‘I can tell you that the new standard in the city of Barrie is going to be working towards zero encampments,’ says Mayor during press scrum on Friday
Barrie mayor Alex Nuttall held a media scrum with reporters Friday just outside the Victoria Street homeless encampment that’s been at the centre of a “heinous” double murder investigation.
The wooded area is now closed off with metal fencing for an environmental cleanup which is expected to last for months and cost the city millions of dollars.
The mayor stood in the middle of the road in the closed portion of Victoria Street of the site that is now guarded by paid-duty police officers, assisted by a private security company.
“I think this is something obviously that we didn’t expect to see or hear about,” Nuttall said.
Nuttall believes this type of tragedy among homeless communities is going to “change the way things are done” going forward in the city of Barrie.
“As you know, I haven’t been comfortable with the way that encampments have been handled over the years and allowed to expand, and then to have this completely heinous criminal event take place here — there’s no actual words to describe how unbearable that must be for the folks who were living in this encampment, and certainly something that is shocking to the city,” he said.
Nuttall commended the efforts of the city’s police service.
“They kept this place under wraps (and) they did their investigation,” he said.
“There were a lot of critiques that they weren’t sharing information, but certainly all of that was necessary to ensure that they could proceed forward with ensuring justice is given its day with regards to these two murders, and obviously the dismemberments following, or whatever happened following, and so … I think as a city, there’s a lot to take in here. We’re in the midst of a cleanup,” Nuttall said.
Nuttall said council has decided that encampments “are not the right place for those who are unhoused to be within our city. It may be a good fit in other cities — it’s not here in the city of Barrie.”
Nuttall said the city has been working with the county and with the province to assist homeless people in need.
“We’ve been lobbying very hard at the provincial level to get funds to provide for increased shelter space, for HART hubs (homelessness and addiction recovery treatment) for those who are struggling with addictions and mental health issues, and certainly over the last year, we’ve seen a lot of positive movement going forward on that,” he said.
Nuttall said he believes the number of homeless people who were living in the Victoria Street encampment represented somewhere between 40 to 50 per cent of those who are living in encampments in the city at the moment.
The city estimated up to 80 individuals were living at the site before it was closed off.
“We are focused on helping the folks that are here,” he said. “I can say that there was some good news, and we’re going to continue to get good news, hopefully in terms of the amount of people that have taken housing at this point, and taken the support from the county and from the city of Barrie.”
The county opened approximately 100 emergency beds within the city, with the initial uptake the first day or two being in the neighbourhood of around six individuals moving in.
“So I think there’s some good things happening,” Nuttall said. “We have about one quarter of the folks now who’ve accepted help. We wish that that was 100 percent, but obviously, we can’t force individuals into support and into help at this point.
“I can tell you that the new standard in the city of Barrie is going to be working towards zero encampments,” he said.
As for the ongoing police investigation into the double murders?
“I’m a political head,” Nuttall said. “I’m not a police professional, and as such, I don’t belong in the conversation of what happened inside of that police investigation. I can only comment on it from what I’ve seen on the outside, and while there may have been critiques on the sharing of information, I think we can all understand why it needed to be done so delicately.”
An aerial view of a portion of the wooded Victoria Street encampment grounds in Barrie on Friday afternoon. Cleanup equipment can be seen at the site. Kevin Lamb/BarrieToday