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What more can be done about the growing encampment issue? · Kvetch & Release

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  Speaker 1: New polling is out. Nearly two thirds of Ontarian's think
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  Speaker 1: that the Premier Doug Ford must do more to deal
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  Speaker 1: with homeless encampments in the province, saying he's not doing enough.
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  Speaker 1: Fifty four percent think that tents in municipal parks are
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  Speaker 1: a big problem, while thirty percent say they are a
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  Speaker 1: minor problem, and sixteen percent insists they're not really a problem,
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  Speaker 1: but it's obviously something that signals to people that things
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  Speaker 1: are not working right. That's according to the president of Abacus,
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  Speaker 1: which did the polling, David Coletto. Sixty two percent of
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  Speaker 1: people feel Ford is not doing enough to help municipalities
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  Speaker 1: deal with encampments. Joining me right now to discuss the
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  Speaker 1: issue of encampments. We have our own here in the
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  Speaker 1: city of Windsor. One was just dealt with not too
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  Speaker 1: long ago last week. Ward three counselor Ronaldo Augustino joins
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  Speaker 1: me right now.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, how you doing, Good morning everyone.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Fall, Yes, welcome to Fall. We all have
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  Speaker 1: our jackets that we've brought into the studio today and
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  Speaker 1: trying to stay warm, and that's something Rinaldo. I heard
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  Speaker 1: you chatting with my colleague Kyle Horner about last week.
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  Speaker 1: We are approaching the colder season right now fall, but
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  Speaker 1: again getting closer to winter and to expected snow, it
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  Speaker 1: gets more and more difficult for our people who are
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  Speaker 1: unhoused to be able to abide on our streets. And
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  Speaker 1: encampments are a concern. They're a way for people to
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  Speaker 1: come together and congregate and keep warm if they start
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  Speaker 1: a little fire here or there, but it's not safe.
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  Speaker 1: It's something that the city doesn't want to see has
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  Speaker 1: to deal with. What's it like having to deal with
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  Speaker 1: encampments that pop up? From your point of view.
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  Speaker 2: It's constant work.
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  Speaker 3: We just had to deal with one on Riverside Drive,
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  Speaker 3: right at the foot of all Latin Riverside Drive, and
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  Speaker 3: there were nice people and they've just been displaced. And
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  Speaker 3: that's what's happening. People are being displaced for other people
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  Speaker 3: that can pay more right, and that's I think if
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  Speaker 3: you start looking at from that lens, you understand the
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  Speaker 3: situation more and more. But there's also people that are
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  Speaker 3: being displaced are almost because of addictions, mental health issues.
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  Speaker 3: It's one of those situations that I look at what
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  Speaker 3: we do here in the City of Winter. We're really
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  Speaker 3: good because we micro manage the situation, and to our
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  Speaker 3: city's credit, you know, we have our teams out there
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  Speaker 3: that are all working together, whether it's with CMHA or
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  Speaker 3: whether it's with the Mission or any of our shelters.
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  Speaker 3: There's a good team of people working together here, including
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  Speaker 3: wins of police. But we're also lucky because we're a
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  Speaker 3: small city, right, We can really get to places very
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  Speaker 3: quickly and we don't let things grow out of control
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  Speaker 3: because once things start to multiply, that makes the job
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  Speaker 3: even tougher.
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  Speaker 2: But it's one of those things that I get to
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  Speaker 2: calls about every day.
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  Speaker 3: I got a call about one the other day behind
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  Speaker 3: on different place, and you come to find out that
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  Speaker 3: it's actually not even an encampment. It's just all the
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  Speaker 3: people that live in nine to twenty oh let want
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  Speaker 3: to find a place outside where they can congregate and
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  Speaker 3: drink right and listen to music. And you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: one of those things where it's just it's another one
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  Speaker 3: of the NonStop issues of being downtown.
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  Speaker 1: Downtown has its own set of unique circumstances, but you know,
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  Speaker 1: those circumstances are expanding into other words, we're seeing encampments
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  Speaker 1: throughout the entire city at time and it's not a surprise.
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  Speaker 1: I know the city is doing currently one of its
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  Speaker 1: homeless counts.
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  Speaker 2: Is that correct?
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  Speaker 3: I believe there's something just before the winner goes. I
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  Speaker 3: believe that that is something that is being put together
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  Speaker 3: at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Again, how important is it to be able to garner
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  Speaker 1: those numbers, to be able to forecast and project what
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  Speaker 1: you need to do.
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  Speaker 2: Well, It's very important.
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  Speaker 3: It's also important to understand the shelter system and what
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  Speaker 3: we're out there.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, you get I hear a lot from.
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  Speaker 3: People and say, well, counselor that the shelters are almost
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  Speaker 3: maximum capacity. In a sense, that means we're actually doing
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  Speaker 3: a pretty good job because we're getting people off the
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  Speaker 3: streets into our shelters. So those two numbers really aligned
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  Speaker 3: together to find out exactly what's going on on our streets.
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  Speaker 3: So to me, there's you know, the shelters, there's a homelessness,
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  Speaker 3: there's the encampments, there's people staying with friends and family,
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  Speaker 3: there's a waiting list for housing.
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  Speaker 2: There's so many components to this.
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  Speaker 3: But again we have different different categories and different people
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  Speaker 3: micromanaging each one of those.
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  Speaker 1: As you said, there's a number of different reasons why
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  Speaker 1: someone might be on how It could be that they've
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  Speaker 1: fallen on hard circumstances. It could because of mental health, addiction,
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  Speaker 1: it could be for any number of reasons. But what
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  Speaker 1: we know is is that when someone is on the street,
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  Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, it's because they can't find
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  Speaker 1: a bed to rent. And that could be because there's
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  Speaker 1: someone who's renting a room or a house that could
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  Speaker 1: be leasing a place, but that's they're not because someone
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  Speaker 1: already is leasing who's looking to buy, but they're not
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  Speaker 1: able to buy because there's already things that are taken.
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  Speaker 1: Point being, is that housing stock comes down to this issue. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: that's one of the biggest focuses of the city council,
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  Speaker 1: of the province right now, quite frankly of the country.
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  Speaker 1: But people say, we just don't have enough rooms in
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  Speaker 1: the city. Is that the case? Are we are we
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  Speaker 1: full up right now? Ronaldo?
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  Speaker 2: We're it did again. No, we're not. We're not even close.
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  Speaker 2: We have a lot of rooms.
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  Speaker 3: It just happens to be a lot of those rooms
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  Speaker 3: are in buildings that are empty, right And that's you know,
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  Speaker 3: one of the one of the things I've been doing
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  Speaker 3: is floating an ideal idea. And this is why I
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  Speaker 3: really like working with our opper levels of government, especially
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  Speaker 3: the province, is they're very up into listening to ideas. So,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I look next door, for example, at sixteen
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  Speaker 3: sixteen right beside where we are here, there's about forty
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  Speaker 3: empty rooms there that are not being used.
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  Speaker 2: Forty yes, you know.
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  Speaker 3: And then you look at the Securities building, You look
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  Speaker 3: at other buildings in this city where projects have been
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  Speaker 3: started but the funding is not there to complete them,
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  Speaker 3: or because of the bank systems that are going on
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  Speaker 3: right now, the impossibilities of getting a loan being in
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  Speaker 3: the housing market are real. So is there an avenue,
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  Speaker 3: and this is an idea I've been floating. Is there
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  Speaker 3: an avenue where we can somehow either provincially, federary, municipally
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  Speaker 3: or all three together provide some type of funding for
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  Speaker 3: projects that have already been started but haven't been completed
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  Speaker 3: for financial reasons.
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  Speaker 2: Is there a way for us to go to a
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  Speaker 2: landlord and.
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  Speaker 3: Say, hey, I understand you have X number of empty
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  Speaker 3: rooms and you can't get a loan and you can't
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  Speaker 3: afford to finish them, and you're waiting to make that
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  Speaker 3: money so you can pull the trigger on those moves.
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  Speaker 2: Is there a way we can step in?
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  Speaker 3: And if we step in, well, you you'll be required
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  Speaker 3: to take people off of our housing list. So it's
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  Speaker 3: an idea I've been talking to quite a few people about,
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  Speaker 3: and to me, it's a really low hanging food idea
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  Speaker 3: because there's so many empty rooms in this city that
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  Speaker 3: just need to be finished, right, that just need to
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  Speaker 3: be finished them.
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  Speaker 2: Money's got to be there to finish them.
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  Speaker 3: And if those rooms were finished, we could take some
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  Speaker 3: people potentially off that list, not the people that are
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  Speaker 3: in the highest acute levels. Of course, those people need
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  Speaker 3: a different type of supports. And then, of course there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people out there that I could say, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: you know what, let's build up five hundred tiny homes
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  Speaker 3: on one condition you follow the rules. That's a whole
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  Speaker 3: another that's a whole other conversation, because there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people that would rather say, yeah, you know what,
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  Speaker 3: I'll be happy sitting up here by myself and my
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  Speaker 3: own tent, being able to make my own rules.
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  Speaker 2: So it's very complex.
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  Speaker 1: It'd be a lot cheaper to go and renovate existing
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  Speaker 1: rooms that need completion than to start the entire process.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corps traditionally,
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  Speaker 1: going back, you know, decades and decades decades, has been
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  Speaker 1: able to provide the loan and then reduce the interest rate.
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  Speaker 1: They take what, let's say, you know, back in like
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  Speaker 1: the seventies, for example, a twenty percent interest rate and
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  Speaker 1: drop it down to a two percent interest rate for
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  Speaker 1: the recipient after amount of time that they used it,
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  Speaker 1: because they're bringing something that's beneficial to the community. But
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  Speaker 1: you know, Roaldo, you and I have both operated in
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  Speaker 1: a small business sector, and when I look at this,
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  Speaker 1: the first thing that I'm thinking of right now is
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  Speaker 1: we always talk about trying to get that silver bullet
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  Speaker 1: and get the new battery plant, or get the new
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  Speaker 1: auto shop. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think
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  Speaker 1: it's something that we should always be striving for. But
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  Speaker 1: you know, you employed a number of people, a small
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  Speaker 1: handful of people. I did as well. The idea being
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  Speaker 1: is we could try to get a thousand jobs, but
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  Speaker 1: if we can foster you to get another twenty jobs,
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  Speaker 1: if I can hire another fifteen people, if you can
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  Speaker 1: do that and reach a bit more of a critical mass,
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  Speaker 1: you don't need to do the silver bullet, you can
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  Speaker 1: spread it across. That's sort of what this sounds like.
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  Speaker 1: We don't have to go build a whole new neighborhood.
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  Speaker 1: We can just renovate some buildings that already exist and
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  Speaker 1: deal with the immediate situation at hand.
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  Speaker 3: And to do that, you also need to understand the
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  Speaker 3: needs of the people that are looking for those rooms, right,
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  Speaker 3: and that's where the relationships matter, you know, And that's
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  Speaker 3: one of the things that again, and don't have my
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  Speaker 3: head stuck in the sand.
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  Speaker 2: I know we have our own issues here.
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  Speaker 3: But the building the relationships with the people that are
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  Speaker 3: out there on the street is something that is critical
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  Speaker 3: to this to this project because understanding why they're not
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  Speaker 3: in housing and what helped to get them is also important.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that's part of the account that we're doing,
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  Speaker 3: as well as understanding the needs. But yeah, looking at
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  Speaker 3: the empty spaces that currently exist and having some kind
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  Speaker 3: of even when you look at like abandoned homes.
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  Speaker 2: I know, we have the vacant home tax, which is fantastic, but.
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  Speaker 3: Even looking connecting with those owners and saying, hey, you know,
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  Speaker 3: what is the reason that you're leaving the South Empties.
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  Speaker 2: The insurance issues from fire. What can we do?
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  Speaker 3: What can we do as a country, as a province,
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  Speaker 3: as a city to step in and you know, uh,
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  Speaker 3: it's it's it's a way to connect, connect, but also
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  Speaker 3: get some of these empty spaces occupy occupied. And if
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  Speaker 3: they're occupied, then you're gonna see the problems get less
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  Speaker 3: and less and less and less. Because housing stock is
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  Speaker 3: a big issue and we have a lot of empty
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  Speaker 3: spaces in this city that I could think of off
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  Speaker 3: the top of the Agencys Hunter on all that Avenue
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  Speaker 3: is another one. What's it gonna take to get that
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  Speaker 3: built and converted into residential apartments, even if it's a
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  Speaker 3: short term thing. What can we do because you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's got to be projects that in the long run
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  Speaker 3: can also be sustainable for people, and that's you know,
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  Speaker 3: getting people indoors, especially at this time of year where
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  Speaker 3: things are getting colder is a big thing.
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  Speaker 2: And if we can do that, that's gonna help.
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  Speaker 1: With these encampments, well, they're all our community members, That's
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  Speaker 1: how it works. These are all our neighbors. Regardless of
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  Speaker 1: whether or not someone is housed or unhoused. They're all
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  Speaker 1: windsor rights through and through Ronaldo Augustino is the Ward
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  Speaker 1: three Counselor for the City of Windsor. Thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for your time.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much.