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Safe Tenting Zones
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I wrote this letter for Region of Waterloo Council as they deliberate further committing to evicting the 100 Victoria encampment community.
Good Evening Council,
As you consider how to move forward regarding the 100 Victoria encampment, I wanted to share some insights from the past few years of working as a bridge between the many players in our sector. I understand that there is some diversity of perspectives amongst you at present, and that there are many of you who disagree with the idea of safe tenting zones. I hope you will at least consider my analysis and know that I am happy to talk further with any of you to assist with your decision making.
Good Evening Council,
As you consider how to move forward regarding the 100 Victoria encampment, I wanted to share some insights from the past few years of working as a bridge between the many players in our sector. I understand that there is some diversity of perspectives amongst you at present, and that there are many of you who disagree with the idea of safe tenting zones. I hope you will at least consider my analysis and know that I am happy to talk further with any of you to assist with your decision making.
The Bylaw
When it comes to the updated bylaw that has been proposed this week, I encourage you to vote against it and reconsider this approach. I understand the impact that 100 Victoria has had on the region and in particular the Downtown Kitchener community. I also want to recognize the pressure all of you have experienced from the ongoing crisis of homelessness. However, I ask you to consider the future this bylaw will create.
While the proposed bylaw comes with funding, this funding does not cover all the people who use the encampment to stabilize. There is a significant population of newer community members who are not factored into the calculation. The PIT count has documented an even larger population and a pipeline of new people falling into homelessness and destabilization. To fully house and stabilize residents, in a way that would mitigate the impacts on the Downtown Kitchener community would far exceed the amount of the table.
When it comes to the updated bylaw that has been proposed this week, I encourage you to vote against it and reconsider this approach. I understand the impact that 100 Victoria has had on the region and in particular the Downtown Kitchener community. I also want to recognize the pressure all of you have experienced from the ongoing crisis of homelessness. However, I ask you to consider the future this bylaw will create.
While the proposed bylaw comes with funding, this funding does not cover all the people who use the encampment to stabilize. There is a significant population of newer community members who are not factored into the calculation. The PIT count has documented an even larger population and a pipeline of new people falling into homelessness and destabilization. To fully house and stabilize residents, in a way that would mitigate the impacts on the Downtown Kitchener community would far exceed the amount of the table.
If you listen to any of the housing and shelter providers across the region you will hear how there is not enough capacity for the current need. Supportive housing providers are beyond capacity, sometimes having 4-6 guests per room. Transitional housing and shelter providers are unable to find long term housing options for residents. Warming centres have so much demand they are having to troubleshoot solutions like outdoor heaters and rotating ‘smoke’ breaks. Drop in centres and downtown businesses are trying to support an increasingly traumatized and destabilized population. Removing safe tenting zones as an option in the landscape only exacerbates those pressures and impacts.
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Rooted in key human-rights documents, we suggest that there are five pillars of a human-rights response to encampments:
We want to briefly discuss each pillar in turn. |
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Becoming Supportless
When the bylaw was first passed, we interviewed residents and documented the increased distress the prospect of eviction had on them. As someone who has been evicted before and who has assisted people during encampment evictions, I think it is really important to emphasize the mental and physical health impacts of an eviction. My team also documented how the encampment was assisting people in accessing resources, managing their health/disabilities, and overall stabilizing their lives. Encampments exist because they provide a vital toolkit for people to help them survive until housing options are available. Without this resource people are trapped in a cycle of constant displacement. We see this in other jurisdictions in Ontario, where hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent to move people along every few months. On top of the cost of those evictions, the mental health impact on the community is only exacerbated. When people are destabilized and dehumanized they cope in ways that increasingly impact the rest of the public. When we interviewed people they described how leaving the encampment would force them closer to business and residential areas. |
Petition:
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Removing the encampment will not remove the people. It just removes a key support for them. We call this phenomenon becoming supportless, where there is an increasing population of people who are not just lacking shelter but who also have no access to supports. We hear from front line workers how difficult it is to find people and reconnect them to supports after every eviction. We hear from residents at 100 victoria about how many of them were evicted previously by the service system itself. Putting someone in a motel or in transitional housing without a long term support plan often means that they end up back on the street rather quickly. This bylaw leads to a future with a growing population of destabilized people who are being rendered supportless. The impacts on the Downtown Kitchener community will worsen in this reality.
A better path forward
How do you lessen the impacts on the Downtown Kitchener community? From my perspective the only path forward is to help people stabilize. In a world where the service system is overcapacity and where people are becoming supportless, there needs to be an option of last resort that helps people survive and improve their mental and physical well-being. Encampments do that. Presently the impacts on Downtown Kitchener are far more manageable than in communities like Barrie where encampments are evicted regularly.
The Social Development Centre is working on a petition for a public camping bylaw. This framework learns from municipalities like Peel and London to make encampments in the region even more stabilizing and manageable. Redirecting resources away from criminalizing encampments also means you have more resources to invest in building social housing and improving the social service system. We are asking you to assist us with the implementation of a safe tenting framework.
How do you lessen the impacts on the Downtown Kitchener community? From my perspective the only path forward is to help people stabilize. In a world where the service system is overcapacity and where people are becoming supportless, there needs to be an option of last resort that helps people survive and improve their mental and physical well-being. Encampments do that. Presently the impacts on Downtown Kitchener are far more manageable than in communities like Barrie where encampments are evicted regularly.
The Social Development Centre is working on a petition for a public camping bylaw. This framework learns from municipalities like Peel and London to make encampments in the region even more stabilizing and manageable. Redirecting resources away from criminalizing encampments also means you have more resources to invest in building social housing and improving the social service system. We are asking you to assist us with the implementation of a safe tenting framework.
Luckily we are not starting from scratch. Regional staff have been researching and learning from other jurisdictions. They have the knowledge to draft a safe tenting framework. I know this because I have seen the ways Community Services and Facilities staff alongside outreach partners and mutual aid groups have troubleshooted solutions for 100 Victoria over the past few years. I also know this because many of your bylaw teams are already supporting encampments. I witnessed some great practices while working with Kitchener Bylaw, especially their non-enforcement team. At the moment Woolwich and Waterloo Bylaw teams are actively supporting encampments.
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Our plan is to bring this safe tenting framework to each City and Township. The municipalities have far greater land options for safe tenting zones and their bylaw teams are largely well equipped to assist. But we need a regional framework and some regional champions to help make this a cohesive process.
Transit Hub I have focussed on the impacts on the Downtown Kitchener community because I do not believe that the encampment is a barrier to the Transit Hub construction. The region has a large portfolio of land that can accommodate staging areas and safe tenting zones. From my understanding the 100 Victoria site is primarily needed for some updates to the tracks. This does not require the whole lot. An alternative would be to turn the back third of the lot into a construction zone and then have the front two thirds be a safe tenting zone. There are also multiple other lots along both Victoria and Weber that could act as a safe tenting zone. |
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Ultimately you just need a safe tenting framework, because homelessness is not going anywhere. The Federal and Provincial governments are not even trying to make serious interventions in the housing system. Similarly at present, local governments lack a serious commitment to building social housing at scale and to acquiring affordable housing before it is lost. The recent capital budget decisions demonstrate this. So as leaders this bylaw presents you with two paths in the woods: approving it will lead to years of increased instability for the community while changing course towards a safe tenting framework will stabilize people and give them a chance to avoid being made supportless.
You are not alone as decision makers. We have an amazing network of problem solvers both on your staff and in the community! Let’s work together to make a community of joy!
David Alton,
Lived Expertise Engagement Program
Social Development Centre
You are not alone as decision makers. We have an amazing network of problem solvers both on your staff and in the community! Let’s work together to make a community of joy!
David Alton,
Lived Expertise Engagement Program
Social Development Centre