THUNDER BAY – The growing unhoused crisis in Thunder Bay has an impact on a community's tourism perception to visitors, but not addressing it with serious effort also diminishes a community's tourism reputation, said Paul Pepe, manager for Tourism Thunder Bay.
"It's unfortunate and can be frustrating when it impacts the ability of local businesses to operate normally and the economic impacts and tourism perspectives of the unhoused crisis need to be factored into how solutions are formulated to minimize tourism impacts," he said, adding the city's unhoused situation is incredibly complex and not unique among North American communities right now.
"The roots of it are diverse and include mental illness, unsupported developmental disabilities and addictions."
Pepe said the human-rights based approach to housing is the morally correct approach and the agencies that are stepping up to support people in crisis and find transitional housing are doing a compassionate job with few resources.
"A growing movement is regenerative tourism. It's about how tourism's positive economic impacts can support broader community social and cultural initiatives and that may be an approach to consider in planning," he suggested.
Vanessa Bowles, owner and operator of Cinema 5 Skatepark, said she has developed the site for children who may not be playing hockey or soccer, and the youths living on the fringe who don't fit in.
"It's so that they have a place that serves as a community so they don't get into the drugs and alcohol," she said. "What we're doing here is that we want to start changing so that we can start teaching them skills to maybe one day open their own businesses, so they don't end in poverty."
Bowles said many of the people who are unhoused or are battling mental health and addictions come from a place of trauma and are living to the best of their ability and could use some support.
"There are so many more issues than just the violence and the graffiti and we really have to look at healing the community and healing our people," she said, adding compassion for her neighbouring businesses who are dealing with the social issues.
"It's the whole community that needs to come together and support people. Whether they have addictions, whether they are not meeting societal expectations, they're still human beings."
Bowles said there is "a lot of good happening" and many "good people" trying to make change across Thunder Bay with so much positivity but it's going to take more than a couple of community groups to find solutions and healing.
