City may allow homeless to camp in Cambridge parks

Coun. Mike Devine calls the possible new rule for overnight campers an ‘overall free-for-all’

A decision by a British Columbia Court of Appeal is having a ripple effect in Cambridge and other communities dealing with the homeless camping out in city parks and on city trails.

At Tuesday’s general committee meeting, councillors grappled with how to balance the rights of residents with the court’s determination that, under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the homeless can seek temporary shelter in city parks when no other accommodation is available.

Since the ruling, city staff and council have been working behind closed doors to develop what a city report calls a “lasting solution” to the issue.

“I think we are going to get a lot of blowback on this,” said Coun. Jan Liggett, as she put the subject on the floor for discussion.

“We have had a lot of complaints with regards to this problem, and I think we need to advise the public that we are bound by the Charter of Rights and we cannot ban someone from overnight sheltering if our community does not provide housing or sheltering for them. So what we have done is created rules that anybody who is in need of sheltering have to abide by in our parks.”

Liggett went on to explain the areas of the community where sheltering will be prohibited. In the staff recommendation put forward to council Tuesday, it was proposed rules would be established on where camping would be prohibited on city lands and that clear guidelines would be established for overnight sheltering. No permanent encampments or settlements would be permitted on city-owned land.

The city’s proposed response is a work in progress but has six objectives, the first two of which are the draft guidelines for overnight sheltering to ensure there are no permanent encampments and to establish rules for what would be allowed and what would be prohibited for overnight camping.

The other goals of the response, which are still being developed, are: public safety; improved outreach; increased co-operation among public housing, social services and police to build on the ongoing initiatives being undertaken by the city and region; and to develop interim and long-term measures to deal with the issue.

Coun. Mike Devine raised a concern that, although overnight camping would be prohibited in places such as cemeteries, cenotaphs, city facilities such as libraries and city hall, and sports fields and playgrounds, it would be allowed in some unmaintained parkland areas. The Ward 2 councillor asked if that meant overnight camping would be allowed in Hespeler’s Woodland Park, Schiedel Woodlot behind St. Luke’s Place, as well as unmaintained parkland running between Queen and Hammet streets, between two schools.

“Am I to understand that in that unmaintained parkland people can camp there?” Devine asked.

Staff responded that those locations would be considered suitable for overnight sheltering.

“I’m dead against this. All those places (have) people’s homes backing onto them; schools back onto them,” he said. “I cannot fathom how we can have people overnight camping in those locations. What we are going to set up in this city is an overall free-for-all.”

Devine said the three locations he named were off the top of his head, and if one looks at the rest of the city, there would be many other locations with similar situations. City legal staff explained that although the B.C. court did decide that where there was an inadequate amount of shelter for homeless people in the community and public lands are available to them for overnight sheltering, municipalities can regulate the lands available for overnight sheltering. Access would be limited from dusk to dawn under supervision of the parks department.

Assistant city solicitor Nadia Kolton told council, “This won’t be a free-for-all. They are required to abide by these rules. If they do not … the bylaw permits the staff to remove them. These are practical rules that staff is already using. What will happen is that, in the future … this opportunity for homeless people to have some form of shelter will be monitored, and it is not intended … to become some kind of freefor-all.”

“We’re letting ourselves be guided by fear, and fear doesn’t accomplish anything,” said Coun. Donna Reid. “We need to understand that these are people that need some form of shelter. We are trying to help, not harm. They are going to be somewhere. What we are doing here is allowing them to be in a space where they will be looked after in some fashion.”

Coun. Mike Mann and Liggett have asked staff to come back with a list of locations where overnight sheltering would be allowed. Devine has asked that public consultations take place with neighbouring residents to those locations.

Councillors have left staff with direction and a number of questions, which they will try to respond to for next week’s planning meeting.