The Decibel - How an Ontario city is taking a new approach to homelessness

Episode Date: November 27, 2023

As the number of people experiencing homelessness grows in cities across Canada, so too have encampments – groups of people living in tents in parks, under overpasses, wherever they can find space. Some cities have taken aggressive actions to clear out people dwelling in tents – but London, Ont., is taking a different approach.Marcus Gee is a columnist for the Globe, specializing in reporting on cities and the opioid crisis. Today, he explains why London is bringing city services to encampments, and how a compassionate approach is both a test – and potentially a new model – for other municipalities.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

Cities across the country are facing a growing number of people experiencing homelessness. Tents can crop up in public parks with people just trying to have a place to live. Often, the response to tent encampments is to remove them. But London, Ontario has decided to take a different approach, one that tries hospitality instead of hostility. So today, I'm speaking with Marcus Gee, a columnist for The Globe and Mail. He'll explain what London is doing differently, the impact that it's having, and how other cities across Canada are closely watching this approach. I'm Mainika Raman-Wilms, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail.

Marcus, thank you for being here. My pleasure. So I know that you went to visit these encampments in London, Ontario. Can you just tell us, what were they like? Most of them are along the river. The Thames River runs through London. There's parks and sort of bike paths and so on all along the river. And this is where people tend to set up their tents. And there's usually groups of maybe four or five of them. Some of them quite kind of established, like they have, you know, plywood walls surrounding

them sort of thing, and a lot of big tarp systems to keep the rain off and campfires and so on. So pretty serious, entrenched, I guess, encampments. There's around 300 people, we think, living in these encampments around London. So 300 people living in these encampments is, yeah, not insignificant, I guess. Can you give us a sense of the broader scope of the homelessness crisis in London? Yeah, it's really exploded in the last couple of years since the pandemic. As in a lot of Canadian cities, people were, because the shelter system sort of semi-shut down or was restricted during the pandemic, a lot of people started living outdoors. And the number of homeless people in London has about doubled since the pandemic, a lot of people started living outdoors. And the number of homeless people in London has doubled since the pandemic to around 2,000, which is significant.

Rents are way up. So a lot of people who weren't homeless before have been forced out of their housing and so on. So it's a really serious problem there. Yeah. You mentioned that, you know, because of the pandemic, people kind of stopped going to shelters. I guess, is there a reason why people haven't come back to the shelters? Is there room for them? Room is very tight in the shelters.

They're just about full. And another thing is that a lot of people just have decided they don't like living in shelters. It's sometimes dangerous. There can be fights and so on. They're a little more independent if they're living outdoors. And if they've got a proper setup, some feel they can hack it. I guess, can you remind us of some of the systemic issues really that contribute to people having to be in this situation where they don't have a place to live?

Yeah, it's not just the housing problem. There's also problems of addiction and mental illness. London has about 600 people who are considered what they call high acuity. This usually means a combination of addictions, mental illness, other kind of physical problems that make them really hard to reach and hard to help. And you mentioned housing as well. We know housing is an issue across the country. What's the situation like in London? You know, rents are just out of control. I mean, it used to be you could get a kind of, you know, crummy apartment or room in an apartment and you could afford it. And the rents are way, way up as they are in cities all across Canada. So that's a big issue. I know a number of people have unfortunately died on the streets in London as well in the last few years.

Do we have a sense of that? Yeah, it's a shocking number, about 250 people over the last four years. And this is a city where you might get, you know, seven, eight, nine, you know, say homicides in a year. Maybe they're about the same number of traffic accidents. So it's a really shocking number and people are dying of all sorts of things. It might be a lot of cases it's overdoses because fentanyl is king of the streets there as it is in so many cities. It might be simple exposure. There's all sorts of dangers like fire and so on as well.

So let's talk a little bit more about these encampments too in London, Marcus. The new thing that London is doing here is they're bringing services to encampments. So what exactly does that mean and what does that look like? Yeah, it's a different approach because a lot of cities have simply said, look, we can't tolerate these and have come in and swept them away. Toronto did that in one famous encampment in a park, Trinity Bellwoods. Vancouver did it in its downtown east side. London's philosophy is, look, if we sweep away the encampments, they're just going to come back. People will pick up their belongings. A couple of days later, they'll be back setting up a tent

again. So the philosophy is, look, for the time being anyway, let's help them survive in this situation. So what they've done is they've set up a bunch of depots, what they call depots, near the encampments. And they hand out food. They hand out water. They hand out warm-weather clothing. They have people on site who can say, look, do you want help getting into a shelter or getting into some kind of supportive housing? What other kind of assistance do you need? They've also sent down people to pick up garbage.

They've set up porta potties. Firefighters are actually going down to the encampments and saying, look, there's a campfire you've got here. It's too close to the tarp here. That could set it on fire. So rather than saying no campfires, although that's obviously technically still the rule, because a lot of these are in parks, firefighters are saying, look, buddy, just be careful with your fire. So that is a real change in approach, it sounds like. I guess there's the obvious benefit of letting people have some shelter here. But what are some of the other benefits, Marcus, of making

encampments more habitable and easier to live in? Yeah, the idea is that if you're going down and clearing away the encampment, you know, this person who's living in a tent, their life is thrown upside down. Where do they end up? Maybe they end up on the streets of downtown where they're doing drugs right on the sidewalk, and that certainly happens. If they don't have food to eat on a daily basis, maybe they're shoplifting from the corner store. And so these problems compound.

But if you let them at least in the short term have a sustainable life, even though it's not a very pleasant life living in a tent, then at least their lives might become a little more settled. They might be more receptive to other kinds of help. And so in addition to these encampment services, London is also going to pilot a new kind of supportive housing called hubs. This is specialized housing for people with the most complex needs who are dealing with things like mental illness, addiction. So, Marcus, how many of these hubs are in the works? There's initially around five and eventually as many as 15. The idea is to concentrate resources on these people, giving them a roof over their heads to begin with, a room of their own, not a dorm like a shelter,

all sorts of supports like nurses and housing advocates who can work on their more long-term housing programs, addiction specialists, and so on. So really to focus resources on these 600 who are not only a danger to themselves and need help, but also absorbing all sorts of resources in the community, a lot of contacts with police, a lot of visits to ERs, some are going into the ER again and again and again. And it's very costly and burdensome for the whole social welfare system there. And how much will this hub system cost? It's very costly. It's about

$100,000 per space per year. Fortunately, London got a little help from a couple of philanthropists, gave $25 million, which is a great kickstart for the program. They're hoping for other federal resources and so on. They do have a lot of community support in terms of community organizations. Last year, the whole community kind of came together, realized, hey, we have a real problem here with homelessness and disorder on our streets. So they put together what's called a whole of community response. So it was businesses, it was social agencies, it was the police, it was the fire service, all got together and said, look, we really need to attack this head on. And they settled on this hubs model as one of the ways of doing it.

And so when we talked about, you know, 100,000, it sounds like for a bed in this hub for a year, I guess, how does that compare to the other costs? Marcus, you mentioned like ER visits, police, what's the relation there? Well, people who are in favor of the hub system argue that, you know what, an ER bed costs about as much or more anyway. So better to have people, you know people long-term in one of these hubs than to be coming in and out of the ER. The detractors are saying, number one, it's very costly. Number two, it's unproven. This is experimental. Do we really know that people will come into these hubs in the first place? Second, do we know if they'll thrive there or will they come in and

out? Thirdly, their concern is for the neighborhoods where these hubs will be located because a lot of the people who will be in the hubs will be people who use drugs. Will there be needles scattered about? Will there be drug dealers? The hubs actually let you use drugs in the hub, which is unlike most shelters, which would have a no substance abuse policy. And you can have a pet in there. Couples can live there and so on. So it's a sort of low barrier system

where you're trying to encourage people to come and live as they do live. We'll be back in a minute. When you spoke to people in these encampments, what did they say to you about how this was working or what they thought about that? I mean, most were actually quite grateful for it and said, look, this is helping us get through the day. You can't starve anymore in London. There are several charitable agencies who bring food down to the encampments.

There are places you can go to get food as well. Certainly, if you need a coat or a sleeping bag, you can get it. There are also hygiene supplies that are given out and so on. That makes a big deal when you say, you know, someone saying, you know, you can't starve anymore in London. That's a significant thing then to have those services that are accessible for people. I guess, what about advocates, social workers, city workers? What have they said about the programs? They think it's going well. Mind you, they're the ones who are behind it. So they would say that it was their kind of idea to set this up. They say they've done surveys of people who view the services, just kind of informal interviews and so on, and that it's generally been well received.

What about the other residents of London? What have people said about these approaches and how they view them? Well, frankly, there's a lot of skepticism about it. I talked to one city councilor who said, look, aren't we just normalizing this, institutionalizing this? Aren't we, in a sense, shrugging our shoulders and saying, oh, we're going to have tents along the Thames, you know, more or less indefinitely? That can't be a good thing. It can't be a good thing for the community. It can't be a good thing for the people living there because it's no way to live long term. So her view was, look, let's focus on recovery for these people rather than helping them live in tents. It's an interesting point because, yes, even though this is helping the people for the moment, like we shouldn't, I guess, lose sight of the fact that this still isn't a really long-term solution

for someone to be living in this way. So this is not really kind of a new subdivision that we're creating. This is still a temporary solution. Yeah, and even the advocates will say that. They'll say, oh, no, we're not trying to make these things permanent. It's a stopgap. London's doing a lot of work on building up things like supportive housing, the hub system, and so on. So it does have a long-term approach.

I talked to the mayor and said, look, nobody wants to live in a tent, especially in the winter. It's getting awful cold at this time of year. So we're not saying we want this to be a permanent thing. All we're saying is let's be pragmatic about it. People are living that way. Let's meet them where they are kind of thing. And also let's be compassionate about it. So you did mention that there is a fair bit of skepticism too, though, Marcus.

I guess what form is that taking? You know, mostly it's been low key. Just I talked to a few residents who have concerns. I mean, one woman said, you know, she bought a house downtown a year ago or so, and she's had all sorts of burglars in her backyard. Her kids see people using drugs on the way to the school bus, that sort of thing. And so she thinks the city's approach kind of is too soft, basically. And I think you'd find a lot of sentiment like that. I know in terms of the hubs, city council asked for input. Certainly the written response it got was pretty overwhelmingly one of worry and concern.

Okay. So, yeah, so it sounds like people have a lot of different feelings about the way this is done. I want to ask you a bit more broadly about encampments too, Marcus, because there was a court ruling early this year in Ontario that said cities can't clear encampments if there isn't appropriate housing for people to go to. I guess, can you just remind us what that was about and how has it changed the way that cities deal with encampments? Well, cities are looking at that ruling pretty seriously, including some of the bigger cities. And there's been similar rulings in British Columbia.

And it does limit what cities can do in terms of clearing encampments, or it certainly makes them think twice because the general thrust of these rulings has been, you can only do it if you have a place for people to go to live. It's not fair to just clear people out of what is in essence their home, even if it's a tent and say, fend for yourself. So that's a cautionary element for a lot of cities now. And as a result, a lot of encampments have become pretty ensconced in Canadian cities. Yeah. So many cities, of course, are dealing with this kind of issue, not just London.

But London has taken an approach that does seem quite different than the way that most cities deal with this. So why has London taken such a different view on how to do this? Well, I think it has a lot to do with this community gathering they had last year and earlier this year, in which all these community groups came together and said, look, yeah, we have a real problem. You know, 2,000 people living on our streets and in camps. This can't go on. So many people have died. And so let's try to do something really different. Let's try to hit at the roots of the problem rather than just deal with it day to day with policing, fire, sort of handing out food,

nightly shelter. That's not going to cut it. So let's try this hub system. Let's try more supportive housing. Let's realize the encampments are there for now and try to cope with them and help people survive. They've looked around North America and they don't think any other city has done anything quite like what they're doing. Wow. So it sounds like this is a first, what they're trying here in London, but is this potentially a model that other cities could follow? Yeah, I mean, it could be. I think it's very much still an experiment, though. I mean, there's a certain amount of,

I guess you'd call, idealism around it. The critics would say it's a little naive to think you can just sort of say, live and let let live and encampments eventually will go away. So we'll have to see. Certainly other cities are looking very closely and several are taking a similar approach already. For instance, Hamilton is starting to extend services to its encampments. Halifax has some zones where encampments are allowed. So cities all across the country are really, really struggling with this problem because the encampments are worrying to residents,

and they're often dangerous for people who live there as well with fires and other issues. Marcus, thank you so much for being here today. My pleasure. That's it for today. I'm Mainika Raman-Wilms. Michal Stein produced this episode. Our producers are Madeline White, Cheryl Sutherland, and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show.

Adrienne Chung is our senior producer. And Angela Pachenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.