Does homeless policy work?
Let me get this straight: Mike Gannon, City of Peterborough acting manager of social services, says a new city parks protocol in place since November is “having an impact” on reducing the number of homeless people living outdoors in rough encampments in city parks.
According to an article in the March 22 Examiner, after asking a homeless person three times to move on over a 10-day period, city parks staff then dismantles their makeshift campsite.
I am all for outcomes measurement, but is forcing homeless people out of sight, into more and more dangerous locations disconnected from services really the impact we want city policies to have?
True, the expansion of the Warming Room shelter funding to permit summer operations is a win of sorts, although if you read the fine print you would know that it is only funded to operate for about 12 hours daily, requiring stressed out, exhausted homeless people to try to find somewhere to be for 12 long daytime hours, all day, every day. Tough to do if you don’t have the money to qualify as a paying customer in a coffee shop. Tough to do if washrooms are for customers only. Tough to do if you cannot tolerate the noise and tensions and overcrowding of a drop-in centre.
Outreach workers approaching homeless people living in public spaces will apparently inquire whether there is anything they can do to help or support them, which sounds kind, but which amounts to largely meaningless platitudes given that shelters are mostly at or over capacity and there is virtually no affordable rental housing to be had. Obviously, increasing the supply of affordable rental housing is vital to end homelessness. Until this happens, there must be sufficient safe, accessible shelter for all who need it, for as long as they need it.
The impact of city policies may be to make invisible the homeless people who cannot find safe shelter, given that they will not be tolerated in public parks. It’s neither helpful nor humane.
The next time you see someone in a coffee shop, who seems to be making a career out of a small cold cup of coffee, ask yourself – are my city’s policies having the kind of impact I want?
Kathy Hardill, North Kawartha