Hamilton pushes ahead on 7-day-a-week encampment removal, despite public opposition

Dozens of Hamilton residents, including some who spoke from areas where people are living in tents, called on city councillors not to attempt seven-days-a-week removal of unhoused people’s encampments — but to no avail.

After a marathon meeting with some 45 delegations, many people who missed a day of work to be heard, the city planning committee voted 4-2 on Tuesday to approve a motion brought by Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr that is intended to shorten the amount of time to a maximum of 72 hours before an encampment is removed. Ward 12 Coun. Lloyd Ferguson seconded the motion, with Coun. Brenda Johnson (11) and Coun. Maria Pearson (10) also voting in favour.

The ‘no’ votes were from Coun. John-Paul Danko (8) and Coun. Maureen Wilson (1). The motion will next go to the full council — likely with further discussion — for ratification.

The motion states Hamilton, which resumed encampment evictions last November after an emergency council vote and a subsequent court fight, is the only city in Ontario whose park bylaw “often results in an increase in the number of encampments and an open-ended duration for encampments in public spaces.” Farr said he had consulted with other municipalities such as Kingston, London and Waterloo Region that are trying to find solutions amid an affordable housing crisis.

“The (parks) bylaw is sound,” Farr said. “It’s appropriate. It’s consistent with every other city. But the process we have attached to this bylaw needs a tweak. That’s what is here. It’s an amendment to the enforcement of a bylaw process that is everywhere.”

Farr noted that, so far, the courts and attorneys general have “validated” the city’s concerns about the impacts of encampments.

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There are about 30 people living in encampments in Hamilton, city Director of Housing Edward John told councillors. That is, John added, in addition to the 600 who are living in a temporarily expanded shelter system. Roughly 1,000 people (500 households with an average of two people) have been offered permanent housing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were about 20 encampments seven months ago when council voted to resume encampment evictions. Wilson did ask Farr if he believed the increase in encampments was a consequence of the policy change.

“It points to the fact that on Aug. 9 (2021), we went back to a bylaw that says you can’t camp overnight,” Farr said. “So we (city council), in an unprecedented emergency meeting, said we need we go back. We went longer with this compromise (not removing tents) than any other city. The expectation was that it would work, and in fact the opposite occurred.

“That’s what this motion speaks to, that we’ve had this enforcement process that was effective for decades.”

Before voting, Wilson said she had not received any confirmation from either John or city Municipal Law and Licensing Manager Monica Ciriello that the present practice for handling encampments is unsuccessful. Ciriello did not have a firm answer.

“I would suggest that how I view Councillor Farr’s motion, is it’s not substantially changing the process we will be following,” Ciriello said. “What it’s doing, is it’s giving us a little more direction to timeframes in order to achieve the compliance that we are looking for. The additional tools will aid in our success… that’s a good question. I don’t know how to answer that.”

Coun. Johnson, who chaired the 10-hour-plus meeting, noted there is a motion headed to the emergency and community services committee (ECS) that is intended to re-direct how Hamilton approaches houselessness. In the future, encampment enforcement and coordination would discussed by the general issues committee (GIC), which includes all city councillors.

In January, the ECS approved a motion calling for the development of a human rights-centred approach to housing. Farr supported that move.

The city, for now, has a housing-first strategy.

Many delegators on Tuesday questioned where that rates among Hamilton’s priorities. Eshan Merali, a graduate student in addiction studies at McMaster University, shared a video where he stood at a recently cleared encampment site in the Red Hill Valley, in Ward 4. The camera pulled back to show vacant land where subsidized housing once stood, with a condominium complex rising in its stead nearby.

“Before the demolitions, there was subsidized housing in the areas you see right now, which has been torn down and sold to private developers four townhouses and apartments that are not going to be affordable,” Merali said. “There’s a condo in development right over there. The empty, empty vacant homes — they were just metres away from this encampment. But the residents were not allowed to use them as shelter. Private security was brought in to protect these homes from the residents who were living here.

“The city talks about prioritizing safety through encampment evictions, but whose safety is being prioritized?” Merali added.

‘Visibility’ matters more than ‘the reality of homelessness’

Marcie McIlveen, the program coordinator for the Keeping Six Harm Reduction Action League, attested to living rough for over two decades, from adolescence till age 33, before finding stability in Hamilton through the shelter system. McIlveen questioned whether city council is more concerned about the image of houselessness than the root causes of why people end up in tough straits.

“I am not here to say what’s good, what’s bad, but if we’re not willing to look at what’s happening, if we can’t meet the needs with the resources we have, then we need to let people make their own needs,” McIlveen said. “If that is to sleep in a tent, in a park, so be it. Right? Honestly, I don’t know why the visibility of homelessness matters more to people… than the reality of homelessness.

“I know it doesn’t look great to see a bunch of tents in a park, but it doesn’t matter if you take the tents away — there are still people in a park,” McIlveen added.

The six councillors present — Ward 15 Coun. Judi Partridge is on the committee, but was not present for the vote — also heard about about some the intersectional contributors to houselessness. Those include Hamilton having one of the highest urban poverty rates in Canada, along with above-average rates of disability and opoiod deaths. A disproportionately high number of unhoused youth are also LGBTQ2S+.