Calls for more compassion at Thunder Bay's homeless encampments as city seeks support

Wayne Greer says he's been living in a tent in Thunder Bay, Ont., for four months, and getting into housing would mark a "new beginning."

He's one of about 1,300 people on the Thunder Bay district's housing wait list, and hopes to get a hotel voucher so he has somewhere warm to stay this winter while he waits for a unit to become available.

Greer is staying in an encampment, and said people often ridicule those who live there.

"We've had [community] members drive by our camps, throw eggs at us, call us bums 'cause we're poor," Greer said. "If you put them in our situation … they could realize how we feel, right?"

CBC News met Greer at People Advocating for Change Through Empowerment (PACE), which runs a drop-in centre on the city's south side. There, he can get food, play pool, and connect with others who are in similar situations.

The city has taken a human rights-based approach to the encampments, working with support workers who provide food, water, tents and other resources to the unhoused population. 

This week, city council voted in favour of keeping existing guidelines around where encampments can be located. The debate revolved around whether they should be five or 10 metres from "any trail, sidewalk, or parking lot, or on or under any bridge, including pedestrian access points to such areas and structures." The five-metre guideline has been maintained.

The Association of Municipalities Ontario (AMO) says there were at least 1,400 encampments in the province last year. Earlier this month, Ontario's Big City Mayors – of which Thunder Bay is a part – launched its "Solve the Crisis" campaign to demand the provincial government to do more to address the homelessness and addictions crisis.

While Thunder Bay's housing advocates continue to seek more funding for transitional and supportive units, those with lived experience of homelessness say any approach must be led with compassion.

City's human rights-based approach

Rilee Willianen, policy and research analyst and acting drug strategy lead with the City of Thunder Bay, said staff found that pushing the encampments further back would have a detrimental impact.

"When you continue to reduce the amount of space that people can stay at, you're going to put them into more open spaces, more green spaces, and a lot of those spaces are in residential areas," Willianen said.

"Alternatively, people will go into more bushy or wooded areas, which complicates emergency services access, and in both of those situations, what might happen is people get pushed away from the supports and services that they need."

When a report is received about a non-compliant encampment, Willianen said community organizations who have built trust with the unsheltered population work with them to do a planned relocation.

"We are actually having really great success with the enforcement of the guidelines just from a voluntary approach, a relationship-based approach," she said.

In June, city council received a report on the feasibility of designated or permissible encampments, where they voted to send a letter to potential funders for a built structure pilot project and to advocate for more support from the provincial and federal governments.

Sharing ideas for solutions

Adam Royer said he volunteers at PACE because he knows what the clients there are going through, having been homeless for several years and in recovery from addiction. In his view, relocating encampments isn't a solution.

"You can move the encampments from here to somewhere else, whether or not they're seen, but it's still there," Royer said. "We can't just keep shuffling things around and be like, 'oh, let's move it here. We can't see it over there.' Well, it's still a problem."

He'd like to see the city's vacant buildings repurposed for housing and addiction support.

"The government could possibly buy these buildings, turn them into treatment facilities, get more beds for people to get in there," he said. "It all starts at the ground level."

Staff have been reviewing city-owned properties to sell on the condition that they be used for housing. That work is being done with support from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, which the city says has resulted in 95 new units as of the end of July.

You can move the encampments from here to somewhere else, whether or not they're seen, but it's still there.- Adam Royer, volunteer at PACE

Willianen said many of the complaints about the encampments, both from housed residents and those living in tents, revolve around garbage.

"We've taken steps already to enhance our garbage collection efforts and we're taking even further enhancements exploring those right now," she said.

Royer said one solution could be paying vulnerable people to pick up garbage.

"It gives them a sense of responsibility, you know what I mean? They're working for their money, they're doing something, they're cleaning up the community," he said.

Calls for more funding, support

While peer support workers from organizations such as Elevate NWO visit those living in the encampments daily, workers with the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board (TBDSSAB) regularly hand out housing applications there.

Bill Bradica, CAO of TBDSSAB, said they've signed 20 people up for the high-needs housing wait list this summer, compared to 68 last season – largely because many of them were already on the list.

"We are seeing the total number of people on that high-needs wait list has actually decreased from last year. We believe that the transitional housing units that have been coming on stream over the last few years are starting to make a difference," Bradica said.

While 43 more transitional units should be ready next year, there is a gap of more than 1,400 transitional units still needed in the district, he said.

TBDSSAB is meeting with Ontario's associate housing minister at the upcoming (AMO) conference, where it will push for a supportive housing strategy and money for wraparound health support.

Bradica said the board has also been advocating for more portable housing benefits, which help fill the gaps after people have paid their rent, higher social assistance rates, and upstream investments in things like education and skills development. 

"Ensuring that people don't get into this situation of ending up having poor mental health that often leads to substance use, that leads to them being unhoused," he said. 

He does have a few reasons to remain hopeful, though, including last year's tripling of the homelessness prevention program funding, continued conversations at the provincial level around a supportive housing strategy, and the $250 million in the spring 2024 federal budget to address encampments and unsheltered homelessness.

Despite the challenges he's facing, Greer said he's holding onto hope, too. He's accessing treatment for his addiction, and said he's grateful for the support workers who have been bringing supplies to the encampments.

"I put myself in this predicament," Greer said. "I got mixed up with drugs, alcohol, the wrong people, you know?"

"I want to be a better person again, and that's my goal."