Listen to this article
Estimated 5 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
A Huron County man who often uses shelters to avoid sleeping outside says the Huron Perth Health Care Alliance paid his $241.42 taxi fare to London to free up space in a shelter where he’d been staying in Clinton, Ont.
The man told CBC News he was sent to London on the promise there would be shelter space for him, which upon arrival turned out to not be the case.
Webster shared his story to CBC News, and said people seeking shelter spaces and other services in smaller communities are often sent to London, on the pretense that services are more robust in the Forest City.
“I think London is really getting ripped off on this,” said Stephen Webster who calls Huron County home but doesn’t have a permanent residence. “The cab driver said they do these trips all the time.”
Webster, 64, has a handful of health problems. He typically lives in the area of Blyth, Ont., about 100 kilometres north of London, and works odd jobs. When work doesn’t provide a place to sleep, Webster relies on a mix of shelters and friends to take him in.
He’s also at times paid $20 to rent a couch to sleep on. He’s slept in vehicles and spent long winter nights sleeping inside bank machine vestibules.
“I bounce around a lot,” he said.
How he ended up in London
The series of events that led to his cab trip to London started on Jan. 13 when he went to Clinton Public Hospital for treatment. He had dangerously low blood pressure and needed help for trench foot, a serious condition that often affects people who sleep outside.
Stephen Webster received treatment at Clinton Public Hospital and stayed in a nearby shelter before being sent to London by cab. (Sofia Rodriguez/CBC)
His hospital treatment lasted just a few hours but with overnight lows of –15 C and nowhere to stay, Webster was given a bed in a temporary emergency shelter operated by Huron Perth Health Care Alliance. The shelter is a house located across the street from the hospital.
Webster was told he wouldn’t be able to stay more than a few days in the short-term shelter known as Transition House which is set up only as temporary housing for people in crisis.
‘London has the shelters’
When Tuesday, Jan. 20 arrived, he’d been at the shelter seven days. Webster said staff told him the bed was needed for a new client and that there was no shelter space for him in Huron County. That’s when Webster said he was told that a cab ride to London was all the support they could offer.
“They told me that they send a lot of people to London because London has the shelters,” said Webster.
Webster said he and another man who was also in need of housing agreed to be driven the 100 kilometres from Clinton to Victoria Hospital in London by cab, though neither were in need of hospital treatment.
CBC News has confirmed with a local taxi company that the transfer happened, and that the $241.42 fare was paid by Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, which operates four hospitals in the area.
The Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope was full the night Stephen Webster arrived by cab in London on Jan. 20, 2026. (Rebecca Zandbergen/CBC News)
Webster said staff told him there was a shelter bed for him at the Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope on Wellington Street in London. However when he arrived, he found there wasn’t shelter space available.
When contacted for comment by CBC News, the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance would not confirm they paid for the cab trip, citing privacy reasons. However in a statement they said their outpatient mental health teams do not relocate people out of their community “unless it is their choice.”
The statement goes on to say they make an effort to provide care for people locally whenever possible.
“We have extended individual stays at the Transition House to ensure they can find a safe place in the community they want to be in,” the statement said. “Our dedicated staff make every effort to support individuals who are leaving our spaces to ensure they have a safe place to go to.”
Webster was able to find a space at the emergency overnight winter shelter the City of London operates at the Boyle Memorial Community Centre, which only opens when temperatures drop below –15 C with a wind chill of –20 C.
We can’t take on the service needs of people from other municipalities. We have scant resources as it is- Shawn Lewis, London’s deputy mayor
He spent the next night at Ark Aid Street Mission on Dundas Street, which he said was very full. For the rest of the week Webster has been searching for shelter space across southwestern Ontario. After hitching-hiking to Stratford on Thursday and finding no available shelter space there, he managed to find a shelter space in Cambridge.
This can’t continue, says London Deputy Mayor
Some city hall politicians have argued that London does not have capacity to provide shelter and services for people from other communities.
“Plain and simple we don’t have the resources to help the folks who are already here,” said Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis. “We can’t take on the service needs of people from other municipalities. We have scant resources as it is. This must stop and there needs to be consequences from the provincial government in situations where this is happening.”
CBC News reached out to Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson for comment but did not receive a reply as of Monday, Jan. 26.