City of Hamilton to challenge court order protecting tent cities

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Published August 24, 2020 at 3:16 pm

The City of Hamilton plans to challenge an injunction that prevents it from dismantling several homeless encampments in the community.

The City of Hamilton plans to challenge an injunction that prevents it from dismantling several homeless encampments in the community.

In a statement issued Friday (August 21), the City said that its legal team is currently in the process of “gathering further evidence to challenge the current injunction prohibiting the City from involuntarily removing residents of encampments.”

The release was sent out late Friday evening after city council spent hours in an in-camera session where they discussed this issue and others. The current injunction is in place until early September.

“The City remains committed to the health and safety needs of all residents as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve,” the release says.

“This includes addressing the impact this has had on our most vulnerable residents by taking a proactive, organized approach to connecting those who sleep rough, to safer and more humane housing options.”

Friday’s council meeting agenda featured dozens of pieces of correspondence from members of the community on the subject of Hamilton’s ‘tent cities.’

While the issue continues to divide members of the public, there is significant support for the encampments to remain where they are.

Many were responding to a call from The Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, Keeping Six, and HAMSMaRT asking residents to appeal to Hamilton’s councillors on behalf of the community’s most vulnerable.

In a Tweet shared Monday (August 24), The Hamilton Community Legal Clinic vowed to continue advocating on behalf of the encampment’s inhabitants.

“Our goal remains the same in/out of court: calling for a human rights-based approach to encampments,” the Tweet says.

Since the pandemic forced the closure of a number of public spaces and social services, tent communities have been popping up in parts of the city.

Several of them were dismantled by the city earlier this spring/early summer. The ones that are currently under scrutiny are those in front of the FirstOntario Centre and in the North End on Ferguson.

In the press release sent Friday, the City says that the efforts of Hamilton’s Encampment Task Force “connected over 100 individuals to safer and more humane living conditions.

“Hamilton City Council continues to support the successful work of the City’s Encampment Taskforce.”

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