A bunch of Hamilton residents who’ve lived in encampments are taking the town to court docket over its ban of tents in parks, arguing their Constitution rights have been violated.
The listening to started Monday within the Ontario Superior Courtroom of Justice and can final three days. The 14 candidates search a complete of $445,000 from the town for the encampment ban that was in place between August 2021 and 2023.
Their attorneys from the Hamilton Group Authorized Clinic argued repeated evictions from parks violated their proper to life, liberty and safety, and was discriminatory as ladies, individuals with disabilities and Indigenous individuals have been disproportionately impacted.
Justice James Ramsey will resolve the case within the weeks after the listening to.
“The candidates do not stay in encampments by selection,” lawyer Wade Poziomka advised the court docket.
“They need steady, safe and inexpensive housing … sadly there is a dramatic scarcity. Within the absence of housing choices, the candidates have needed to make exhausting selections in imperfect circumstances.”
Town’s ban resulted in encampment residents being evicted from their tents by bylaw or law enforcement officials day or evening, the candidates argue. In the event that they weren’t allowed in shelters, or all beds have been full, they’d don’t have any selection however to sleep outdoors — uncovered to the weather.
They confronted elevated dangers of hypothermia, dehydration and sexual and bodily assault, and misplaced entry to privateness, medical care and important objects they’d in any other case have in the event that they have been allowed to pitch tents, their attorneys advised the court docket.
An encampment was dismantled in Central Park in 2021 after the town banned tents in public areas. (Dan Taekema/CBC)
Town’s ban on encampments in public areas ended final summer time when council handed a protocol, or algorithm, permitting tents in some areas in the event that they have been a sure distance away from playgrounds, faculties and personal property, amongst different stipulations.
Town denies any Constitution breaches between 2021 and 2023 and can argue the case needs to be dismissed, in keeping with the factum it filed with court docket.
Tents have been banned to guard the town’s parks and public areas, and financial and social wellbeing and the well being and security of the group, the court docket paperwork stated.
Town denies it forces individuals to depart encampments at evening, or that the ban immediately harmed any individuals experiencing homelessness.
Its attorneys can even argue this week that the town has spent “huge quantities of cash” to help the wants of people who find themselves unhoused, scale back harms they face and procure housing, the factum stated.
Histories of trauma underpin case
The 14 candidates all skilled homelessness, tried to stay in encampments throughout the ban and depend on social help, their court docket paperwork stated. 9 candidates are ladies, one in all whom is transgender, and 5 are males. Over half of the candidates are Indigenous and two are Black — representing two communities disproportionately impacted by homelessness.
Their names are Kristen Heegsma, Darrin Marchand, Gord Smyth, Mario Muscato, Shawn Arnold, Cassandra Jordan, Julia Lauzon, Ammy Lewis, Ashley MacDonald, Corey Monahan, Misty Marshall, Sherri Ogden, Jammy Pierre and Linsley Greaves.
Most candidates wrestle with complicated psychological well being points, substance use, trauma and home violence, in addition to a spread of disabilities, stated the paperwork. Just some have discovered everlasting housing since their software was first filed in court docket in 2021.
Listed here are three candidates who exhibit the vary of experiences and challenges discovering shelter in Hamilton:
Witnessed violent shelter assault
Marchand, 58, turned homeless after his landlord threatened him with eviction and he felt he had no selection however to depart his condo in 2017.
Staying in shelters turned more and more troublesome for him after he witnessed one shelter resident assault one other with a hatchet on the Salvation Military in 2020.
“He was so traumatized that he was admitted to a disaster centre,” lawyer Sharon Crowe advised the court docket Monday.
The Salvation Military’s shelter is situated on York Avenue in downtown Hamilton. (Kelly Bennett/CBC)
Afterwards, Marchand was banned from a number of shelters and stayed in encampments on and off. He was evicted by police or bylaw officers a number of instances.
He needed to sleep “tough” outdoors and, on one event, in December 2021, was shot within the shoulder, stated Crowe.
“When Darrin can not keep in an encampment and can’t entry shelter, he wanders round all day,” Crowe stated.
“He thinks about his predicament and turns into depressed. He feels remoted … main him to escalate his substance use.”
He stays homeless and advised CBC Hamilton he’s at the moment staying at a males’s shelter.
Sexually assaulted outdoors metropolis corridor
Heegsma is a 31-year-old Indigenous woman, who’s the lead applicant within the case. She turned homeless in 2019 after fleeing an abusive relationship.
In her expertise, ladies’s shelters are virtually all the time full and, and not using a cellphone, she has to stroll from place to position looking for a mattress for the evening, Crowe stated.
She was additionally banned from a lodge program for lacking curfew and behaviours linked to her psychological well being and substance use issues, stated Crowe.
In 2021, she was residing in an encampment when a bylaw officer advised her to depart.
Within the following three weeks, whereas unsheltered, she was assaulted seven instances, robbed 3 times, and sexually assaulted when sleeping on a park bench outdoors of metropolis corridor, stated Crowe.
In an try to remain protected, Heegsma walked round all evening, not sleeping.
“When unable to make use of a tent, she experiences: an absence of privateness for even primary wants similar to getting modified and being out of the general public gaze,” Crowe stated.
She can be uncovered to the weather and feels an elevated sense of despair, which results in elevated substance use and deterioration of her psychological well being.
Publicity to parts results in amputation
Greaves, 54, is a Black man who has used a wheelchair since his left leg was amputated under the knee in 2022, stated Crowe.
He has skilled homelessness for over 10 years and lived in a tent at Woodlands Park for nearly two years earlier than bylaw officers gave him three days to depart in 2021.
When he did not, “the town confirmed up with vehicles and bulldozers and surrounded Linsley,” Crowe stated.
Town allowed encampment residents to arrange tents once more in Woodlands Park in 2023. (Samantha Beattie/CBC)
He ended up shedding lots of his belongings within the course of, and confronted evictions from different encampments afterwards, she stated. He’d sleep on a heating vent behind a courthouse together with a couple of dozen different individuals earlier than the vent was fenced off.
He is prevented shelters as a result of he “feels his previous avenue life ‘comes again to hang-out him,'” and experiences racism, stated Crowe.
“He will get focused with theft, property harm and other people making an attempt to start out fights,” she stated.
He needed to get an enormous toe amputated on account of frostbite, stated Crowe.
Then, main as much as mid-December 2022, he injured his left leg, which worsened when he was unable to remain dry, Crowe stated. It will definitely needed to be amputated.
“The lack of his leg has been devastating,” stated Crowe. “He feels ashamed and his psychological well being has been negatively impacted.”
