City of Hamilton staff have begun removing encampments from parks after Council officially ended the municipal Encampment Protocol on March 6.
The motion to end the Encampment Protocol was brought forward at a Jan. 15 General Issues Committee meeting by Councillor Mike Spadafora (Ward 14 – West Mountain) and was seconded by Councillor Tom Jackson (Ward 6 – East Mountain).
The motion passed 13-2, with only Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2 – Downtown Hamilton) and Alex Wilson (Ward 13 -Dundas-Central Flamborough) voting against it.
Councillor Nrinder Nann (Ward 3 – East Hamilton Centre) was absent from the vote.
The move came after an Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision released on Dec. 23, 2024, that determined that the City of Hamilton has the right to clear homeless encampments, albeit with certain restrictions.
It also came after Council voted to create an additional 192 temporary shelter beds in the city and build a tiny shelter site with 40 cabins capable of housing up to 80 people total.
The Hamilton Independent’s article on the court decision can be found here, with an August article regarding the Encampment Protocol available here.
However, City Council still had to approve a report from city staff on how to carry out the new encampment response post-protocol.
That report was brought forward at a Feb. 26 General Issues Committee meeting, but a vote on approving staff recommendations was deferred until Council met on March 5.
In order to enforce the new encampment rules, which involve a ban in city parks, staff recommended the reassignment of four full-time Municipal Law Enforcement Officers to provide dedicated enforcement of encampments for a period of up to one year.
They also recommended the transfer of one full-time Project Manager from the Housing Services Division to the By-law Services Division at an estimated cost of $110,223 and the funding of four Hamilton Police Service Constables for enhanced enforcement at a cost of $225,000.
Council voted to approve staff’s recommendations, also in a 13-2 vote, again with only Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2 – Downtown Hamilton) and Alex Wilson (Ward 13 -Dundas-Central Flamborough) voting against them.
Mayor Andrea Horwath was absent from the meeting as she was in Washington D.C. at the time.
Despite the removal of the Encampment Protocol, Grace Mater, General Manager of Healthy and Safe Communities, said that clearing parks “will take a number of months” since staff estimate that there are approximately 76 encampment sites that will require investigation.
Due to the reallocation of Municipal Law Enforcement Officers to encampment enforcement, the city says that there will be a 50 per cent reduction in responses to other by-law infraction reports such as yard maintenance concerns and noise complaints.
The city aims to respond to all encampment complaints within 48 hours and is directing the public to report the presence of an encampment in a city park by contacting the Coordinated Encampment Response Team by email at encampments@hamilton.ca or by phone at 905-546-2782 Option 1.
The staff report notes that Law Enforcement Officers work 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday and that “encampments will not be removed outside operational hours.”
Hamilton City Manager Marnie Cluckie says that the city is committed to “compassionately addressing the housing and homelessness crisis while also ensuring that parks are available for public use, that they’re clean, that they’re safe, and that they’re accessible for all.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
