Barrie, Ont., withdraws proposed ban on giving food to homeless people after backlash

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Following cross-country backlash from anti-poverty advocates, councillors in Barrie, Ont., have walked back proposed bylaw amendments that would have barred people from giving food, water, money or supplies to homeless people on city property.

The proposed changes, which were slated for council vote Wednesday evening, would have imposed fines of up to $100,000 for both outreach agencies or individuals. The proposal was criticized by legal experts and community organizers as an attempt to “criminalize kindness” in the midst of housing affordability and homelessness crises.

In the lead-up to Wednesday’s council meeting, tents were pitched outside city hall in protest, and tens of thousands of opposition messages flowed into city councillors’ e-mail inboxes from across the country. In an open letter, Canada’s federally appointed housing advocate expressed serious concerns about the unconstitutionality of the provisions.

Mayor Alex Nuttall announced just before the meeting started that the proposed changes would be deferred and sent back to city staff. He said a “compromise” was reached with the Busby Centre, an outreach organization that also runs a shelter, to stop offering services near the city’s waterfront. The city had said it received complaints related to the group’s activities in a waterfront park and adjacent parking lot.

“After years of requesting co-operation from the Busby Centre to stop handing out food and camping supplies along our waterfront, today the city is very pleased to have received a letter from the Busby Centre committing to stopping this practice,” he wrote in a public statement issued ahead of the meeting.

Mr. Nuttall said in an interview that council never intended to prevent people from handing out change or a bottle of water. He said council discovered through this process that an existing bylaw prohibits people from giving away food and other items for free on city property. Though it includes an exemption for charities, this council’s proposed amendments would have extended it to include them.

The city confirmed this bylaw has never been enforced. Mr. Nuttall said council has also directed staff to “modernize” the language of the existing bylaw to ensure individuals are not penalized for acts of charity.

“Really, the objective was to have it stop on our waterfront park, beside the splash pad,” he said.

Sara Peddle, executive director of the Busby Centre, said the organization agreed to move one stop of their lunch program away from the city’s waterfront parking lot, where their van typically serves between 40 and 50 people at a time, to another lot a few blocks down.

She said she was pleased to see an end to the bylaw discussion, at least for now, but added that she hopes the pivot reflects a willingness to engage meaningfully with community agencies in a time of crisis.

“We’re kind of at the perfect storm of a housing crisis, an economic crisis, an opioid crisis,” Ms. Peddle said. “People are suffering, and we shouldn’t be saying that they are not welcome on our waterfront – because that’s not what we’re trying to say with our offer.”

Hundreds of people are experiencing homelessness in Barrie, a city of roughly 160,000 located about a two-hour drive north of Toronto. Like many other cities in Canada, Barrie’s emergency shelter system is often full, and court rulings have concluded that preventing someone from camping outside if no adequate indoor shelter spaces are available violates their Charter rights.

The increasingly visible crisis has led to rising hostility toward encampments in many cities across the country – and proposed solutions to the problem have sparked divisive debates.

“There are people who see encampments as a threat to their safety and a nuisance,” said Susan Eagle, a pastor at Barrie’s Grace United Church who was one of more than a dozen religious leaders to publicly oppose the bylaw amendments. “And there are others who see encampments as a sad, sad comment on our inability to provide for the most vulnerable in our community.”

Ms. Eagle said she was inspired by the public response to the city’s proposal, not just locally but from across the country. “It clearly has bolstered people’s commitment to ensuring that there is protection and support for homeless people in our community.”

Mr. Nuttall rejected the idea that the city is taking an enforcement approach, noting that council also voted Thursday to fund a number of services for the city, including a warming and cooling centre and a meal program. But in addition to redirecting the location of outreach work, the city has also made recent moves to crack down on “aggressive panhandling” in the city and encourage people to donate to social service agencies instead.

“I think that the city’s for everybody,” he said. “And we need to manage that balance.”