Yesterday in our County, there was an Emergency Council meeting, comprising the mayors of all municipalities, and the County Staff. I tracked the whole meeting via livestream. It was very long. Six hours of alternating tedium and infuriation.
First, I have to say that I'm impressed by the County staffers. They came prepared, and knowledgeable. They understood the issues under discussion, but maintained a professional mien.
Among the Councillors, the personalities and underlying tensions were, shall we say, discernable.
The issue on the table was the "Response to Unplanned Reduction in Shelter Services."
What that means is that in our town, which is home to more unsheltered and housing insecure people today than this time last year, the County's one and only Shelter is not only not opening up their new (developed with Provincial money, almost ready to inspect and then occupy) building to keep people out of the snow, they are even having to reduce the number of beds they offer now. The overnight Warming Hub that was to open in that building (taking the place of one run by the same people in a church hall last winter) will also not open until at least after a Council meeting on November 25. And, in fact, the Shelter may have to close altogether.
This is all because of a Municipal (not County) by-law that seeks to limit this kind of shelter. The government of the town in which the shelter has resided for decades has decided they don't want it anymore and all of the homeless people should go back to where they came from (despite the fact that most of them came from there in the first place).
So for the foreseeable future, no Warming Hub. Fewer shelter spaces. Possibly even none.
The town in question has benefitted over the past years from a centralization of services (provincial, federal, medical, legal) and now they're upset because people who need those services live in 'their' town.
At the meeting, there was a lot of rhetoric from certain quarters. A lot of thinly disguised speeches masquerading as "motions." There was a lot of transparently political nonsense about "we're just trying to protect people's dignity," using overcrowding in the shelter as an excuse to shut it down.
There was a (to be blunt) foolish and uninformed proposal that maybe "faith-based organisations" be asked to provide shelter. Don't even get me started.
(Now I'm getting angry. So... back to the point.)
And there's me. On my phone. Watching the livestream. From at the Encampment.
I missed a few bits here and there when people came to talk or to get coffee and breakfast. But I saw the best part...
One of the folks at the Camp had his phone out, saw me on mine, and said, "Are you watching this?"
I said, "Yeah."
He said, "I'm waiting to see if they approve me as a delegation."
For the next few minutes, he wandered around the Encampment, waiting in a Zoom room.
I wandered around the Encampment watching the livestream.
Then the Chair called his name, and there he was! On my screen! And, like, right over there! By that tree!
What a wacky, wonderful world.
He spoke well, answered questions well. The final question asked by one of the councillors was, "Would you rather live in the Encampment, or in a shelter?"
No hesitation... "A shelter."
Because the middle-class affluent definition of "dignity" comes a solid second-place to survival.
Over the course of the morning, I asked a few people whether they had arrangements for after the Camp is shut down.
Some said, "I'm still on the waiting lists."
Some said, "I'm still working on it."
Some said, "I might be able to go to (a friend's house/a relative's house) if they'll let me."
One person said, "I think I'll just go back to jail. It's boring, but it's warm." Half-joking. But not really.
Which is funny/not funny. Interesting that people opposed to the existence of the Encampment see it as a hotbed of crime. In this respect, maybe they're right.
Maybe people are desperate enough... scared enough of another winter sleeping rough... hungry enough... vulnerable enough... hopeless enough... to "go back to jail" rather than face another February in a summer tent and a stack of damp blankets.
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The big meeting wrapped up with the County Council doing the only things they could: approving more money for motel rooms (enough to cover two more weeks at current rates) and instructing County staff to approach (again) the town's staff to seek necessary exceptions to the by-law. Exemptions which have been requested and denied before.
Meanwhile we still have no word from the new land-owner about their intentions.
Today I was driving a friend back to her tent on the fringes of town from the foodbank. It was noon, so I turned on the news. She hadn't heard about the meeting yesterday. As we listened to the report, she got very quiet and then said simply, "Hoooooleeeeee."
She's just been told that she has a motel room, starting in a few days. Maybe just in time. Maybe just until the money runs out.
We're just bracing for the worst.
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