Vulnerable people in Sudbury tent encampment given April 1 deadline to leave

Individuals living in a small tent encampment in Sudbury's Memorial Park will have until April 1 to move, the city says.

The city estimates nine people live in the park in the downtown core, which is down from 88 who were staying in the tent encampment as of Oct. 18, 2021. Bylaw officers have posted notices to alert the remaining individuals about the April 1 deadline.

The city said 76 individuals who lived in the park in October either found housing services or have moved to city shelter spaces.

Gail Spencer, co-ordinator of shelters and homelessness, said the city posted the notices for safety reasons.

"The first one being, you know, people have been trying to access electricity in the park and that's been very dangerous and has been a real concern for them, for their own safety," she said. "The other thing is the proximity to the child-care centre."

The YMCA, located on Durham Street in downtown Sudbury, operates a child-care centre near the park.

Spencer said the city is in constant communication with individuals still living in the park, and is working to find alternative arrangements for them.

She said city shelters, for example, had 25 beds available as of March 15. 

"We have a lot of people in the park helping them to move, if that's what they want."

After April 1, Spencer said, the city will need to work to reclaim the land in the park. Bylaw officers and outreach workers will also be in the park regularly to let people know they can't set up their tents in the area.

Child care centre

Helen Francis, president and CEO of the YMCA of Northeastern Ontario, said they moved children from their Durham Street child-care centre to a location on Lansdowne Street due to the tent encampment.

"We are super keen to be able to return to our child care centre location at Durham Street. It's a beautiful facility."

Francis said they are working on the assumption the city will be able to find the remaining individuals suitable accommodations by April 1.

Some say it's too soon

But some organizations that work with the homeless population are less certain that will be possible.

Ali Farooq, program manager with the Go-Give Project, an outreach organization based in Sudbury, said the April 1 deadline for people to move out of the park is too soon.

"I think it's pretty unreasonable given the timeline," Farooq said. "There has not been any arrangements made to accommodate the move or the removal of the encampments."

Farooq said he has driven many people still living in the park to appointments, and most of them are on the city's by-name list, waiting for permanent housing to become available.

"It'll be another round of stress and trauma for the individuals concerned," he said. 

"But we hope that there are solutions close by, and in the near future, so that they can restart their lives and continue their journey of healing and betterment." 

Brydon King, an Indigenous program co-ordinator with the Sudbury Community Legal Clinic and a member of the Poverty Housing Advocacy Coalition, said there wasn't enough consultation with groups like the coalition, ahead of the notices.

King said the City of Hamilton took a similar approach, removing individuals from a tent encampment, and left them to fend for themselves.

He said the same thing will happen to individuals in Memorial Park.

"Their tents will be thrown away without any of their belongings, being told where they can gather them, and then they will be pushed from the downtown core where all of the services are anyways," King said.

However Raymond Landry, a co-ordinator with the city's Homelessness Network, said the timing was right for people to leave the park by April 1.

Landry said they've worked with the city for many months to connect individuals with housing services. He added the current number of people in the park is small enough that city shelters can accommodate them before more permanent housing becomes available.