A virtual 'town hall' meeting held on Monday showcased the collaborative approach organizations and departments in Lambton County have been taking to address the complex challenges associated with homelessness, and the influx in need since the pandemic.
However, questions submitted by residents before the online forum were not voiced due to the one-hour time constraint.
The meeting primarily focused on brief presentations from 10 panelists who discussed affordable housing projects, health risks, contributing factors to homelessness, available supports, bylaw and policing enforcement, and the legalities associated with an encampment such as Rainbow Park.
City council voted in early May to have a protocol developed with details on how to approach encampments within Sarnia.
During Monday's virtual meeting, City Solicitor Randi Kalar said many municipalities are facing a similar challenge with removing encampments, particularly regarding the human rights of the individuals living there.
"To avoid infringing on the charter rights of individuals residing in encampments, some municipalities have applied to the courts to seek an injunction to remove the encampment," Kalar said. "A municipality may be successful with this where they're able to demonstrate that they have truly accessible shelter spaces given that individual's unique circumstances. A court would determine this on a case-by-case analysis. It is important to note that this issue can arise in any city park or any municipally owned land."
On the other side of the controversial encampment, property owners and residents living near Rainbow Park have voiced their frustrations over social media, with calls for city officials to take action.
Kalar said the city engages with residents on almost a daily basis and is "actively working with them to try to find a solution here for the encampment."
If encampment residents are forced out of Rainbow Park in the future, Sarnia Police Chief Derek Davis said it's "an open question" as to where they would go. A previous public letter from Davis said the Sarnia Police Service (SPS) would respect the Charter Rights of all Canadians, housed or unhoused.
"Part of that enforcement would be the requirement for someone to have a place to go if they're being evicted from a location," he said.
Davis also said it's not as easy as finding an available shelter bed.
"The spaces, from some of the court decisions, need to be accessible. So it needs to be accessible to the individuals based on their specific needs," Davis said. "For example, if there's a couple and they don't want to be separated... there's a number of other factors, it's not just, is there a space?"
During his presentation, Chief Davis noted the increased police presence at Rainbow Park.
"High-need communities, such as Rainbow Park, do require a disproportionately higher police response. In terms of addressing those issues, we have increased police presence at Rainbow Park," he said. "Since April 1, we have tracked an additional almost 300 hours of police presence there."
Since January 1, the SPS's Integrated Mobile Police and Community Team (IMPACT) has had 553 encounters with homeless individuals in the city, and Davis said 83 per cent of contacts suffer from addiction.
At Rainbow Park alone, Davis said seven drug overdoses have been reported in just the past seven days. Fortunately, none were fatal.
"We are seeing a significant number of challenges around the area of addiction. I think this is one of the ones from a police perspective that needs to be even more elevated in the conversation as we talk about homelessness," Davis said. "In our encounters from a police perspective, homelessness is clearly a challenging issue but that also comes with a high percentage of addiction as an underlying causation."
City of Sarnia Manager of Building and Bylaw Services Adam MacDonald said their team works closely with IMPACT to visit encampments on municipal properties, including Rainbow Park -- which is visited several times per day.
"It's a proactive approach and effort to monitor the conditions of the park space as it relates to garbage and debris or items that may constitute a health and safety risk to the immediate public. Should items be found within the park space that require immediate action, we work with internal and external partners to facilitate the clean up," said MacDonald. "Immediate action items include items which may pose a risk to park visitors, those living on site, and can also include drug paraphernalia, human waste, open burning, and weapons. Through these inspections, officers will provide garbage bags to individuals or encampments so waste can be placed in the bags and removed by officers."
Lambton Medical Officer of Health Dr. Karalyn Dueck referenced the various health challenges homeless individuals face, based on Public Health Ontario's evidence brief from 2019.
"[Health outcomes] include infectious diseases of tuberculosis, hepatitis, and HIV; mental health concerns; reduced cognitive performance among youth who are homeless; physical impairments such as foot issues, including pain, foot ulcers, or frostbite; chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes; injuries; and substance use disorders or addictions," Dr. Dueck said.
How many people in Lambton County are homeless or precariously housed?
County of Lambton Homelessness Prevention Program Supervisor Ian Hanney said as of May 31, 321 individuals are on the By-Name List, which takes into account those who are precariously housed/ couch surfing, those in transitional or emergency housing, and those who are sleeping outside.
Of those 321 individuals, 70 people have reported sleeping outside at some point.
"Across 2023 and early 2024, less than a quarter of this population consistently slept outside, but in recent months since the growth of the encampment at Rainbow Park, approximately 3/4 of this population are consistently sleeping outside," said Hanney. "Very few of these individuals have been new to our teams, those who are staying at this encampment, a large majority were already living outside, if perhaps less consistently, in different areas within the City of Sarnia."
Inn of the Good Shepherd Executive Director Myles Vanni also took the opportunity during his presentation to dispel a circulating myth that homeless individuals are being "bussed" to Sarnia from other communities.
Aside from homelessness, Lambton County is also facing an affordable housing crisis -- as are several other Canadian municipalities.
County of Lambton Housing Services Manager Melisa Johnson noted a few of the completed and ongoing projects which will see approximately 760 new units within the next two years.
"There are currently six approved projects either underway or completed, totaling 121 units. Two of these projects are completed, one project expects to receive occupancy this fall, with the remaining three projects to be completed in 2025 or 2026," Johnson said. "Additionally, a long-term strategic plan for the development of affordable and strategic housing was prepared earlier this year and endorsed by council. One of these projects has already been approved and is in the pre-development stage. The other four projects are at varying stages of review."
