
A city staff report in May reported that by mid-April there were 302 individuals on the city’s by-name priority list (BNPL), a real-time list of all people experiencing homelessness in the city. The list encompasses those staying in shelters, outside or in precarious housing scenarios.
— with files from Germain Ma