Sarnia City Council looks to end encampments in public spaces

During a virtual Sarnia council meeting on Monday, a councillor moved a motion patterned on one enacted in Hamilton. CTV London's Gerry Dewan has the details.

Sarnia Councillor Bill Dennis says the tents in Rainbow Park don’t serve the interests of those staying there, and don’t serve the broader community.

During a virtual Sarnia council meeting on Monday, he moved a motion patterned on one from Hamilton that is based on a judge’s ruling in that city.

In presenting his motion, Dennis said, “We now have zero excuses to allow the lawlessness to continue to terrorize neighbors. The judge ruled that tents cannot be in the park in the daytime at all, and only can be temporary at nighttime if shelter spaces don’t exist.”

The motion passed 7-1.

Following Hamilton’s lead, the City of Sarnia is planning to have a bylaw in place that will effectively end encampments in public spaces by March 6.

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley was one of those who voted in favour of Dennis’ motion.

Bradley says his city did everything they could to mitigate risk at Rainbow Park, including hiring security to monitor the scene.

Bradley told CTV News, “What we did, it wasn’t popular, and it was expensive. We set up stations down there for people to clean themselves with fences around the encampment - and that was key, once you left encampment, you were not getting back in. So, when people left, we would then reduce it. I think we’re one of the few cities that have managed to deal with this issue this way.”

According to Bradly, at its peak there were about 90 people in the rainbow park encampment. Now there are less than a dozen.

However, Bradley still believes it’s time for a different approach, “I see this as an almost a social revolution. That there are people still out there in this horrific weather who will not go to the shelters. Or, in some cases - and I believe that’s probably the case with some of the people [in] Rainbow Park - they cannot be admitted to the shelter because of past activities and criminal behavior.”

Sarnia and Lambton County are in a unique position, says Bradley, where the county deals with the shelter systems, and the city deals with those on the streets - however, all funding goes through the county.

Bradley said Sarnia Council is not comfortable with the way that’s been handled, “With the County of Lambton, they’ve opened several shelters here with no discussion with the city, with the mayor, the council. There was no identification of where these places were going., and we could have helped them through that because we understand our community and talk about it.”

Davin Lindfors said he has been homeless in communities across North America. He admits struggling with addictions and gambling. He believes, in most cases, people need direction, “You know, to have purpose. That’s what people need.”

Lindfors said, at one point, he stayed in a shelter in Louisiana that required him to pick up garbage off the interstate in exchange for food and board. He said, in some respects, that was valuable, “It gave you a feeling, ‘I did something, I’m worth something. I have value.’”

Mike Bradley is concerned that those in the encampments will simply move into other parts of the city, creating a new set of challenges. He stresses that the issue still requires all levels of government working toward giving people a place to live, “We don’t get to the bigger issue, which is shelter that is permanent. Encampments aren’t the answer.”