Napanee Council meeting to spotlight small town homelessness

Greater Napanee Town Council is about to face the homelessness crisis head-on.

Over the spring and summer of 2024, Greater Napanee has seen a sharp rise in homelessness encampments in public spaces, such as parks and schoolyards. At their regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, the Town Council will devote most of their time to the issue, with four separate items on the agenda regarding the crisis.

Council will hear a presentation in this regard by Prince Edward---Lennox & Addington Social Services (PELASS), a delegation by a concerned citizen about encampments in public spaces, a report from the CAO on the operational impacts of encampments on the town, and an Executive Services report on a proposed Parks and Public Spaces Bylaw and Encampment Response Protocol.

According to the final report of Federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle’s formal review in early February, Napanee is not alone in facing this issue. The number of encampments across Ontario has significantly risen in the last five years, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, encampments are now being reported nationwide, in large and small municipalities and more rural areas.

As a lower-tier municipality, the Town has limited tools and resources to resolve the crisis. The County of Lennox & Addington has a mandate for housing and homelessness and takes the lead on implementing the Housing and Homelessness Plan. Director of PELASS Lynn Chenier will make a presentation describing that plan. 

Her presentation is published as a set of slides along with the Tuesday night meeting agenda. In summary, PELASS manages the Local Housing Corporation on behalf of both Lennox & Addington (L&A) County and Prince Edward County. This includes 306 Lennox & Addington County units and 115 Prince Edward County units. They also manage the Centralized Waitlist for the Local Housing Corporation and five non-profit housing providers. 

Of those are five non-profit housing providers, two are in Prince Edward County and three are in L&A. There are 90 units in Prince Edward County and 104 units in Lennox & Addington County.

PELASS provides annual subsidies to financially support housing providers’ operating and mortgage costs, rent-geared-to-income funding, and property taxes, according to the report. PELASS also funds capital repairs for non-profit housing providers.

According to the PELASS presentation, the Province of Ontario funds service managers through the Homelessness Prevention Program to develop and deliver programs and supports to address homelessness that best meet local needs. The Homelessness Prevention Program allocation for the PELASS service area is $2,454,600 for 2024-2025 fiscal year, the report states, which is allocated to the four service categories as follows:

Community Outreach and Support Services --- $186,870 

Emergency Shelter Solutions --- $330,000 

Housing Assistance --- $1,463,000 

Supportive Housing --- $352,000

The presentation details how this funding is used, and councillors with have the opportunity to discuss and ask Chenier questions at the meeting this coming Tuesday.

Next on the agenda is a deputation request by Gavin Cross of Napanee to discuss “Encampments in Napanee community spaces, homeless pets and assaults on residents walking in parks.” Though no details have been provided along with his deputation request, it is easy to see that Cross is one of several citizens expressing concerns about the inability to feel safe using community spaces.

CAO Matthew Grant’s Operational Impacts of Encampments on the Town of Greater Napanee report confirms this. He notes that the Town is receiving increasing complaints from citizen groups describing an inability to access Town park amenities, incidents of dogs running at large, incidents of violence, and overall dissatisfaction with how government agencies are handling the situation.

He further notes that his report is meant to provide the Council with some “situational awareness,” the implications of which will be discussed further during the 2025 budget process. No change to the overall approach is suggested, though he points out that “while the Town does not have a mandate for or budgets to address housing or homelessness, it does have a responsibility to oversee Town parks and risks, such as fire risk.”

Grant’s report summarizes the financial implications of the rise in homelessness. Between July 1 and August 16, 2024, the Town incurred approximately $11,000 in costs --- $7,000 of which was staffing costs --- for operations directly involving encampment outreach, clean up, and fire response. These costs do not include administrative time, such as meetings or planning. 

He notes that the Town administration is experiencing an increasing demand for its time and resources to address the issues and that this impacts several departments, including Bylaw Services, Public Works, Parks and Facilities, the Fire Department, Customer Service, and Senior Administration. Some examples include:

Customer service staff are dealing with steadily increasing numbers of complaints about incompatible use of Town parks.

Parks and Facilities staff are responsible for clean up of vacated encampment sites and testify to increased needs for graffiti removal and brush clearing. 

The Town’s Public Works department must clean up hazardous material left behind at encampment sites.

The Town’s bylaw officer has seen a significantly increased requirement to attend encampment sites to communicate Town expectations to and interact with encampment residents. Bylaw Services also works with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) when illegal or unsafe activity may be occurring, and advises Parks and Public Works staff about necessary work that needs to occur.

Senior staff’s time is used in administrative planning meetings with other agencies, including the OPP, social service and health care agencies, and emergency services.

Grant's report recognizes that the Town has a duty to manage risk on its property. But it also has a legal obligation to allow individuals to camp in public spaces, including parks, if adequate shelter spaces are available in the community, based on current case law --- including that from as nearby as Kingston. The report points out that currently, Greater Napanee does not have emergency shelter spaces.

The CAO sees a need for a broad education campaign to inform the public about the various components of the homelessness issue, the agencies involved and their mandate, and what the Town and other agencies can address. He points out that Greater Napanee is not alone in experiencing increasing levels of homelessness. As such, the administration will continue to work with its partner agencies to manage the impact of housing and homelessness on encampment residents as well as the broader community and expects the need to do so for the foreseeable future as the homelessness crisis does not appear to have an end in sight.

The CAO's report dovetails with the next report on the agenda regarding homelessness: Town Clerk Jessica Walters' Executive Services report, which recommends that the Council enact a Parks and Public Spaces Bylaw and an Encampment Response Protocol. 

Current case law in Canada includes the "Right to Shelter." Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides that, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice." Governments may only infringe upon charter rights to an extent that is “reasonable” and “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society." 

A 2023 decision involving the Region of Waterloo cited the "establishment of a constitutional right to shelter oneself when the number of homeless persons exceeds the number of available and accessible indoor shelter spaces within a given jurisdiction." That decision also cited a 2008 decision from British Columbia that "Public properties are held for the benefit of the public, which includes the homeless. The government cannot prohibit certain activities on public property based on its ownership of the property if doing so involves a deprivation of the fundamental human right not to be deprived of the ability to protect one’s own bodily integrity." 

The clerk notes it is a fact that the number of unhoused residents exceeds the number of accessible shelter beds (Greater Napanee does not currently have dedicated shelter spaces), so the Town cannot enforce a blanket ban on all camping on all public properties by those individuals who do not have access to alternative means of housing. 

However, Walters points out that this does not mean that the Town cannot regulate encampments at all. The Town can impose bans on overnight camping if they are limited, based on reasonable criteria of conflicting public uses, and still provide reasonable access to public facilities for local unhoused residents. 

Walters notes that the proposed Parks and Public Spaces By-law could establish “sensitive use areas that are incompatible with accommodation.” Based on the current number of unhoused residents and the limited inventory of public lands within a reasonable walking distance of core services, staff are advising that it is likely that a constitutional by-law will only be able to fully restrict encampments at one park. All other restrictions would be based on buffer distances from specific uses, such as playgrounds, schools, etc. 

The report notes that Conservation Park is the most likely candidate, as it houses the most amenities designed for young children and is the park that normally sees the most overall community use. 

Council will debate these issues at their meeting on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, which can be attended in person at the Greater Napanee Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to being at 7 p.m.

Story by Michelle Dorey Forestell, LJI Reporter, The Kingstonist