As Chatham-Kent (CK) council met for the last meeting of the term, encampments remained a point of tension.
At Monday night's meeting, the Encampment Advisory Committee (EAC) presented recommendations to strengthen housing and homelessness initiatives.
After the presentation, council engaged in a passionate conversation on how the committee will move forward.
The EAC was a pilot project only approved until the end of this municipal council term. However, with encampments continuing to be an issue within CK, council was looking to find a way to continue the committee into the next term.
Councillor Marjorie Crew added to a motion approving the recommendations.
Her amendment asked that the EAC recommendations referencing a 'new' committee, Homelessness Prevention and Response Committee, be voted on at the first council meeting of the new term on November 23.
This addition to the motion was controversial at first as some councillors were concerned that creating a new committee would dissolve the current EAC and take months to start up.
"The encampment situation right now is an active situation," said councillor Alysson Storey. "I do worry about losing that [EAC] because I still feel like we need an active communication channel, an active accountability channel for the active encampments."
Many members of council saw the benefit of a committee with more members that focused on all aspects of homelessness rather than just encampments. The concern was that encampments are still a big enough issue to warrant a committee.
"This [encampments] is the largest issue we face in CK," said CK Mayor Darrin Canniff. "The amount of hours you can spend in a meeting just talking about encampments is huge."
A motion from councillor Amy Finn followed the amendment from Crew. Finn was looking to extend the end date of the EAC to allow the new council to decide to keep it active.
Council unanimously passed the EAC recommendations 17 to zero. Crew's amendment was voted on separately and passed 16 to one, with Storey voting against it.
Finn's motion, extending the EAC to May 31, 2027, was also passed unanimously.
The next council will now have the option to continue the EAC while also adding a new committee, or amalgamate the committee, adding members to allow for conversations on all aspects of homelessness within the municipality.
