Dismantled ByWard Market encampment highlights need for housing, advocates say

A new encampment in the ByWard Market has a local councillor calling for long-term strategies from the city and the Salvation Army. CTV’s Katie Griffin reports.

A small encampment in the ByWard Market that was dismantled Friday is highlighting the urgent need for housing and permanent solutions to a growing crisis in Ottawa and across the province.

Three tents were set up on a median on George Street between Cumberland and Dalhousie streets across from the Salvation Army.

“They’ve been there, I believe, since Wednesday last week and the encampment has grown,” said Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stephanie Plante.

Plante spoke with those living in the tents and says they’re clients of the Salvation Army.

The encampment was taken down on Friday, but Plante says action should have been taken sooner.

“Our dismantle policy at the city is to be offered housing but that doesn’t stop the Salvation Army from asking them to leave as well,” she said.

The City of Ottawa said Friday in a statement dismantling encampments is a last resort.

“The City of Ottawa aims to balance the needs of people experiencing homelessness and the surrounding community when adressing encampments,” said Kale Brown, the city’s interim director of Housing and Homelessness Services. “The City response to encampments is primarily supportive and focuses on providing housing focused supports. When those interventions are not successful staff will work with partners to dismantle. Although used as a last resort, dismantles are sometimes required to ensure the concerns of the surrounding community are addresses.”

The city says those living in encampments are offered “shelter services, health and social supports, and assistance in securing safe, stable housing.”

“The decision to dismantle an encampment is only made once all efforts to support the person have been exhausted,” said Brown.

The Salvation Army says it shares Plante’s concerns about people living in tents.

“The Salvation Army’s Outreach and Housing Services program operates 24/7 across Ottawa, and we have recently expanded staffing specifically to enhance our presence in the downtown core and ByWard Market,” it said in a statement.

It went on to say the “outreach team remains in daily contact with those sheltering in tents to offer support, service navigation, and, where possible, connections to housing.”

On Thursday, groups including the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa and Encampment Justice Coalition rallied at Ottawa City Hall against a provincial bill that would crack down on encampments and public drug use.

“Where do we expect people to go? There’s no place safe if they are using to use, with the closure of the supervised injection sites,” said Kaite Burkholder Harris, the executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa. “And just as much as I realize the intention of these bills, none of this is going to help people. It’s going to displace people and the ‘problem’, and a lot of people are going to be harmed by it.”

Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr says there are encampments in almost every ward.

“It is a lack of investment that has happened in housing and mental health and treatment for many, many years,” Carr said. “This is a public health crisis as much as it is a homelessness crisis.”

Plante says long-term solutions are urgently needed.

“Nothing that’s happening right now is not solvable. But it just goes to show that we need all levels of government to really, really prioritize housing and whatever budgets they’re putting forward on this file.”