Hamilton councillor calls for encampment enforcement to be stepped up
Published March 18, 2022 at 10:04 pm
A downtown Hamilton city councillor is proposing to increase local encampment enforcement.
Last August, Hamilton’s elected leadership voted to return to enforcing bylaws that prohibit unhoused people from camping on municipal property, including parks. A motion that Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr will introduce at a planning committee meeting on Tuesday (March 22) says measures need to be expanded because the “number of encampments more than doubled from approximately 20 to over 40 following the August 9, 2021 resolution, with many encampments entrenched in public parks for months.”
Over 600 unhoused families and individuals in Hamilton have been housed during the COVID-19 pandemic. A court injunction led to a pause on encampment evictions for a year early in the pandemic. But the city gained the legal upper hand when a new injunction filing failed in court last fall.
An encampment can only be removed when the city’s municipal law enforcement (MLE) department receives a complaint.
Farr’s motion appears aimed at seeing whether it is possible to have tighter timelines the six-step ‘encampment process’ that staff developed late last summer.
The meeting is at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. By rule, Hamilton residents would have until 12 noon on Monday to ask to delegate to committee, whether in writing or by a video link.
Farr’s motion calls for city staff to:
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Complete their activities under the Encampment Process, including notifying the Hamilton Police Service that a Trespass Notice has been issued, within 12 to 72 hours after staff receive the first complaint regarding unauthorized camping in a City park or public place;
Enforce the Encampment Process 7 days per week;
Report any staffing feasibility/service levels impacts to council at their March 30 meeting, which would be eight days after its introduction.
The encampment process includes having a street outreach team meet with people who unhoused and sleeping rough. Evictions are enforced by Hamilton Police Service officers. Housing advocates and social justice activists have said the protocol criminalizes poverty and being unhoused.
Last fall, that culminated in violence at J.C. Beemer Park and the Hamilton Central Police Station over a three-day period in late November. A majority-Black group of six Hamilton-area housing advocates were arrested and charged at two separate protests. Following weeks of outcry, their charges were dropped, with an agreement to sign a peace bond.
(Graphic via City of Hamilton.)
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