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Ending Chronic Homelessness
#76
I also have concerns, but perhaps different to the residents. They're literally setting up a shelter at the DUMP? I know there's contempt for the homeless, but that's saying the quiet part out loud, if you will.
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#77
(01-28-2023, 06:48 PM)KevinL Wrote: I also have concerns, but perhaps different to the residents. They're literally setting up a shelter at the DUMP? I know there's contempt for the homeless, but that's saying the quiet part out loud, if you will.

It is not at the dump. It is by Fire Tower Road which has an emergency services training centre and paramedic services. https://goo.gl/maps/FELiCMAVxPUgRoTZ8
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#78
Does the proposal have some sort of transit component? I'm wondering how folks will be getting into town?
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#79
Yeah, my biggest concern is around access and transportation. That location is nearly completely inaccessible without a car. Do they plan on building a sidewalk or are they just going to accept an attrition rate of a few deaths a year walking to and from the location?
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#80
(01-29-2023, 07:04 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: Yeah, my biggest concern is around access and transportation. That location is nearly completely inaccessible without a car. Do they plan on building a sidewalk or are they just going to accept an attrition rate of a few deaths a year walking to and from the location?

To respond to the observation about proximity to the landfill, it’s actually past the dump and even further from anything that can actually be called part of the city.

There is a sidewalk on the north side of Erb across the Costco property, but there is a long gap at the hydro right-of-way, and nothing on the south side except little bits of sidewalk at the roundabouts which provide access to the landfill gates.

I think if we’re going to put the shelter way out here, at a minimum a south-side sidewalk needs to be built from Fire Tower Rd. to where it starts up at the shops near Ira Needles Blvd. However, the sidewalk must not be charged to the shelter budget; there ought to be a sidewalk anyway.

But I still think that we need to create more walkable parts of the city. People who are using shelter resources are unlikely to have a vehicle.
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#81
(01-29-2023, 08:59 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(01-29-2023, 07:04 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: Yeah, my biggest concern is around access and transportation. That location is nearly completely inaccessible without a car. Do they plan on building a sidewalk or are they just going to accept an attrition rate of a few deaths a year walking to and from the location?

To respond to the observation about proximity to the landfill, it’s actually past the dump and even further from anything that can actually be called part of the city.

There is a sidewalk on the north side of Erb across the Costco property, but there is a long gap at the hydro right-of-way, and nothing on the south side except little bits of sidewalk at the roundabouts which provide access to the landfill gates.

I think if we’re going to put the shelter way out here, at a minimum a south-side sidewalk needs to be built from Fire Tower Rd. to where it starts up at the shops near Ira Needles Blvd. However, the sidewalk must not be charged to the shelter budget; there ought to be a sidewalk anyway.

But I still think that we need to create more walkable parts of the city. People who are using shelter resources are unlikely to have a vehicle.

I agree that there should be a sidewalk. I think there are significant constraints under the hydro right of way. Or more specifically, regional engineers would rather cut active transportation options than vehicle lanes so that's why there are "constraints". But even if you solve that, the site is so far west of any other part of the city it really would be building a sidewalk just for that site.

In any case, it would be good if it also got serviced by transit (and you know, transit was free also). It's a 20 minute walk just to get to Ira Needles Rd. and a TWO HOUR walk to get downtown.

Frankly, bikes would help, it's a 35 minute bike ride downtown on mostly safe infra. But you still run into the same problem where Erb St. is extremely dangerous.

Honestly, the optics of this are kind of bad. I really have mixed feelings here.
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#82
I do believe that transportation service is part of what the region is setting up. I have no details, though.
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#83
(01-29-2023, 09:42 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: I agree that there should be a sidewalk. I think there are significant constraints under the hydro right of way. Or more specifically, regional engineers would rather cut active transportation options than vehicle lanes so that's why there are "constraints". But even if you solve that, the site is so far west of any other part of the city it really would be building a sidewalk just for that site.

Cite needed. I think the presence of a hydro right-of-way has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the feasibility of installing sidewalks, and I wouldn’t believe a statement to the contrary from anyone unless it came with a fairly detailed explanation of what the problem is, both on the technical level and on the policy/rule/law level.

Completing the gap across the hydro right-of-way is just obvious and should be done anyway. I agree that building a sidewalk west of the landfill would really be building a sidewalk just for this site.
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#84
Hydro One is currently doing work in the hydro right of way adjacent to Erb. They appear to be erecting something new.
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#85
(01-30-2023, 10:29 AM)neonjoe Wrote: Hydro One is currently doing work in the hydro right of way adjacent to Erb. They appear to be erecting something new.

I'm not sure what the regions' decision was but I remember that ~4 years ago they were deciding if it was worth the 1/4 million dollars to move one of the hydro towers in order to facilitate a bike lane + sidewalk (of course, they never considered removing car lanes).
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#86
I don't know if this is the right thread for this or whether the subject of this article is a problem in Canada, but this interesting article talks about the practice of large landlords in New York City warehousing empty apartments in order to create artificial scarcity and keep rents excessively high. It also talks about a company that supplies software to landlords that helps companies to indirectly collude on maintaining high rents.

New Yorkers Never Came ‘Flooding Back.’ Why Did Rents Go Up So Much? Getting to the bottom of a COVID-era real estate mystery.
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#87
There are now infestations of rats at the downtown encampments and the paramedic wing of CUPE is warning of public health risks after monitoring the various encampments over the last few months. They released a video filmed by one of the paramedics working/living at the Victor and Weber paramedic building that showed multiple rats crawling in and out of one individuals tent/garbage pile around it. They are also concerned about rat infestations out on Erbs Road now that the region is trying to move the homeless to the garbage dump: https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/paramedic-u...-1.6285151

Whatever your opinions are on the encampments, I think it's stuff like this that should make it obvious that we cannot let this continue. We shouldn't make it any harder on the homeless to live outdoors (they need a space that is "better" than a literal garbage dump - and need to be providing more shelter spaces, to the point we have an excess number of them so that they can move around for whatever reason [in many cases, homeless don't want to stay at one...could be too far away, or they know another person is there they conflict with, etc]), but we also cannot have congregations of people clustered together in extremely filthy and unsafe conditions. That is, truly, by definition, a public health issue - not to mention a social issue as these places are breeding crime (drug trade, stolen property trade, physical/sexual abuse, sex trafficking and so on). Infectious diseases run rampant in homeless communities and having them living together in unsanitary conditions amongst trash is not good.

We've got to do more, though I guess it'll be a bit hard ever since that judge said we can't really touch the issue. They're now allowed to stay indefinitely under some loophole where they can basically say they're camping out as if it's a weekend at Bingemans. The region wants to appeal that (there was another story in the news about this: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.6758051) however I'm sure that'll be a long, expensive, slow and convoluted process - one of which will no doubt face opposition by people who, for lack of a better word, want to promote this sort of dangerous form of living as a morally righteous option.

Seems like a couple years ago we were on a good path to a pseudo-temporary-solution with things like A Better Tent City. It was growing and seemed like a better-than-a-tent option (though they had some stipulations: no hard drug use, which would have prevented many from being eligible, though drugs were still common). Then when the City of Kitchener used a backhoe to take down 2-3 tents on Charles Street in 2020 (or whenever) and it caused a lot of negative reaction, rightfully so, the cities and region got kind of screwed. The encampments started to form then grow, then when the region took a more hands-off approach that sent a signal. Both more people became homeless due to dire economic circumstances and the proliferation of hard drugs, but many came from out of region as well, since word spread amongst homeless communities that it was easy to stay here and there were (at least some) services for things like needle exchanges, food and a bit of shelter space. Then that judge made that ruling which really sealed the deal. It'll be interesting to see how this resolves itself.

Do we just say - until we actually start investing in real solutions - well, we can't do much, let it be? I don't think the citizens of downtown Kitchener will really want to see it start to resemble East Hastings. It'll hurt businesses, it'll hurt residential investments, it'll hurt public services (transit, paramedics, police). But then if we're at the point we're so broke we're raising bus fare by another 25 cents, we clearly don't have money to sink into tangible, effective solutions to address this. Either way, we need to do something. People - the homeless and those living on the 25th floor of a new condo - aren't going to want to stand for this. The homeless will get more desperate and do more to cope. The safe will grow more irate at them. Anti-homeless violence is not an uncommon thing; a couple months ago, a group of preteen girls murdered a homeless man in Toronto (and murders of homeless is sadly a common occurrence in North America). People regularly beat them up. They piss on them while sleeping. Even us architects commit "violence" when we willingly design anti-homeless architectural features. For one of the wealthiest and most developed countries on the planet we should be quite embarrassed and ashamed.
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#88
(02-23-2023, 11:39 PM)ac3r Wrote: Seems like a couple years ago we were on a good path to a pseudo-temporary-solution with things like A Better Tent City. It was growing and seemed like a better-than-a-tent option (though they had some stipulations: no hard drug use, which would have prevented many from being eligible, though drugs were still common). Then when the City of Kitchener used a backhoe to take down 2-3 tents on Charles Street in 2020 (or whenever) and it caused a lot of negative reaction, rightfully so, the cities and region got kind of screwed.

Just a correction: It was the Region of Waterloo that ordered the take-down of the tents, via Karen Redman.

As for the problem of chronic homelessness -- in many cases, you can't help some of these people. The best we can do is build 'affordable' housing (generally apartments or townhouses) but many of those folks wouldn't make it in such accommodations. Many have addiction and mental health issues that just wouldn't work in settings where there are other people around.

They have kicked people out of 'A Better Tent City' which had minimal rules. If you can't make it there, you won't make it anywhere and you will be homeless for life.
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#89
(02-23-2023, 11:39 PM)ac3r Wrote: There are now infestations of rats at the downtown encampments and the paramedic wing of CUPE is warning of public health risks after monitoring the various encampments over the last few months. They released a video filmed by one of the paramedics working/living at the Victor and Weber paramedic building that showed multiple rats crawling in and out of one individuals tent/garbage pile around it. They are also concerned about rat infestations out on Erbs Road now that the region is trying to move the homeless to the garbage dump: https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/paramedic-u...-1.6285151

The proposed managed encampment is indeed on Erb St W, but it is not at the garbage dump, any more than Costco or Shoppers Drug Mart is.
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#90
(02-24-2023, 01:50 AM)jeffster Wrote: As for the problem of chronic homelessness -- in many cases, you can't help some of these people. The best we can do is build 'affordable' housing (generally apartments or townhouses) but many of those folks wouldn't make it in such accommodations. Many have addiction and mental health issues that just wouldn't work in settings where there are other people around.

They have kicked people out of 'A Better Tent City' which had minimal rules. If you can't make it there, you won't make it anywhere and you will be homeless for life.

While there have always been a certain number of people who are chronically homeless and cannot handle living in normal society, the scale of homelessness these days is unprecedented across the country. There is a severe lack of affordable housing for people with low income. The amount of money for housing supplied by ODSP and Ontario Works is laughable. Once upon a time, someone could afford to get by on welfare. There used to be enough cheap rooms to rent. Even many of those with substance abuse problems could afford to have a roof over their head. This is a problem that has arisen because of decades of neglect by provincial governments. We cannot simply pretend that we can kick people out of encampments and they will simply disappear. Many countries in the global south have vast tracks of shantytowns built by people who have no other choice. This is our future if our governments don't take this seriously. Doug Ford allowing developers to build monster homes on the greenbelt is not going to solve the problem.
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