‘The idea that we can let it go from one tent in any location to 20 or 50 or 100 is, quite frankly, the lesson that needs to be learned by the county, by the city,’ says mayor<\/p>\n
A homeless encampment under lockdown by Barrie officials\u00a0after police completed what turned out to be a\u00a0double-murder investigation over the past week will remain closed for months and will cost millions to clean up, according to city council.<\/p>\n
Barrie city council held its executive committee meeting Wednesday evening, which lasted about an hour, with questions and answers back and forth on the issue.<\/p>\n
When asked about the cost of the cleanup of the encampment spanning\u00a0Victoria, Anne and John streets in Barrie, Michael Prowse, the city’s CAO,\u00a0said a \u201cballpark\u201d figure would be in the \u201cmillions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we prevent something like this from happening in the future?\u201d asked Bryn Hamilton, Ward 10 councillor. \u201cThere are other encampments across the city. It\u2019s unacceptable on many, many fronts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton said she was \u201cfloored\u201d when she saw photos of the site in its\u00a0current state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope there is a lesson learned here,\u201d she added. \u201cWhy did we let this go?\u00a0Why did the county let this go?\u201d<\/p>\n
Prowse said the city was aware of these homeless sites and their overall conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge for the city \u2026 when we deal with an encampment, because of both legislation and rules of the courts, one of the first things we need to be able to confirm if there is adequate housing available through our service manager \u2014 that being the county,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Prowse said city council has been in discussions with the county, and the issue is \u201cnot new.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prowse believes the Victoria Street encampment housed as many as 100 people at the time of the site\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first bridge we would have to cross is we have to confirm with (the county) that we would have upwards of 100 rooms that are appropriate and adequate for those individuals before we can move them out of an encampment,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has been a dead-end for the city as (the county) has been unable to provide and confirm that housing \u2026 that is the bridge we could not cross,\u201d Prowse said.<\/p>\n
Things changed, Prowse said, when the police investigation required them to \u201ccontrol the property and move out the individuals that were in the property.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do that through their own purposes \u2014 they don\u2019t ask for rooms and they don\u2019t ask the city\u2019s permission,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were served with a search warrant, they closed off the site and they conducted their investigation \u2014 and some of that work is still ongoing.”<\/p>\n