The City of Orillia is poised to explore options for creating managed encampment sites, with independent shelters and 24-hour support, to assist people experiencing homelessness in the community.
Mayor Don McIsaac, along with councillors Janet-Lynne Durnford and Jay Fallis, successfully brought the idea forward at Monday’s council meeting, with council directing city staff to report back on the issue by March 2024.
Potential locations, infrastructure requirements, costs, potential partners, management options, and other elements will be included in the report.
Earlier this year, several members of council travelled to the Waterloo area to visit a managed encampment site, which included small, independent shelters, and a central area for laundry, meals, and social services.
“There are several municipalities who have either established a so-called managed encampment or are looking at similar solutions, and it's really based on the housing-first model and the community-first model, and the idea that one of the solutions for chronic homelessness is housing,” Durnford explained at Monday’s meeting.
The idea behind a housing-first approach, Durnford said, is to help make some of the other issues that come with homelessness easier to address.
“A lot of the challenges that unhoused people face, in terms of mental health, perhaps in terms of addiction, in terms of affordability, in terms of employability – all of those … are much easier to address when people are housed,” she said.
Coun. Jay Fallis said the managed encampment idea could take time to implement, but he felt it was an idea worth investigating.
“This could take months, possibly years, before we would see anything, but I think it's important that we at least move forward with this, (and) lift up the rock and take a look at what's possible,” he said.
Despite council’s support for looking into managed encampments, city politicians shot down Durnford and Fallis’ idea to bring porta-potties and regular garbage pickup to some of the city’s current encampment locations.
The two councillors brought forward an inquiry on the subject at a previous council meeting, but city staff recommended against the idea in a report presented to council Monday.
The report noted there are currently a variety of public washrooms and garbage disposal sites located throughout the city, as well as rented porta-potties to supplement available washrooms.
Providing porta-potties and garbage pickup would require easy access by a truck, and snow clearing throughout the winter, staff noted, adding the disposal of any sharps, clothing, and other waste in a porta-potty could drive up the cost to maintain them.
Staff also cited illegal dumping concerns with setting up porta-potties and garbage disposal at unmonitored locations.
Peterborough recently set up porta-potties and waste collection at an encampment, staff noted, and have encountered “numerous challenges” with respect to retaining a contractor for the porta-potties and keeping them stocked with supplies.
Staff estimated it would cost more than $60,000 per year to maintain porta-potties and garbage pick-up at four encampment sites throughout the city.
Although staff brought forward numerous concerns, Coun. Jay Fallis still pushed for the idea to be implemented.
“If we want to find a reason not to do this, we can find reasons not to do this. I think what we need to do is find ways that we can do this because … the impacts are real,” Fallis said.
“Most of us here are going home tonight, sleeping in a bed, and have a bathroom and a kitchen and every kind of amenity imaginable, and for the people that this is impacting, they have none of those things, and it is pretty devastating,” he said.
“In my head, it's a small concession trying to provide what's very basic," he said.
City staff said the legal implications still need to be investigated further.
“If you're going to make a decision, please make an informed decision,” said CAO Gayle Jackson.
“We indicated that this needs a legal review so that we can understand, if we are going to enable this by placing porta-potties and garbage bins at sites, that … you're asking your bylaw enforcement people to actually enforce the bylaws that you have in place (in a) basically contradictory direction,” she said.
“We need a clearer understanding of where we ultimately want to go.”
Given the similar legal implications of the managed encampment sites, Coun. Tim Lauer suggested Fallis bring the idea forward again once those questions are answered through staff’s research for the March report on managed encampments.
“You could bring it forward as soon as you felt comfortable that there wasn't a legal issue or not,” Lauer said.
Council voted to receive the report as information and take no action at this time.
