First, the city cleared people experiencing homelessness from parks. For the past two weeks, they’ve been clearing them out of the wooded area along the rail trail between Wentworth and Gage. Threatened with tickets that they can’t pay, people are scared and being traumatized as they pack what they can carry and move—where? There is no place else to go.
That’s what Gessie Stearns, a PhD student in social work at McMaster and researcher on homelessness, described to about two dozen congregants after the service Sunday. People are being treated with violence rather than care, she said.
She noted there is lots of political commentary about garbage and urinating in public and drugs. When you have no home, all of your private life is political and looking after natural bodily functions is taken as a sign of mental illness or disrespect.
The city knows the only solution is housing and it’s betting on federal and provincial programs to provide the needed funding. In the meantime, the city provided 80 tiny shelters, all now full, which have funding only until December, and more temporary shelter beds, which are often full and aren’t housing, just a day-by-day break from the outdoors, with lots of rules and various risks.
The provincial government has introduced Bill 6 that will allow fines of up to $10,000 or six months in jail to be imposed unhoused people who repeatedly “trespass” by setting up tents in public places. There are also fines for public drug use, as the government ramps up forced treatment. But the Ontario budget had very little new money for new housing units and health supports.
What can we do? Gessie urged us to write to our councillors and MPPs to protest these measures. Right now, she suggests we urge the city to just leave people alone if the city cannot provide housing and support. Let people solve their own housing problems if the city can’t. The Affordable Housing Team has a model message here and addresses can be found here.
Longer term, the city needs to listen to homeless people about what they need. A People’s Protocol was created in 2023 by people with experience of homelessness and their allies; it stressed the need for housing as the solution to homelessness but laid out recommendations on how to deal with homelessness in the meantime. Councillors should read it, Gessie said. It can be found here: https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=392431 She noted that people experiencing homelessness and allies tried recently to work out ways to get rid of discarded belongings along the rail trail but when they asked for city help to dispose of the items, the city said only, bring the garbage to someone’s home for weekly pickup. That’s no answer. She also noted that in many cases, the items are not voluntarily discarded, but rather unwillingly left behind when people were forced to move.
She urged us all to try not to make all kinds of assumptions when we see “the homeless.” Homelessness is a person’s situation, not who they are. And yes, ultimately we need more housing. See the item on this week’s Throne Speech and a suggested email to Prime Minister Carney and our local MPs.
There are also groups like The Hub, the Hamilton Encampment Support Network, Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion and young adults organized through Food Not Bombs who are bringing water, food and support to people experiencing homelessness.