THE TENT CITY DILEMMA
Jason Pino, director of Restoring Hope Ministries, recently recalled helping a young woman who was living in a tent in Ottawa as she moved to a different location after community complaints. Where did she want to go, he asked? “Somewhere far enough away that I don't bother anyone but close enough that people can hear me if I am screaming,” she said.
People with nowhere to go will always seek what they think is the safest of the dismal choices before them. And many are now opting to live rough. Of Canada's estimated 35,000plus homeless people, up to 25 per cent are thought to be in encampments. In Ottawa, an estimated 275 people — possibly more — live in makeshift dwellings.
It's hard for people in a prosperous city — say, the national capital — to put themselves in the shoes of their desperate neighbours whose only shelter is under a tarp in winter. Opinions vary sharply on what to do about it. Federal Housing Advocate Marie-josée Houle has made several recommendations, starting with this one: “In the absence of adequate, affordable and accessible housing alternatives, all governments must recognize that people have a right to live in encampments.”
A right to live in ugly tents, in the middle of our cities? Where unsafe conditions have led to fires and deaths, and where criminality often digs in? A right not to be evicted from parks or empty lots? Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has already rejected Houle's ideas: “We're gonna ignore her because, quite frankly, she's wrong.”
Is she? Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria, Regina, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax are all grappling with the rise of tent cities. Some have dismantled these camps, even in bone-chilling temperatures — and even when camp residents have no place to go.
Hard as it is to imagine, tent cities can be less dangerous than overcrowded shelters.
In Gatineau, an uneasy compromise exists over a large tent city near the Robert Guertin Arena, as Citizen reporter Andrew Duffy wrote last week. Property developer Devcore has donated ice-fishing tents with lights, camp beds, electric blankets and safe heaters to the homeless there. The Guertin encampment is supposed to come down in the spring; it's not clear where its residents will find shelter then.
Housed Canadians don't like tents in their neighbourhoods, or in parks where children play, since homelessness is also associated with mental illness and substance abuse. Why, we ask, can't people just go to a shelter? Because even in Ottawa, there aren't enough shelter beds. And, hard as it is to imagine, tent cities can be less dangerous than overcrowded shelters. Houle, who obviously wants people properly and healthily housed, urges the federal government and provinces to establish a National Encampments Response Plan by the end of August.
Fine, but while we await such a plan, municipalities can act now on some of Houle's suggestions:
• First, don't dismantle encampments unless the city has a safe place for people to go — a place they are willing to go;
• Provide camps with access to clean water, toilets, safe forms of heating. Devcore showed how in Gatineau;
• Provide secure storage space for people's possessions. Set up garbage collection;
• Send support workers and health workers to the encampments, rather than police and bylaw officers, then listen carefully to what tent dwellers say; they are, after all, experts on their own situation.
For the rest of us, a bit more open-mindedness wouldn't hurt. An occasional helping hand — even a smile — could reassure our homeless neighbours. Recognizing the humanity in another person isn't a bad place to start.