Cambridge council supports Ontario's Big City Mayors resolution addressing homelessness

Cambridge City Hall is pictured on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015. (Marc Venema / CTV Kitchener)

A plea from Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) to the province to address homelessness now has the backing of most of Cambridge City Council.

By a vote of six to three, Cambridge council approved a motion from Mayor Jan Liggett to support the OBCM resolution on Tuesday night. The resolution calls for, among other things, more treatment and diversion services to help deal with encampments by the expanding diversion courts for provincial and municipal offences while focusing on rehabilitation rather than punitive measures.

“I have addicts in my family, I have taken homeless [people] into my home. So before anybody says, ‘walk a mile in their shoes,’ I have done that. I have lived experience,” Liggett said during the meeting.

The three holdouts were councillors Scott Hamilton, Sheryl Roberts and Ross Earnshaw. Each said they support the majority of the resolution, but worried about it leading to mandatory treatment. The councillors thought efforts should be focused on offer better funding to existing services.

“Create more beds, create more treatment centers. Don't take away things like [Consumption Treatment Services] sites that are saving lives,” Scott Hamilton said during the meeting.

"Anything being asked in here does not preclude voluntary treatment,” Liggett said.

Julie Kalbfleisch, Director of Communications and Fundraising at Sanguen Health Centre, said putting people into diversion forces them into a choice of going to jail or seeking treatment. Kalbfleisch worries that this would only further burden the court system or force people into treatment without appropriate housing for them to go to.

“Putting someone into a forced treatment situation without having appropriate housing at the other side of it is a really big factor to consider,” Kalbfleisch said.

The resolution also calls for an update to the trespass to property act to include options to help address aggressive or repetitive trespassing. Kalbfleisch said without proper housing available in the community, changing the act will just burden courts further.

“Once encampments are cleared, people will inevitably pop up in other public locations because there is not enough housing and shelter for folks. They'll be found to be repeat offenders at that point and could be incarcerated,” Kalbfleisch said.

“The OBCM resolution leaves room for dangerous interpretation where elected officials would have the power to act in ways that could be harmful to folks based on their housing or mental health and addictions status,” Kalbfleisch added in an email to CTV News.

Ultimately, this is just the city’s way to support Ontario’s Big City Mayors resolution. But the decision to support it comes on the back of Liggett signing a letter that was given to the Premier asking him to use the notwithstanding clause, if needed, to ensure these measures are implemented in a timely and effective way.

“This would allow municipalities to bypass court rulings that prevent encampment clearings and would allow them to essentially remove encampments without having to provide people with a suitable or appropriate housing or shelter,” Kalbfleisch said. “This essentially goes against the Charter of Human Rights.”

The province has not formally responded to the request from the mayors.