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Mayors say homelessness a ‘humanitarian crisis’, ask province to help
Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) is calling on the province to step in and help tackle the growing homelessness crisis unfolding in communities.
Marianne Meed Ward, Burlington mayor and chair of OBCM, said while the government has allotted some funding to solve this problem, it is “not consistent, or enough.”
“This is a health issue, this is a housing issue, and it’s a humanitarian issue,” Meed Ward said.
In a conference Thursday morning, members of OBCM laid out the resources they are asking for from higher levels of government.
This includes having a minister appointed to deal with this issue specifically, the creation of a designated task force, community hubs to act as crisis centres around the clock, and additional funding.
The OBCM has also launched a website to back their initiative, which they are calling the “Solve the Crisis Project”.
READ MORE: Hamilton mayor directs staff to develop plan for sanctioned temporary sites amid homelessness crisis
According to figures on the campaign’s website, at last count, there were over 1,400 encampments in Ontario.
This call out comes just days after Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath directed city staff to begin exploring what it will take to create sanctioned, hard-shelter sites at various outdoor city-owned properties in the region.
Unlike the city’s current encampment protocol, this Mayoral Decision aims to explore what it will take to create, acquire and maintain purpose-built structures for Hamilton’s unhoused population.
“I don’t want tents,” Horwath said during Tuesday’s press conference at city hall. “Tents are not an answer. Not with our climate, whether it’s heat or cold.”
While some municipalities have come up with their own solutions to tackle these crises, OBCM members say more needs to be done in order to properly address these issues.
“Ontario’s cities have been left to deal with this crisis without adequate resources and support—even though mental health care, addiction treatment and housing are provincial responsibilities,” the OBCM says.
– with files from Roger Collins
