Tents and other unofficial shelters would be banned from “red zones” in Saint John, including school and playground areas, under a proposed policy backed by city council Monday night.
The policy would prevent encampments in daycares, sports fields and similar places, according to the staff proposal presented by Cara Coes, a community support services manager, and David Dobblesteyn, director of growth and community support
Coes called it a person-centred and human rights approach to campsites set up by people who are homeless.
The city would be “cleaning up” encampment sites, streets and public spaces immediately, staff reports say.
Councillors voted in favour moving forward with the plan, which will be brought before council again on Sept 22 for another vote, this time on a more formal policy framework.
Red Zones are areas where encampments would be prohibited. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)
“We have sat together over a 20-month period 22 different times and discussed what to do with this,” Coun. Greg Stewart said in praise of staff and their plan.
Stewart said that no plan will be perfect but the current homelessness situation is not “sustainable and no longer accepted”.
Other red zones include highways, railways, cemeteries, and the walking and biking path along Saint John Harbour known as Harbour Passage.
Red zones are a part of the city’s Housing For All strategy, which was launched last July and covers much of the uptown area. The strategy includes transitional housing “green zones” launched this summer and other actions to reduce the city’s homeless population.
The red zone plan will be carried out in three steps. The first will involve outreach teams, who will visit encampment sites and work with individuals living in them to relocate.
The second step will see these outreach teams following up with encampment residents and potentially offering help in moving if needed. The last step would involve “relocation action” taken by city staffers or police, according to staff reports.
Facilities like schools, childcare centres and special needs centres will have a 200-metre buffer surrounding them. Playgrounds and splashpads will have a 100-metre buffer. Sports fields, parks and highways would have 30 metres and the Harbour Passage Walkway would have 10 metres.
Melanie Vautour, executive director of Fresh Start Services, says the red zone plan will force encampments out of the city core, away from services people need, and only move them somewhere else. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)
Emergency shelters and the new transition housing green zone sites will also be red zones, disallowing tents.
“If someone leaves rehab and is trying to stay in a drug-free environment it can be really difficult for them to go in an environment where there’s drugs present or alcohol present,” Dobbelsteyn said.
Non-profit head says plan isn’t a sustainable approach
Council also approved funding for four outreach workers that will be provided by housing non-profit Fresh Start Services to support implementation of the different zones.
But Melanie Vautour, the group’s executive director, says the city’s plan is neither humanistic or trauma-informed and will not sustainably end homelessness.
“Red zones indicate large swaths of the uptown areas being uninhabitable by unsheltered individuals,” she said, speaking with reporters after Monday’s presentation.
“Which means what Saint John is committed to do is actually play the whack-a-mole game, where we’re going to have encampments popping up [in other areas]. Every neighborhood will get their chance to host one.”
Saint John Councillor Greg Norton introduced a notice of motion to council to remove all encampments from city land. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)
She says the red zone plan does nothing for encampments to co-exist within communities and that pushing encampments out of much of the uptown core will lead to more crime.
“People are going to be more desperate,” Vautour says.
“If you look at where the red zones are, people will have no access to the support and services they need, which will cause more distress to them, which is when we see those adverse behaviours start to happen. This is a terrible plan.”
Coes, Dobbelsteyn and Vautour say that the outreach team and the city will continue discussing details on how to implement the red zone plan and potential adjustments.
The city also introduced plans for “yellow zones,” which will be any areas in the city that isn’t a red or green zone. This means people can erect encampments there if they have permission from the land owner.
This would also include some city-owned land that the city — according to staff — won’t take encampment removal actions on. City staff say yellow zones are intended to be an interim measure as homelessness-reduction measures evolve.
Councillor wants all encampments removed from city land
Coun. Greg Norton voiced his disagreement with the plan and was the only councillor to vote against it. Similar to Vautour, Norton says that the red zones will only push encampments to other parts of the city — potentially a neighbourhood.
But Norton wants to see encampments removed from the city entirely, saying that public safety concerns — like theft and vandalism — have been on the rise as a result of them.
“We’re a red zone as a community,” he said to applause from some in the audience before voting against the city’s plan.
Norton also brought a notice of motion proposal to councillors Monday night that aims to remove encampments from city-owned or city-managed lands with the use of the city’s police force, legal and public works departments and fire and emergency medical services.
His proposal would have the city create a “lawful decampment plan” that would require that “adequate, accessible (low-barrier) indoor alternatives are available and offered to affected persons, with documentation.”
His proposed motion would require outreach efforts and notice to encampment residents. It includes a provision that says “council may declare a state of local emergency” if encampments on any lands in the municipality pose an immediate danger to life, health or safety “that cannot be mitigated by ordinary enforcement.”
“The problem right now is not necessarily the fact that we don’t have enough beds to house some of the people that are living insecure,” Norton said, speaking with reporters after the meeting.
“We’re not persecuting homelessness — we’re persecuting some of the activity that comes along with that and we need to enforce that,” Norton said, pointing to illicit drug use as an example.
Norton says that by removing the sites “we also remove some of that activity,” adding that the city already has a number of secure sites that are not being fully occupied.
Councillors will also discuss and vote on Norton’s proposal at the next meeting on Sept 22. If approved, Norton’s proposal says it aims to have encampments removed within the following 14 days.