Editors note: A portion of this post was altered after the city’s housing director clarified they were no longer considering sites be set aside to accommodate unsheltered in Hamilton and provide public washroom and shower facilities. Housing is looking to provide those amenities but has yet to determine a suitable location. This protocol was approved in 10 to 6 vote by councillors on August 18, 2023, five days after the publishing of this story.
A majority of Hamilton councillors have given initial approval to an encampment protocol calling for a mini homes pilot project and provisions for public washroom and shower facilities for those who are unhoused.
The debate about where, how many and how close tent communities can be in the community pushed Monday’s general issues committee meeting (GIC) into a 12-hour venture spurred on by an amendment to prohibit encampments unless ward councillors explicitly permit it.
The motion moved by Ward 5 Coun. Matt Francis and Ward 10 Coun. Jeff Beattie put the meeting into an in-camera session at one point as city politicians sought legal advice.
That concern was over a pending lawsuit with unhoused residents arguing eviction from parks violates their Charter rights.
“This protocol in this current form will allow this chaos to continue unless seriously amended,” Francis argued.
“Encampments and drugs do not belong in our parks (where) children play. Parks are off limits, full stop.”
Support for the amendment also came from Ward 6 Coun. Tom Jackson, who couldn’t back the idea of allowing encampments in public parks.
As of June, city staff say more than 1,700 people were without a home in Hamilton. About 160 are believed to be living in some sort of encampment.
Housing director Michelle Baird acknowledged there is a bylaw that prohibits tenting in parks but suggested some sort of balance would be needed to meet the needs of those who are unsheltered.
Such a protocol would have to accommodate tents in city-owned lands while protecting the integrity of parks in a given residential neighbourhood.
“Recognizing that even if today we were in a place where we didn’t allow tents in parks, I can assure you that we likely would have tents in parks because people don’t have opportunities and other places they can go,” Baird said.
Housing had brought an initiative forward to set aside six specific large-scale sanctioned sites following its recent public consultation, however, that plan was changed to just allowing five tents on public land.
Suitable locations to provide public washroom and shower facilities that are within reach of encampment residents have yet to be identified, according to Baird.
Staff are seeking two all-year round outdoor facilities with 24-hour security and a pair of recreation centres with 12-hour security.
Francis and Beattie’s motion would ultimately be voted down after a number of city politicians characterized the recommendation as divisive, including Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann.
“This opt-in, opt-out language is purposeful to break the approach of this term of council to tackle the complex issues as a council of the whole,” Nann said.
Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroetsch was one of the councillors who voted in favour of the protocol, which puts the HATS “Tiny Homes” site on the north end of his ward.
Kroestch said he trusted the “professional recommendation” from the city staff.
The protocol was the result of a public consultation over the spring and summer garnering some 12,000 responses and 16,000 comments via a web campaign.
It’s the second attempt at a temporary solution from housing services after a sanctioned encampment zone proposal was sent back to the drawing board by councillors in mid-May.
City councillors Wednesday voted to keep current protocols that favour enforcement to deal with some 100 homeless encampments currently in the city after rejecting a recommendation allowing for unlimited groupings of tents in parks and other city properties.
If approved, up to five tents will be allowed on public land as long as they’re not within 100 metres of playgrounds, schools and other sensitive uses and meet certain health and safety requirements.
Groupings of five tents will have to be at least 50 metres apart from each other, 10 metres away from private property and 50 metres from park amenities.
Public works is expected to provide security and respond to requests for cleanup and maintenance, while the healthy and safe communities department will deploy peer support workers.
Hamilton will spend an estimated $70 million in 2023 on housing and homelessness with an additional 8 million in emergency funding.
Housing service is seeking $2.3 million in the 2024 Tax Operating budget to support individuals experiencing homelessness via a city plan to end chronic homelessness.
Mayor Andrea Horwath said the city will continue work on ending the need for encampments via “ongoing advocacy” for proper housing through funding from the provincial and federal governments.
She acknowledges the protocol “is not a solution” to the crisis fuelled by affordability concerns and loss of affordable housing.
“The reality is all of our systems are in crisis right now, and so people are therefore in crisis, ” said Horwath.
“I think we all know that encampments are not the answer, but dismantling them is not the answer either.”
The protocol, approved by councillors 10 to six, now moves on to a ratification vote at city council Friday.
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