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With Friday having been National Housing Day, we at the Ontario Alliance to End Homelessness would like to set the record straight, as there seems to be some confusion.
There are two ways to end homelessness: You can prevent it in the first place, and you can provide housing to people who don’t have any.
That’s it.
Homelessness is a housing problem — people in encampments need a housing solution. The only cure for homelessness is a home.
Nobody should live in a tent. We all want people living in homes and kids playing in parks. We all want an effective and compassionate solution to encampments.
But Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall and some other mayors from across Ontario have asked Premier Doug Ford to let them use the notwithstanding clause to override human rights and eliminate encampments with police, jails and forced mental health and addictions treatment.
This is a cruel, expensive and ineffective proposal. It’s not “tough love,” and it’s not solving homelessness. It’s removing fellow human beings experiencing homelessness from our sight for a little while. Don’t be fooled into thinking that’s the same thing.
I believe Barrie residents want to take care of each other. I also believe our community deserves a solution that works.
To do this, we need to properly understand the problem: rising costs of living and unaffordable housing have led to overflowing shelters and encampments in our public spaces.
Being homeless is a dangerous and traumatizing experience, and the longer people experience it, the more support they will need to recover.
Our community’s lack of supportive housing options makes it difficult to exit our homelessness system in a sustainable way. If we connect these dots, we see that more supportive housing is needed. This is not something we can arrest, imprison or institutionalize our way out of.
As a citizen of Barrie, I hope there are enough of us willing to fight for a housing-focused solution that works for our whole community, including our neighbours who live in encampments.
Jennifer van Gennip
Ontario Alliance to End Homelessness, co-chair
