The City of Orillia is going to look into ways to deal with local homeless encampments.
At Monday’s meeting, council approved an inquiry motion from Coun. Tim Lauer that will see staff prepare a report outlining potential enforcement strategies for encampments in the city.
“Last summer, I spent quite a bit of time dealing with encampment issues, and I’m fully aware of how broad that issue is, ranging from the homeless issues to … some of the drug issues,” Lauer said. “What I thought would be very helpful for council was a report from staff that dealt with what strategies are available to us.”
Coun. David Campbell highlighted similar issues with encampments in Ward 1.
“It seemed that enforcement would break up an encampment in one spot, and it would pop up two blocks away, and it was just continuous,” he said. “It's definitely something that needs to be addressed, and I would look forward to a report on it.”
The request comes days after the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled it is unconstitutional for municipalities to remove homeless encampments if there is not enough space in the shelter system.
Mayor Don McIsaac referenced the potentially precedent-setting case out of Waterloo.
“The judge basically ruled that they cannot evict people from encampments because they don’t have enough shelter space,” he said. “It’s an important ruling.”
Lauer said he just wants to ensure council is informed on potential strategies.
“This is an evolving file. It’s changing daily. It is, worldwide, a huge issue, and I’m not suggesting that we’re going to come up with the ultimate solution here,” he said.
“What I’m looking for is that we, as councillors, be as informed as possible. It’s very important to get this right on behalf of the folks that are being forced into encampments, or are creating these encampments, but also the neighbours that are dealing (with them).”
Councillors Jay Fallis and Janet-Lynne Durnford stressed they would like to see preventative measures considered in the report, to understand ways to aid those who are homeless on top of potential enforcement measures.
“I did have a conversation this morning with someone that deals regularly with homeless individuals, and they really did emphasize … that a big factor that could help to really alleviate some of the problem could be outreach and, certainly, a reallocation of resources,” Fallis said.
“I think that it’s very important that, as a council, we look not only at enforcement, but also at prevention because this is part of a much larger issue,” Durnford added.
