Modernizing city hall’s 15-year-old policy for operating municipally-funded shelters sparked a lengthy debate about whether homeless Londoners should be allowed to bring illegal drugs onto the sites. On Monday, the Community and Protective Services Committee considered updating London’s Emergency Shelter Guidelines including a policy change that would remove drug possession as a barrier to entry. “Restrictive policies do not eliminate substances or substance use,” explained Chuck Lazenby, executive director of the Unity Project. “A restrictive policy puts frontline staff in a role of enforcement rather than support.” Lazenby said over the last 25 years the agency has tried a range of drug policies at its shelter. An accompanying letter warned against turning individuals away at the door because they are in possession of drugs, “Over time, our experience demonstrated that policies focused primarily on enforcement drove substance use further out of sight, reduced honest communication between participants and staff, consumed significant staff resources, and often increased rather than reduced risk.” The proposed 2026 guidelines aim to modernize the policy to reflect current best practices, legislative requirements, and the evolving homelessness response system. The City of London’s Emergency Shelter Guidelines have not been updated since 2011. “Since then, significant changes have occurred in homelessness service delivery, community needs, and local and provincial priorities,” read a report by city staff. The same report emphasizes that drug possession should not automatically prevent someone from entering a shelter, but using drugs should still be prohibited. However, Coun. Susan Stevenson questioned the impact those two policies would have on surrounding residential neighbourhoods. “When our policy says you can bring (drugs) inside, but you can’t use them inside, you have to do that off-site (then) where is that off-site location? And what do you say to the neighbours?” Stevenson asked. Deputy City Manager, Social and Health Development Kevin Dickins acknowledged that since the provincially-mandated closure of the Carepoint Supervised Drug Consumption Site, there isn’t a facility where individuals can be referred. “The guidelines before you are consistent with well over a dozen municipalities in Ontario,” Dickins stated. “It is consistent and a reflection of the realities that our service providers are dealing with on a daily basis.” London Mayor Josh Morgan told colleagues on the committee, “Just because people are not denied access to a building, doesn’t mean we’re encouraging them to do anything. In fact, by getting them through the door we’re giving them access to supports and people who can help them.” “I see these shelter guidelines as a step towards continuing our work to make sure people are connected with services and supports that they need to move to where we’d like them to get to, and that’s not addicted,” Morgan added. The committee voted to recommend acceptance of the new shelter policy. Morgan urged the province to follow through on previous commitments to improve access to drug addiction treatment services, “Many of the challenges, many of the debates, many of the disagreements that we could possibly have here get resolved very quickly with a properly funded and more complete system of treatment and recovery across the province.” Council will consider adopting the updated Emergency Shelter Guidelines on Aug. 25.
