Issues surrounding the encampment at Rainbow Park and drug use have many residents feeling frustrated.
Hundreds attended a town hall hosted by the Sarnia Police Service to discuss different issues being faced in the city.
Sharon Docherty, who lives across the street from Rainbow Park, said it's draining.
"It's exhausting, to the couples fighting and screaming in the middle of the night, it's exhausting listening to the dog barking, it's just exhausting having this encampment," she said. "It just has to stop, it has to stop. The truth is the change has to come from the government, higher than the police, higher than the city, but that doesn't change the fact that the city owes us a duty of care as well," said Docherty.
She said she has been fighting about the encampments at Rainbow Park since November 2023.
According to Docherty, the first tent arrived in Rainbow Park in early 2024.
"It feels like January or February of last year. That's how exhausting this has been. I can't believe it has only been nine months because I feel like it's been a year and nine months," she said.
Docherty said while she expected some of the answers, she believes there needs to be more community involvement when it is safe to do so.
"I know the police can't be there at all times but we also don't want that to become something everybody in the public does because then it will turn into something it shouldn't," she said.
Docherty added that the community will continue to express its concerns.
"This turnout was amazing, I was shocked and thrilled all at the same time. Sarnia should be proud of what they did tonight," she said.
Another concern expressed throughout the town hall was drug use and how it is impacting schools and children.
Jenna Fitzgerald is a mother of two young children who attend London Road School and said schools in the city are becoming dangerous.
"The day before school started we found two and a half garbage bags full of paraphernalia, only paraphernalia, not litter, not anything and at front doors, where teachers could get hurt," said Fitzgerald. "We're not only protecting our kids, we're protecting our teachers who also have to make sure our kids are safe all day."
She said she carries Naloxone when she is out in the community, just in case her kids touch something.
Fitzgerald said while she wasn't happy with the responses police gave, she is hopeful the different agencies work together.
"We're all affected by it, we can't wait around for everybody to save us and I think the moaning about which level of government is moot because all the citizens here can band together and do something," she said.
Fitzgerald said she appreciated the transparency coming from Sarnia police, and believes the solution starts with outreach.
"We have to empower our kids to know that this isn't a good start for you, this isn't what you want to look like without adding that stigma, which is a very hard thing to parent," she said.
Meanwhile, Police Chief Derek Davis said SPS wanted to give community members and residents a venue to express their concerns.
"Certainly from a policing perspective we wanted to be able to tell people what challenges we face and what we are trying to do to help," said Davis.
He believes some of the things that were mentioned, police could make some adjustments including being more transparent about call attendance and looking into the shelter on Exmouth Street.
"We are listening, we're going to see if we can make some adjustments to do some things better. We're always open to improving, we're never perfect, so we're happy to hear the feedback," he said.
On Wednesday, a written request from the City of Sarnia to Lambton County for financial assistance to support ongoing health and safety measures at Rainbow Park was received and filed. No action was taken.
The county said funds in the $9.3 million homelessness prevention budget had been spoken for.