City of Barrie backs down on plan to ban giving food to homeless people on its property

The city of Barrie, Ont., has backed away from proposed bylaws that would have made it illegal for charitable groups to distribute food, literature, clothes, tents and tarps to unhoused people on public property.

At a meeting on Wednesday night, council decided unanimously to refer bylaws 67 and 68 back to staff. The matter is expected to return to a general committee meeting later this year.

"There should be zero fear out there that a bylaw officer or a peace officer is going to come and ask you not to give water to someone who needs it," Mayor Alex Nuttall told council chambers.

Coun. Jim Harris, who represents Ward 8, said the intent of the bylaws was not to prevent charitable organizations from helping unhoused people.

"Charitable acts of kindness, giving, are central to our community and we do not want to punish that. That's not the intent," Harris said.

"There's no interest in stopping people from being kind, from giving a bottle of water on a hot day, a coffee on cold winter evening," he added.

"We heard you, we understand you and we agree with you."

Coun. Bryn Hamilton, who represents Ward 10, said Barrie has a homelessness crisis and "everybody" has a role to play.

"We welcome your feedback," she said.

The proposed bylaws have sparked controversy in Barrie for weeks. Several people in council chambers held up homemade placards on Wednesday to protest the proposed bylaws.

"We support the unhoused," read one. "Fight poverty, not the poor," read another.

Under existing bylaws, it is illegal for individuals and corporations to distribute food and supplies to unhoused people on city property. The proposed bylaw would have extended that ban to charitable organizations.

Barrie resident Christine Nayler, along with other housing advocates, erected tents outside city hall this week to draw attention to the proposed bylaws. Nayler previously told CBC Toronto the rules would have made serving unhoused neighbours next to impossible for her organization and others like it.

Earlier, in a news release, Nuttall said the city no longer needed the proposed bylaws after a community not-for-profit organization, Busby Centre, decided to relocate its daily outreach program away from the Barrie waterfront. The centre aims to improve conditions for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Bylaws aim to move outreach from waterfront: city

According to the city, the intent of the bylaws was to stop organizations such as the centre from handing out food and supplies along the Barrie waterfront and instead move their outreach to private property. 

"After years of requesting cooperation from the Busby Centre to stop handing out food and camping supplies along our waterfront, today the city is very pleased to have received a letter from the Busby Centre committing to stopping this practice," Nuttall said in the release. 

"This is a positive step forward for Council and as such the proposed by-law is not needed to proceed at this time."

The city had noted that current bylaws already prohibit individuals or corporations from distributing food and supplies on city property, but allow charitable organizations to do so.

It also said in the release that staff will look at "modernizing outdated language within the existing bylaws" that prevented individuals from handing out food and supplies.

On Tuesday, the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness had set up an online tool that allowed people to send emails to Barrie councillors to protest the bylaws. Less than two hours before the meeting, more 23,000 emails had been sent, the group said.

"This is a reprieve," Tim Richter, the organization's CEO, said on Twitter. "Council has referred the matter to staff and will 'modernize language in existing bylaws.' We'll be watching what comes and stand ready to help."

According to a 2022 homelessness enumeration, a total of 722 people were counted as experiencing homelessness in Simcoe County, with 50 per cent staying in Barrie.

A spokesperson for Steve Clark, Ontario's minister of municipal affairs and housing, said Wednesday that Simcoe County, of which Barrie is a part, received more than $21 million this fiscal year to tackle homelessness, up from the over $9.7 million it got last year.

"We will continue to support our municipal and service manager partners as they work to connect vulnerable Ontarians with the supports they need in an environment that is safe and appropriate for both them and the wider community," Victoria Podbielski wrote in a statement.

Housing advocate sounds alarm on amendments

Federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle had called on Barrie's council and mayor to vote against the amendments, saying they would "severely restrict" access to basic shelter and food for people living in local homeless encampments.

Houle, who was appointed by the federal government in February 2022 to lead the newly formed Office of the Federal Housing Advocate, had said Barrie's councillors need to meaningfully engage with homeless individuals, community organizations and stakeholders before making decisions that affect them.

She recognized the motion also aimed to address the homelessness crisis by ordering council to appeal for funds from the provincial government to establish "cooling and warming centres as well as the provision of central food distribution away from public parks and other public spaces.

"However, the lack of adequate indoor shelter spaces in the city could result in a dangerous displacement of your most marginalized residents," she wrote.

Houle began a review of homeless encampments in Canada earlier this year, calling the situation a human rights crisis fuelled in part by the failure of all levels of government to provide adequate housing.