For the previous 15 years, Shania Steeves has slept on sidewalks and stayed in overcrowded, generally unsafe shelters. She has been homeless on and off for practically half of her life, and she or he has at all times most popular dwelling in encampments, the place she discovered group and assist amongst people who find themselves going by means of the identical challenges. Steeves and greater than 100 others in Barrie, Ont., could quickly lose that assist community. The town’s mayor, Alex Nuttall, declared a state of emergency final month over homeless encampments, citing public security issues resulting from what he described as “lawlessness” on municipal property. The declaration got here after police discovered the stays of two folks in a single massive encampment as a part of a double murder investigation. The town has since ramped up efforts to clear encampments, with council approving stricter bylaw provisions this week to make it simpler for authorities to take away tents and makeshift shelters and stop new ones from being arrange. “We’re in a state of emergency and that can proceed till we’ve got eliminated all tents within the metropolis of Barrie,” Nuttall stated in an interview Thursday, citing the double homicide, rampant drug use and overdoses linked to encampments. The mayor stated practically 10 encampments, together with a number of massive ones, have been cleared thus far, and 49 of 66 displaced folks have accepted shelter beds, lodge rooms or transitional housing. Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall declared a state of emergency final month over homeless encampments, citing public security issues resulting from what he described as ‘lawlessness’ on municipal property. (Dean Gariepy/CBC) Some have moved into different encampments, together with the one the place Steeves lives with round 40 others close to the downtown core. “I do not even have anyplace to go, personally,” Steeves stated, calling the town’s transfer a violation of human rights. “I am additionally nervous about the place everybody else was going to go as a result of these individuals are like a household.” That household environment was evident on a current sunny weekend afternoon at Steeves’s encampment. Within the shadow of a tree embellished with a memorial plaque for individuals who’ve died of homelessness and habit, Such a Night time by The Band rock group performed from a speaker. Some encampment residents sipped beer whereas others performed Frisbee, throwing a yellow disc to at least one one other. Round a dozen vibrant tents had been arrange within the park not removed from a large Canadian flag hanging from the branches of a tree.
A homeless encampment is proven right here in Barrie, Ont., on Sept. 9, 2025. (Dean Gariepy/CBC)
Native outreach employee Christine Nayler distributed contemporary fruits, juice, water and sandwiches from a white SUV. A lady approached the car, asking for a T-shirt. One other outreach employee cleaned a homeless woman’s face with a wipe.
‘Nothing good can come from this,’ outreach employee says
Nayler runs Ryan’s Hope. The group is called after her son, who died of a poisonous drug poisoning in 2020. She stated the transfer to clear Barrie’s encampments is inhumane and expensive for taxpayers. “It is scary. … Nothing good can come from this,” she stated. “You’ll be able to’t simply maintain pushing folks additional and additional into survival mode, you’ll be able to’t simply maintain taking away what little they’ve and count on that there is not pushback.” There are a number of the explanation why some homeless folks favor encampments over momentary shelters, advocates stated. Native shelters kick folks out at 7 a.m. every single day, which means they need to spend all day outdoors earlier than they will return for the evening. Pets aren’t allowed inside and folks typically cannot take all of their belongings into the shelter. One other drawback is that fights generally get away in overcrowded shelter rooms, advocates stated. “The place are they presupposed to go? You are simply shuffling them throughout the town on the taxpayers’ expense, inflicting extra hurt and trauma each single time that you simply do that,” Nayler stated.
A person together with his belongings alongside Memorial Sq. in downtown Barrie, Ont., on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. (Christopher Drost/The Canadian Press)
She stated everlasting housing is the one resolution and with that being off the desk, eradicating encampments will solely push folks into hiding or to different communities, disconnecting them from companies and outreach organizations in Barrie.
Social help and wages are lagging far behind the price of housing, making it not possible for many individuals to even lease a room, not to mention a complete condo, Nayler stated.
Putting somebody in a supportive housing unit prices a lot lower than a shelter, jail or a hospital mattress, she added, and that needs to be ok cause for the federal government to speculate extra in constructing such properties.
2 new shelters to open in lower than 2 weeks
The mayor agrees that Barrie wants extra reasonably priced housing. Nuttall stated that on Wednesday, the town council authorized a funding improve for an reasonably priced housing initiative, from $30 million to $80 million, on high of one other $100 million that the town has already dedicated as half of a bigger housing program in partnership with Simcoe County. The entire funding of $180 million would assist construct some 615 reasonably priced and rent-geared-to-income properties in Barrie and the encircling areas over the following few years, he stated. Quick-term measures have additionally been taken to ensure encampment dwellers have a roof over their heads, Nuttall stated. Two new shelters, together with one for youth, with extra 100 beds mixed will open their doorways in lower than two weeks, he stated. “Now we have sufficient to cowl off every one who resides within the camp,” Nuttall stated. However advocates say the variety of shelter beds out there within the metropolis is way fewer than the variety of homeless folks.
A big scale tent metropolis is proven right here close to the Barrie, Ont., meals financial institution on Anne Road simply outdoors of the downtown core. (Christopher Drost/The Canadian Press)
The environmental cleanup on the encampment the place dismembered human stays had been discovered continues.
The location, a big wooded space bordered by Victoria, John and Anne streets in Barrie, was surrounded by fences on a current go to and a memorial embellished with flowers and footage of the 2 victims was arrange outdoors. A safety guard on the website questioned guests.
A neighbouring encampment has additionally since been shut down.
That is the place Lori Douglas used to dwell.
She stated she gave up her condo when her husband was being handled for throat most cancers at a Toronto hospital as a result of she did not have time to maneuver forwards and backwards and needed to completely concentrate on him.
Douglas stated she has not been capable of finding one other condo since her husband’s loss of life two years in the past, and had no selection however to maneuver between encampments.
She stated she receives $1,100 in month-to-month authorities help, which is not sufficient to cowl the lease. Her very bad credit rating is one other issue working towards her every time she tries to safe a spot to dwell.
“I spent final winter out within the chilly outdoors, I used to be hospitalized twice and I can’t survive one other winter,” the 65-year-old woman stated.
‘It is exhausting sleeping out right here,’ unhoused particular person says
In one other small downtown Barrie encampment, which has been since cleared, Claire O’Connell and her husband had arrange their tent after they had been compelled to vacate one other encampment. Like others, they’re additionally in search of everlasting housing. O’Connell stated she “cannot deal with” one other winter dwelling in a tent. “It is chilly and it is moist and it is troublesome. It is exhausting sleeping out right here, such as you’re drained on a regular basis, you haven’t any power,” she stated, including that her housing employee has discovered them a spot as of Oct. 15, however she is not preserving her hopes excessive simply but. “I am simply ready for it to fall by means of or one thing like that, so I am not too excited till we truly get in there and signal a lease,” O’Connell stated. Regardless of the consolation she finds inside her encampment group, Steeves too needs to maneuver into a spot she may name residence. “It is not that I would not be prepared to dwell in a home or like an setting the place there’s precise housing,” she stated. “I might like to.”Supply hyperlink
