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Homelessness sector workers are sounding the alarm about the Ontario government’s new legislation to tackle homeless encampments, arguing that crackdowns against public drug use and heavier penalties for trespassing in places like parks could result in jails being used as de-facto shelters. In response to dozens of Ontario mayors calling for aid to address growing homelessness provincewide, Premier Doug Ford on Thursday promised more than $75 million in new housing spending, while proposing to give police and provincial offences officers more power to order people using drugs in public to stop or move along — lest they face a fine up of to $10,000 or months in a jail cell. The province is also proposing to let courts to more steeply penalize people engaging in “continuous trespassing,” as well as those seen by the court as likely to trespass again. “People are angry at encampments. I totally get it. I don’t want people in encampments, I want them in housing,” said Diana Chan McNally, a Toronto-based community worker. “But that said, it’s not their fault they ended up in the most traumatizing situation and survival that you can imagine.” She knows the provincial crackdown comes at a time of considerable public frustration with how homelessness has ballooned from overstrained shelters into shared public spaces, from parks and sidewalks to emergency rooms and library branches. But she was baffled by the heftier fines, which she said would likely go unpaid. “If they had $10,000, they would not be homeless.” Since the spring, Toronto has seen its encampment count grow from around 200 to more than 500 tents, as the shelter system has turned away hundreds of people each day — 225 on the average day in October. Sarah Ovens, a case manager at All Saints Church Community Centre in Moss Park, recognizes the sight of people in the throes of mental health crises on the street can be “alarming” for other city-dwellers. But she sees decades-long underinvestment in social services and affordable housing interventions as the culprit, rather than individual choices — pointing to factors like social assistance rates that fall well short of the cost of living. “I’m afraid that it’s going to get worse,” she said of the new legislation. While Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has argued a heavier-handed approach to homeless encampments risks scattering people to places like transit lines and ravines, many Ontario mayors on Thursday reiterated their support for Ford’s efforts around reducing visible substance use in particular. “Illicit drugs and particularly opioids such as fentanyl used in public spaces in encampments are a serious community safety threat. There is a clear risk to families and children that live around the growing number of encampments in Ontario,” Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was quoted as saying in the provincial news release. Homeless sector workers, meanwhile, argued that enforcement against encampments will be more expensive than focusing squarely on increasing housing options, including specialized housing sites with embedded support services for those dealing with mental health and addiction challenges. “You’ll be spending a lot more money on police, courts and hospitals as you chase homeless people around repeatedly, over and over again, without solving the underlying problems,” warned Tim Richter, head of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. “You can arrest people and put them into jail for open drug use, but then they’ll be released back into homelessness.” Andrew Boozary, a Toronto physician and professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, pointed out that a month-long incarceration for a single person cost the public more than $12,000 compared with around $4,000 to operate a single supportive housing unit. “Housing is a matter of human dignity and sound health economics,” Boozary said. In his work at a Toronto drop-in, the correctional system was already described by a colleague as the “de-facto” mental health system, Boozary said. The Star has previously reported that , up to 24.4 per cent in 2020 from 13.4 per cent in 2015. If Toronto wants hope of clawing out of its current crisis, housing sector workers, advocates and experts have repeatedly stressed that housing is the answer — pointing to examples such as Finland, which through a long-term effort to create lower-cost housing, including homes with specialized supports. In Toronto, demand for housing vastly outstrips availability, with nearly 93,000 households waiting for subsidized housing, plus more than 28,000 individuals waiting for supportive housing. The housing spending unveiled Thursday includes $5.5 million for , as well as $20 million for and semi-permanent living set-ups, and $50 million for affordable housing developments. Based on past city estimates, the extra $5.5 million in subsidies provincewide could help house at least 440 people. But looking at the scale of the crisis, Chan McNally and others argue a much more robust intervention is needed to bring encampments down long-term. “At the end of the day,” Richter said, “the only solution to this is a home.”Forex reserves drop by record $18 billion in a weekAn independent watchdog investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol found no evidence that federal agents were involved in inciting the violence, repudiating baseless claims that the FBI played a major role in the attack. According to a report released Thursday by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, no undercover FBI employees were involved in the riots or instigated any protesters to storm the Capitol. "We found no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6," the report explains. RELATED STORY | January 6 defendant tells Scripps News he may not accept a potential pardon from Trump Meanwhile, the report found that there were 26 FBI informants in Washington, D.C. on the day of the attack but none were given authorization to participate. "Our review determined that none of these FBI CHSs was authorized by the FBI to enter the Capitol or a restricted area or to otherwise break the law on January 6, nor was any CHS directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6," the report states. The investigation found that many of those 26 informants provided the FBI with information prior to the riot that was "no more specific than" what the bureau had already been provided by other sources. RELATED STORY | Rioters who stormed Capitol after Trump's 2020 defeat toast to his White House return However, the investigation found there was a "basic step that was missed" by the FBI in the lead-up to Jan. 6, that could've potentially aided in preventing the protest from getting out of hand. "The FBI could have taken an additional step to canvass its field offices in advance of January 6 to identify any intelligence, including CHS [confidential human sources] reporting, that might have assisted with the FBI and law enforcement partners’ preparations for January 6," the report reads. Horowitz's report concludes by recommending that the FBI reassess the policies and procedures the bureau has in place to prepare for events that have the potential to cause security issues. The FBI agreed with the inspector general's recommendation.
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