Chatham encampment staying put under new rules

The homeless encampment in Chatham will stay but has new rules. CTV Windsor’s Robert Lothian reports.

An encampment at the centre of frustrations in Chatham-Kent will not be forced to move by the municipality.

Council amended its encampment bylaw on Monday to keep tents at least 25 metres away from homes rather than the originally proposed 100 metre limitation.

It effectively allows an encampment at the Public Utilities Commission property along Grand Avenue east to remain in place, but does not bar those experiencing homelessness from moving to another site.

“So it’s not perfect and hopefully it’s not permanent,” said Coun. Rhonda Jubenville, who brought forward the motion. “I’m just hopeful that things will move quickly and we can resolve the whole encampment issue in Chatham-Kent within time.”

She admitted she is “not a fan” of encampments, but council needed to make a decision that couldn’t be legally challenged.

Originally, council agreed to implement a 100-metre setback, however, staff warned Monday evening it could be too limiting.

Under the 100 metre setback, there would be no suitable available municipal land for a tent encampment.

David Taylor, the municipality’s director of legal services, warned that it could breach the charter rights of those living in the encampment.

“What I want to make sure is very clear to council and to the public listening, is council’s options in dealing with these difficult social issues are seriously constrained by a number of legal cases,” Taylor explained.

It was the latest marathon meeting to discuss the encampment, filled with pushback from residents.

Over the last four weeks, three council meetings have been heavily dominated by the topic.

Ahead of council’s decision, 20 delegations spoke, with most against maintaining encampments near any residential properties.

Jean-Luc Labrecque, who moved to Chatham a couple of years ago, felt council’s encampment decisions have repeatedly harmed the east side.

“The rest of Chatham is simply too valuable to drop an encampment bomb in their gated communities,” said Labrecque, an east side resident. “Just call it for what it is, Chatham’s east end is the city’s dumping ground.”

Labrecque said he’s noticed more drug paraphernalia, fires, and dumping of garbage in his neighbourhood.

After the meeting, he said he felt council made their decision without contemplating any of the delegations’ concerns.

“They did a great job in terms of sticking it to the east end,” he said.

Another motion brought forward by Jubenville seeks to have the municipality look at options for establishing a treatment facility and a specialized supportive housing centre.

“A full wraparound program that would walk someone through withdrawal management and take them right back through recovery and rehabilitation, and supportive housing, and then reintroduce them back into society as functioning members of society,” she explained.

The motion to seek out partners and next steps passed.