Hamilton group fights for homeless encampments
Court case aims to halt city from enforcing ban on tents in public spaces
Without a home, Gord Smyth is bracing for a winter outdoors.
“This is going to be a first and probably my last,” says Smyth, 54, noting his ailing health. “If I have to stay out here, I won’t survive.”
He is one of five homeless people in Hamilton mounting a human rights-based court challenge to prevent the city from enforcing its prohibition on tents in public spaces.
The case led by the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic was initially to resume Friday, but was rescheduled for Monday.
Smyth says he can’t stay in shelters due to mental-health challenges that make it difficult for him to be around many people.
With other health problems, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), he also worries about contracting COVID-19. He won’t leave Daisy, his miniature dachshund, either.
But if he and a few others staying at Central Park off Bay Street North are forced to leave, their circumstances will be worse, Smyth says.
“If they kill the encampments, it’s back to hiding,” he says on a rainy Friday morning under a tarp suspended over tents.
That means shuffling from one doorway and parking garage to another, he says.
Smyth, who has been homeless since mid-June, says he can’t find a place he can afford on his disability pension. One was within reach, but the landlord backed out, he says.
Following a similar court challenge in 2020, a protocol that allowed encampments to remain for 14-day stretches and made provisions for mental health was established.
But in August, council abruptly scrapped the agreement during a hastily called emergency meeting.
Coun. Jason Farr and other city politicians have voiced frustration over the number of tents in local parks.
The downtown councillor has argued there are “more humane” options than tents while flagging a litany of problems including violence, debris, fires and overdoses.
But city staff, as well as agencies and doctors, have said a lack of suitable shelter spaces and affordable housing with support services is driving the crisis.
The city says its outreach program has interacted with more than 477 people in encampments since the pandemic started. Of those, 73 have been housed through support programs.