City council steers new homeless ‘drop-in spaces’ away from main streets

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Politicians have voted to further crack down on where the city’s homeless can lay their head, specifically in business districts.

Not only will encampments and service depots for their residents have to be located roughly a football field’s distance from any residential property line, but resting spaces also will be barred from the main streets of the city’s five business improvement areas.

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The latter, regulating temporary common-space services for London’s homeless, came down to a 9-6 vote. Councillors Anna Hopkins, Corrine Rahman, Elizabeth Peloza, Skylar Franke, David Ferreira and Sam Trosow voted against the motion, while all others supported the move.

Ward 4 Coun. Susan Stevenson, who has long argued against social services being located on Dundas Street in Old East Village, put the motion forward saying she wanted to address concerns of local businesses.

“I am hopeful that we can give that reassurance to our businesses in the business improvement areas that we’re going to prioritize their rights and concerns equally as our unhoused population,” she said.

The stipulation covers any drop-in spaces that would be funded with provincial or federal dollars. The city is seeking to fund its $2.3-million encampment strategy with funding from Ottawa and Queen’s Park.

As such, previously endorsed city funding for the coffee house drop-in spaces offered by Canadian Mental Health Association Thames Valley on Hamilton Road through May 2025 was approved.

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Some politicians were hesitant at the idea of further restricting where services are offered, saying locations for hosting these services are often limited.

“I personally want to see people inside rather than outside, and I don’t want to limit what the federal government will fund,” Ward 11 Coun. Skylar Franke said. “This is a bit of a blanket where we need a scalpel.”

The contentious issue of encampment setbacks, another component of the strategy, surfaced again.

City staff previously warned politicians the 100-metre buffer set by council in the spring would leave too little space for the city’s homeless to camp, making homelessness more visible and creating competition for space that leads to risk for both encampment residents and front-line staff.

The buffer was maintained and endorsed by politicians in an earlier committee meeting, with some saying rights of property owners weren’t being acknowledged.

Downtown councillor David Ferreira criticized the changes, saying council’s changes had deviated too far from what was recommended by front-line workers and city staff.

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“We have very much departed from our encampment strategy and the whole-of-community response,” he said. “As council . . . we need to own the mess that we put ourselves in, and we need to recognize that this comes from our meddling.”

Ferreira put forward a motion to study different buffer distances of 25, 50 and 100 metres and how that would affect different wards, but it was voted down 11-4, with only Hopkins, Ferreira, Trosow and Franke voting in favour.

Though all the encampment strategy components were approved by council, they hinge on funding from the federal government.

“We’re really in the weeds about funding that we may or may not get, that may or may not be enough, that may or may not come in time,” budget chair Elizabeth Peloza said. “The big picture is that we still have residents on our streets who are suffering.”

In the federal government’s latest budget, a $250 million fund to help cities address encampments was announced in April. Ontario has not yet signed a deal with the feds, and city staff don’t yet know what the conditions for funding are, nor to what amount London would be entitled.

The city is looking to tap into the same pool of money to fund Ark Aid’s 90 overnight shelter beds for the city’s homeless at a cost of $4.3 million. The beds will close in December without funding, and the city has no other winter response planned.

jmoulton@postmedia.com

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