For the past 15 years, Shania Steeves has slept on sidewalks and stayed in overcrowded, sometimes unsafe shelters.
She has been homeless off and on for nearly half of her life, and she has always preferred living in encampments, where she found community and support among people who are going through the same challenges.
Steeves and more than 100 others in Barrie, Ont., may soon lose that support network.
The city’s mayor, Alex Nuttall, declared a state of emergency last month over homeless encampments, citing public safety concerns due to what he described as “lawlessness” on municipal property. The declaration came after police found the remains of two people in one large encampment as part of a double homicide investigation.
The city has since ramped up efforts to clear encampments, with council approving stricter bylaw provisions this week to make it easier for authorities to remove tents and makeshift shelters and prevent new ones from being set up.
“We’re in a state of emergency and that will continue until we have removed all tents in the City of Barrie,” Nuttall said in an interview Thursday, citing the double murder, rampant drug use and overdoses linked to encampments.
The mayor said nearly 10 encampments, including a few large ones, have been cleared so far and 49 of 66 displaced people have accepted shelter beds, hotel rooms or transitional housing.
Some have moved into other encampments, including the one where Steeves lives with around 40 others near the downtown core.
“I don’t actually have anywhere to go, personally,” Steeves said, calling the city’s move a violation of human rights. “I’m also worried about where everyone else was going to go because these people are like a family.”
That family atmosphere was evident on a recent sunny weekend afternoon at Steeves’s encampment.
In the shadow of a tree decorated with a memorial plaque for those who’ve died of homelessness and addiction, “Such a Night” by The Band rock group played from a speaker.
Some encampment residents sipped beer while others played Frisbee, throwing a yellow disc to one another. Around a dozen colourful tents were set up in the park not far from a giant Canadian flag hanging from the branches of a tree.
Local outreach worker Christine Nayler distributed fresh fruits, juice, water and sandwiches from a white SUV. A woman approached the vehicle, asking for a T-shirt. Another outreach worker cleaned a homeless woman’s face with a wipe.
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Nayler runs Ryan’s Hope. The organization is named after her son, who died of a toxic drug poisoning in 2020. She said the move to clear Barrie’s encampments is inhumane and costly for taxpayers.
“It’s scary. … Nothing good can come from this,” she said. “You can’t just keep pushing people further and further into survival mode, you can’t just keep taking away what little they have and expect that there’s not pushback.”
There are several reasons why some homeless people prefer encampments over temporary shelters, advocates said.
Local shelters kick people out at 7 a.m. every day, meaning they have to spend all day outside before they can return for the night. Pets aren’t allowed inside and people often can’t take all of their belongings into the shelter. Another problem is that fights sometimes break out in overcrowded shelter rooms, advocates said.
“Where are they supposed to go? You’re just … shuffling them all around the city at the taxpayers’ expense, causing more harm and trauma every single time that you do this,” Nayler said.
She said permanent housing is the only solution and with that being off the table, removing encampments will only push people into hiding or to other communities, disconnecting them from services and outreach organizations in Barrie.
Social assistance and wages are lagging far behind the cost of housing, making it impossible for many people to even rent a room, let alone an entire apartment, Nayler said.
Placing someone in a supportive housing unit costs much less than a shelter, prison or a hospital bed, she added, and that should be good enough reason for the government to invest more in building such homes.
The mayor agrees that Barrie needs more affordable housing.
Nuttall said that on Wednesday, the city council approved a funding increase for an affordable housing initiative, from $30 million to $80 million, on top of another $100 million that the city has already committed as part of a larger housing program in partnership with Simcoe County.
The total investment of $180 million would help build some 615 affordable and rent-geared-to-income homes in Barrie and the surrounding regions over the next few years, he said.
Short-term measures have also been taken to make sure encampment dwellers have a roof over their heads, Nuttall said. Two new shelters, including one for youth, with more 100 beds combined will open their doors in less than two weeks, he said.
“We have enough to cover off each and every person who is living in the camp,” Nuttall said.
But advocates say the number of shelter beds available in the city is far fewer than the number of homeless people.
The environmental cleanup at the encampment where dismembered human remains were found continues.
The site, a large wooded area bordered by Victoria, John and Anne streets in Barrie, was surrounded by fences on a recent visit and a memorial decorated with flowers and pictures of the two victims was set up outside. A security guard at the site questioned visitors.
A neighbouring encampment has also since been shut down.
That’s where Lori Douglas used to live.
She said she gave up her apartment when her husband was being treated for throat cancer at a Toronto hospital because she didn’t have time to move back and forth and wanted to fully focus on him.
Douglas said she has not been able to find another apartment since her husband’s death two years ago, and had no choice but to move between encampments.
She said she receives $1,100 in monthly government assistance, which isn’t enough to cover the rent. Her bad credit score is another factor working against her whenever she tries to secure a place to live.
“I spent last winter out in the cold outside, I was hospitalized twice … and I will not survive another winter,” the 65-year-old woman said.
In another small downtown Barrie encampment, which has been since cleared, Claire O’Connell and her husband had set up their tent after they were forced to vacate another encampment.
Like others, they are also looking for permanent housing. O’Connell said she “can’t handle” another winter living in a tent.
“It’s cold and it’s wet and it’s difficult. It’s hard sleeping out here, like you’re tired all the time, you have no energy,” she said, adding that her housing worker has found them a place as of Oct. 15, but she isn’t keeping her hopes high just yet.
“I’m just waiting for it to fall through or something like that, so I’m not too excited until we actually get in there and sign a lease,” O’Connell said.
Despite the comfort she finds within her encampment community, Steeves too wishes to move into a place she could call home.
“It’s not that I wouldn’t be willing to live in a house or like an environment where there’s actual housing,” she said. “I would love to.”
