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What does it take to get the city to take its first few steps towards solving the houseless crisis? What stops it from fulfilling its commitment to its most marginalized citizens? What kind of gaslighting, from all levels of government, has been happening where we blame the poor for existing, knowing full well they have always existed and that most of us are just a personal tragedy or two from being in the same situation?
We are all just feeling lucky that it isn’t us; we have a blindspot that puts us in a position where we can’t empathize with someone having been hurt by their upbringing, hurt by a disease or by mental health, hurt in an accident. Is that one life-altering moment supposed to keep them down? How are we really faulting people when society leaves them to survive, needing warmth or cool, shelter from the wind, rain or the snow, crisscrossing Orillia to get a simple meal while burning all the calories they need to stay warm, forcing them to rely on expensive emergency services like fire/ambulance/hospital and then standing by while they get ticketed for panhandling or trespassing and then scooped up by a police force and prison system that just confirms what government wants us to think: that it’s all their “fault?” It’s a way of covering up the government’s neglect and failure to do their one and only job: to care.
I have long believed that we treat some things way better than people, like pets or cars.
Of course, animals should be treated well, but why don’t we extend the same to fellow humans? Again, part of the “blame game” associated with homelessness is to draw attention away from the real issues of insufficient income and even basic supply and demand; not only aren’t there enough affordable spaces but there aren’t enough spaces. Could I extend the same blame when there wasn’t enough toilet paper during the pandemic? That you were personally responsible, that it was some character flaw on all our parts if we were the ones who ended up without? I didn’t think so.
So, my new mantra is “people over parking” and I say this on behalf of two groups in Orillia: downtown merchants, and people who are homeless. Believe it or not, it is the latter group that can save our downtown.
A petition was put forth in the fall of last year to allow for tiny homes or car living in city parking lots. This was taken as “information” and is now buried in the bureaucracy of the city. A staff report has been requested about something similar due in October 2025; too late for this winter and likely not in enough time to establish anything meaningful for the next winter. That will be this council’s final term — four winters with nothing tangible but with a lot of paid hours spent studying it.
On the flip side, when the bureaucrats want something, things move quickly. I’d like to write more on this later, but for now I want to share how it’s been “parking over people” in this city. I learned recently the construction of temporary parking lot 15 cost $167,136. I will give you a moment to collect your jaw off the ground and just leave this amount here for your consideration.
If the city bought tiny homes (at first, I am talking about very tiny homes at $1,000 each) and “parked” them in those spaces (and there was a lot of space, little revenue, and lost money in maintenance) and elsewhere and “charged” rent for those spaces, those tiny homes and “those” people would have recouped the cost of the tiny home quickly and earned the city all the money they asked for in parking rate increases in the first place.
Downtown merchants wouldn’t have been burdened with the loss to their businesses by having fewer customers downtown, the loss of free holiday parking, etc. The homeless would have saved downtown. And if you have to collect your jaw off the ground again, think about urging the city to just try it, to take those first steps, to do something over studying it and provide some relief for downtown and its most marginalized citizens. This is not a hand-out; it’s a hand-up and could help all of us.
Change.org/OrilliaPeopleOverParking
Change.org/p/replace-tent-encampments-with-portable-tiny-homes-for-unhoused-individuals
Ellen Wolper
Orillia
