Tiny shelters in Hamilton no closer to becoming reality

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Published January 25, 2023 at 4:23 pm

On the snowiest day of the winter, the elected leadership in Hamilton shovelled a tiny shelters proposal back to city staff for months more work.

By unanimous 16-0 vote at today’s city council meeting, City of Hamilton staff were directed to develop further alternatives and a policy framework to govern the proposed Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters (HATS) project. The group’s proposal to establish a type of tent city for 10 people who are living rough has been in front of the city for a year. That accounts for fewer than 0.7 per cent of the more than 1,500 housing-deprived people in Hamilton.

The motion, moved by Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann and seconded by Ward 4 Coun. Tammy Hwang, means the tiny shelters proposal has a pulse. Healthy and safe community general manager Angela Burden indicated it might take four months for city staff to complete that operational piece, “depending on how aggressively we pursue that.” Jason Thorne, the GM of economic planning and development, added that site selection work would be waiting for that to finish.

“We have a community that wants us to get moving with some innovative ideas, and this is one,” Ward 15 Coun. Ted McMeekin said. “I just hope we can get something up and running. It’s been proven to work across North America.”

A potential HATS site at Barton St. was rejected last fall. Consideration of three HATS-suggested sites was deferred at a committee meeting on Jan. 19. Ward 1 Coun. Maureen Wilson called it “regrettable” that councillors have yet to receive clarity about how HATS would partner with the city.

“This has been a most regrettable process because there is no denying the crisis that is before this community, and many communities, and there is no denying the need,” Wilson said during debate. “There is no denying the frustration that many community members and volunteers feel. It’s understandable. But that’s in the genesis of this, in that it was driven by ‘let’s just get a site and figure out the rest later.’ My obligation is not to HATS. My obligation to the most vulnerable people who could be living on this site. And it was that need for clarity that led me to get on the operational issues last week (at a committee meeting).

“Due to that lack of clarity, HATS got sidelined and frustrated and hurt,” Wilson added. “They feel that all the effort they put into this has not been valued. I would agree with that assessment on their behalf. It’s regrettable in my opinion that we are at this point. But we must look at this in the context of our housing and homelessness plan.”

‘Another hurdle’

Ward 9 Coun. Brad Clark warned it could be déjà vu all over again with site selection. During discussion of an amendment, which was voted down, he contended that the time spent on the HATS proposal elides the enormity of the intersecting challenges with the housing and opioids crises in Hamilton.

“I understand the intent of the movers, but this is another hurdle that has been placed for the HATS group to overcome,” Clark said. “I am not convinced we are going to find a site. I think every single time we find a site, there is going to be an explosion of opposition from local neighbours and residents, and then the ward councillor is put in that position of whether they listen to those residents, or allows a better tent city in their ward.”

The motion directs staff to work with HATS, which has a considerable volunteer base and buy-in from business, faith, and social activist communities, to “align” the operational elements of their proposal to Hamilton’s Housing and Homelessness Strategy Framework. That includes intake of residents, operational issues, community consultation, and site selection.

“We would be needing to do a deep-dive,” Burden told councillors. “Housing Services is still playing catch-up from issues emerging from the (COVID-19) pandemic.”

Councillors pressed city managers for an earlier date for recommendations. Ward 12 Coun. Craig Cassar called it “a bit of a gut punch” to learn it will take months, and asked whether that could happen in four to six weeks. Housing Services Director Michelle Baird said that is not doable.

“With respect to operations and bringing this back in a four- to six-week timeframe, they have priority initiatives,” Baird said. “Such as shelter review, review of shelter complaints process. We are also bringing back (to city council) a comprehensive plan about what it looks like to work with homelessness in Hamilton across a social housing continuum.

“In order to bring this back in a 4-to-6 weeks timeframe, there would be a slowing of those other initiatives,” Baird added. “I’m not so sure this could happen in 4-to-6 weeks. I would worry that we would be shortsighted with what we would bring back to this council.”

‘Spun them in circles’

Previous staff reports in Hamilton have acknowledged that “a broader long-term failure of public policy at all levels” has led to people having no secure dwelling. In that same report, though, HATS was described as “neither emergency shelter nor permanent housing” and there was a concern about it becoming “embedded as a permanent intervention.”

The long game of applying to senior levels of government for funding, and construction time, is one force multiplier in creating the years-long waitlists for supportive housing. Another is lack of supply. Over a half-century, from the early 1970s through 2010, supportive housing construction in Canada went accounting for 1 in 5 new builds to about 1 in every 50.

Before the latest HATS motion came up, Clark said “real cooperative discussion” with the Ontario and federal governments is needed. He also pointed to the city’s partnerships with Indwell, a Christian charity that creates affordable housing communities, as an effective contributor to providing affordable housing. Indwell has a half-century track record.

“We have had everybody looking for a location, but we have been unable to establish one,” Clark said. “In the meantime, we now have 1,550 unhoused people in Hamilton… That number is increasing. We are serving them through shelters, through emergency rooms. With that, we don’t have enough space.

“And these are not criminals, as some folks have cited. These are people who have really fell on hard times. Some have an opioid addiction. They were given drugs by their doctor for their back injury, they get addicted. And when they can’t have them anymore, they take them on the black market, they stop paying their mortgage or rent, and they spiral down. We’re seeing this. We’re seeing families losing their space.

“My concern is, without having a real cooperative discussion with the feds and the province about how we are going to bring in real supportive housing in Hamilton, we are not going to be able to find safe, warm homes that they can literally call their home.

“I’m so upset and disappointed that what we have done with HATS is that we have spun them in circles — send them away, ‘do this,’ they come back, they’ve done it,’ ‘no, that’s not right,’ ” the Upper Stoney Creek representative added.

“That’s not fair. If council by majority wants to move forward with it, say you are committed and move forward with it. If we are afraid this is not going to be supported, then let’s stopping spinning the wheels and focus on projects such as Indwell and try to get that funding in place as soon as possible.”

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