The mayor of Barrie, Ont., has declared a state of emergency in response to homeless encampments and what he described as an increase in “lawlessness” in the city.
“Barrie residents have had enough,” Alex Nuttall said in a news release on Tuesday morning.
“Since Day 1, I have been clear that encampments are not acceptable in the City of Barrie. The people who live in tents could turn to resources available,” he said.
“If you refuse that help you cannot stay in these encampments. Our city will not allow lawlessness to take over our community.”
At a news conference Tuesday, Nuttall said the city has seen a major increase in encampments in the recent weeks, along with an increase in crime.
Nuttall said efforts to address the encampments are not moving fast enough and that a state of emergency was necessary “to reclaim our streets, our boulevards, our parks, our squares, our feeling of safety, and our order.”
“These actions are necessary due to the length of time of lawlessness in our city and due to the increase in severity of lawlessness in our city,” he said.
The mayor’s orders under provincial emergency management law would allow city staff to create a new task force to oversee the response to encampments, hire consultants and contractors as part of that response and enforce protocols more aggressively.
In an interview with CBC Toronto, Nuttall said the city plans to dismantle the encampments, while offering to help those living in them find housing and other supports. The mayor says the first priority is dismantling the sprawling encampment outside the local courthouse.
“For the individuals who want help, we’re going to help them. We’re going to find them those supports,” he said.
“For the individuals that don’t want help and want to live in addictions, there’s going to be removal of those tents and we encourage them to go somewhere that doesn’t have the same standards when it comes to encampments.”
The Ford government passed legislation in June — the Safer Municipalities Act — that gives municipalities and police “enhanced tools they need to end encampments and clean up our parks and public spaces,” according to a provincial news release from April.
The law strengthens penalties for people who “deliberately and continually break the law by adding the new aggravating factors of continuous trespassing and the likelihood to reoffend,” the provincial news release said.
The legislation also allows police officers to issue a ticket or arrest people who do not comply with an order to stop using illegal substances in public and to leave the public place.
Ford government introduces legislation aimed at dismantling encampments
It was passed a little over two years after an Ontario Superior Court justice ruled that Waterloo Region could not use a municipal bylaw to evict people living in an encampment in Kitchener because that bylaw was deemed to be in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The judge said a lack of shelter spaces means the bylaw infringed upon Charter rights.
Nuttall didn’t say whether the city would be invoking the new powers municipalities and police have under the Safer Municipalities Act to clear the encampments.
The declaration comes comes after a double-murder investigation shut down a city encampment this summer. Police say the accused and two victims had all lived at the encampment.
While immediate action to address homelessness in Barrie is needed, people experiencing homelessness are generally law-abiding, said Sara Peddle, the executive director of the David Busby Centre, which provides emergency shelter and supports for those experiencing homelessness in Simcoe County.
“I don’t think it’s a homelessness versus housed perspective. When there’s lawlessness, there’s lawlessness and that needs to be addressed as a separate issue,” she said.
Peddle said the reality is that encampments continue to exist because there simply isn’t enough housing available for everyone who needs it.
“Last I checked on the data portal from the county, there were roughly 2,000 people experiencing homelessness in Simcoe County. Well, we don’t have 2,000 units for people to move to,” she said.
“So you know, as much as we’ve all been trying to put effort forward to make sure people are supported where they’re at, and also moving them into housing, it’s not quite set up for success, you know, it’s just not.”
Nuttall said he believes it’s “pretty clear” the growth in encampments are related to the crime in the city based on what police and residents have experienced.
“I think if you see a growth in, of encampments in an area and then you see a growth in crime exactly around that encampment, I don’t see any other major issues that have influenced that,” he said.
In a statement Tuesday, Simcoe County Warden Basil Carke said the county is ready to support Barrie address encampments, including using one-time provincial funding to create more housing options.
“Today’s announcement by Mayor Nuttall reinforces our shared goal: to ensure everyone who wants a roof over their head has access to one,” Clarke said in the statement.
Asked to comment on the state of emergency, Alexandra Sanita, press secretary for Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack, said the province “will continue to work with our municipalities to protect public spaces while making record investments in safe and supportive housing.”
