Chatham-Kent green lights some initiatives to address encampments

After Monday's council meeting, it was decided a homeless encampment will remain in place. (Robert Lothian/CTV News Windsor)

A homeless encampment on municipal property in Chatham will remain in place for the time being.

A Chatham-Kent council meeting held on Monday to discuss the encampment on the Public Utilities Commission property along Grand Avenue East lasted four hours, and included input from affected residents, businesses and homelessness stakeholders.

A motion to prevent unhoused individuals from sheltering within 100 metres of a residence was referred back to staff to identify locations that fit within the parameters. It’s expected to return to council at a meeting in August.

Under the current municipal encampment protocol, shelters must be 10 metres from a property line.

“Certainly, there’s implications to it. I guess the core to what I look at is that 100 metres is a reasonable distance for any residence,“ Mayor Darrin Canniff said after the meeting.

Staff indicated only two parcels of municipal land could fall within the proposed parameters.

“10 metres from your residential property or your business is not acceptable, that’s the premise of it,” Canniff added.

Council did pass several motions aimed at addressing the shortage of housing and mitigating the encampments impact on the neighbourhood.

They include exploring the conversion of local housing into supportive housing, limiting encampment residents to one tent each, hiring at least one temporary by-law officer, and authorizing the Chatham-Kent Police Service to, “where operationally required,” install CCTV cameras.

As of Monday afternoon, at least 40 tents were visible on the PUC property.