Cambridge homeless encampment a symptom of a greater problem

Recent reports that the City of Cambridge had removed a homeless encampment at 130 Hollywood Ct. may have been premature.

That particular encampment was in the news in January after a major fire broke out. It could be seen from Highway 401, just east of Hespeler Road.

In an email to 570 NewsRadio, the city said its crews did attend the camp last month but with the intention of performing a site clean-up, not an eviction. The email went on to say crews removed garbage and other debris with the assistance of the resident, who was allowed to stay on the city-owned property.

This comes as the provincial government intends to pass legislation that would provide municipalities more flexibility to deal with homeless encampments, including the use of the notwithstanding clause to override court rulings addressing the constitutionality of bulldozing encampments.

Julie Kalbfleisch, Director of Fundraising and Communications, Sanguen Health Center said forcing people out of their encampments only adds to their struggle.

“Folks are setting up their own places in order to survive. When they get cleared, they lose their belongings. They lose their connections to social support networks. That’s not to mention the loss of stability in a situation that is already chaotic for folks.”

She says the homeless situation has gotten this bad because the support for people simply isn’t there because of decades of underfunding.

“In the early ’90s, the provincial government took a step back from providing geared-to-income and deeply affordable housing. And the need continued to grow but they had taken a step back and then downloaded the burden onto municipalities.”

Kalbfleisch added that municipalities can’t address the issue alone and need assistance from upper levels of government, not simple legislation making it easier to push the problem out of site and out of mind.

She says the idea of using something like the notwithstanding clause against the homeless population should be deeply concerning for more people.

“It opens the door for others to be impacted. And, when we start tampering with our basic human rights because the laws aren’t working for them, I think that’s something we all should be paying attention to.”