THUNDER BAY – At least one downtown south core resident has serious concerns about a proposed temporary homeless village that earlier this week got council’s go-ahead.
William Woods, who spoke at Wednesday night’s at-large town hall at city hall, said as someone who lives on East Victoria Avenue, he’s concerned about what the city will do to keep the area safe, if and when the homeless ‘flood’ into the area.
The city has proposed building 80 to 100 temporary shelter units, which will be housed either on a vacant Miles Street lot or at the Kam River Heritage Park, where a homeless encampment already exists.
Woods said he’s worried things will get worse than they already are.
“I currently live in this neighbourhood and I see the deplorable condition the downtown core is in as it is. Once we add another 80 to 100 people to this neighbourhood, it’s going to add that much more dangerousness and dirtiness,” said Woods, clarifying he meant extra garbage on the streets.
Woods also wanted to know if the city planned to increase the police presence in the area, and his concerns were met with sympathy from several of the councillors present.
Coun. Trevor Giertuga, who voted against the proposal, said councillors all have questions, most notably will the village solve the problem?
Giertuga said there are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding security and operating costs, and if in fact other senior levels of government will even come to the table with the money, given there is a homeless crisis across Ontario, where up to 1,400 encampments can be found.
“My concern with solving the problem is we heard we have upwards of 200 people homeless and we’re looking at doing 80 to 100 (units),” Giertuga said. “The only way we can enforce designated sites … is if we have enough safe indoor shelter options. And we won’t. So people will still be able to go where they want to without us being able to tell them to move to designated encampment sites or to indoor sites.”
Giertuga added a number of homeless people have been offered housing and turned it down.
Not all members of the public were opposed to the plan, though Robert MacVicar did have questions.
“I think it’s about time the city does something about the homeless. I applaud the effort,” he said.
“But have you considered a site on the north side?”
Like Giertuga, he expressed doubt the city, or the agency put in charge of the homeless village once built, will be able to convince people to move.
Ryan Sakakeep, however, who has worked in crisis response in Indigenous communities, said the city had to act emphatically.
He thinks it’s beyond time to declare a state of emergency.
“Two-hundred people living on the street is an emergency. It should be considered a disaster,” Sakakeep said. “Our provincial and federal governments should step in quickly.”
Sakakeep suggested the Thunder Bay District Social Services Board could withhold the portion of ODSB payments reserved for housing to help cover the operating costs of the temporary village, which the city has estimated at $1.5 million annually over the proposed five-year lifespan of the project.
Coun. Rajni Agarwal said Thunder Bay needs to learn from Waterloo, where 50 temporary units were built, but only a handful have moved out.
“We need to have an exit strategy. That’s what the (Fort William) BIA is asking for. If we’re spending $5 million, plus $1.5 million every year, to have six people move out … we better do better than Waterloo. We have to learn what they did right and what they did wrong.”
