What should Hamilton do about tent cities during a pandemic?
Forcing the homeless to bounce around during the COVID-19 crisis puts everyone at risk, argue advocates
Shaggy and his two dogs have been ordered to leave their temporary tent home in Jackie Washington park just days after being “cleared out” of a homeless encampment downtown at a closed school.
The 30-year-old — he says everyone calls him “Shaggy” — is one of about six homeless people who set up camp in the hilly, city-owned park near the General hospital after a tent city at the former Sir John A. Macdonald school was shut down by police on Monday.
A city parks employee gave him the bad news before Shaggy could even erect a proper tarp over the leaky blue tent that serves as home for himself and his shepherd mixes, Hachi and Chevy.
“They just said you can’t be here,” said Shaggy, who has bounced around Hamilton for nine months since moving from Windsor. Shaggy said he was first told to vacate by Friday, but later learned he can stay until the middle of next week. “I
guess we’re not very popular around here. We keep on being pushed out.”
Street outreach groups like Keeping Six and the Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team are outraged by the deadline and threatened eviction.
They argue cities like Edmonton have announced a pandemic “pause” on clearing tent encampments from public land to avoid forcing vulnerable people to move around during the COVID-19 crisis — or off-the-grid, away from services.
They also point to pandemic guidance offered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Unless individual housing units are available, do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19,” the website states, citing the risk of dispersing vulnerable resident and spreading the disease.
“The bottom line is you can’t just tell them to move on again and again,” said outreach doctor Jill Wiwcharuk, who spent Friday lobbying city councillors.
In an email to councillors, advocacy group Keeping Six also said city officials previously suggested “it would be easier to support people were they to set up on city property” after being forced out of the downtown school. “We supported people in moving to Jackie Washington in good faith and our reputations and relationships will be undermined if people are again moved on,” reads the email.
Paul Johnson, Hamilton’s pandemic emergency operations director, said the city’s goal is to find shelter space or hotel rooms for people who are sleeping rough — including those in the park. So far, 71 hotel rooms in the downtown and east city have been used by homeless residents during the COVID-19 crisis.
Johnson said the city will not rush to clear encampments off municipal land — but it is not “sanctioning tent cities,” either. “We do set some deadlines, but that’s so everybody is working toward solutions,” he said.
But why not just leave the tents alone until the pandemic crisis is over?
Johnson said encampments that get too big can become dangerous, pointing to a recent fire at a tent city in Toronto.
Ward councillor Jason Farr said fire and “drug paraphernalia” are the main worries he has heard from residents living near the park who have complained about the tents.
For his part, Shaggy said he tries to clean up trash and debris in the park. He has not built a campfire, but uses a candle stove for heat.
The city calls the tent encampment shutdown at Sir John A. Macdonald a success story, arguing a team of outreach workers spent a week hooking up outdoor campers with shelter beds or hotel rooms before police cleared the site.
The Spectator has so far spoken with five people who moved from the school into downtown area shelters or an east Hamilton hotel booked by the city.
Shaggy said an outreach worker did indeed talk to him about the idea of moving into a hotel. “But I couldn’t go. They wouldn’t let me take my dogs,” he said. “They’re my babies, my family. I’m not leaving them in some foster home.”
Shaggy said he’s hoping for “an actual roof” over his head — so long as his canine family can join him.
“I love the outdoors, the trees — people call me Mowgli or Tarzan — but I would like to be in a house,” he said, gazing at Chevy peaking out of their leaky tent. “I want a sanctuary, you know? Somewhere where I can sleep without one eye open.”