After more than four hours of discussion, city councillors voted to approve the proposed locations for homeless hubs across London.
During Tuesday evening's strategic priorities and policy committee (SPPC) meeting, long-winded talks opened up into the request for proposal (RFP) implementation plan for the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response Strategy.
Last week, a report went to council outlining the locations of the proposed locations and costs for the hubs. There are three hub operators. Two of the locations are in, or near, downtown, another two are near the London Health Sciences Centre’s (LHSC) Victoria Hospital, with a fifth location proposed in northwest London.
Of all proposed locations, councillors noted receiving some pushback from constituents across the city, but particularly over the proposed northwest hub location at 705 Fanshawe Park Road West.
Ward 13 Councillor David Ferreria opened up discussions calling the homelessness situation in London an “emergency situation”, imploring fellow councillors to support the decision of all locations, stressing that turning down one location in search of another would send a message to residents that the decision was highly partisan.
“I see what’s happening to our entire community every single day,” said Ferreria. “I get a huge amount of communications every single day. And I need the rest of London to stop turning their back on the city’s issues. It’s not just some people’s issues.”
Ward 7 Councillor Corrine Rahman later piped up, proposing a motion to refer council’s decision on the locations to the October 31 SPPC meeting to allow more time for “comprehensive conversation” and education surrounding both the locations and the entirety of the proposal, including the cost, the rezoning of some locations, and the number of beds that will be ready by December being different than initially proposed.
“In my opinion, especially at the Fanshawe Park [Road] location, it’s not what we had agreed to in the first three to five hubs,” said Rahman, who said an extension could give council a chance to go back to the province for more operating dollars.
Ward 6 Councillor Sam Trosow expressed his thoughts on a possible referral saying he felt doing so would make council look indecisive.
“Anything we do to delay this is going to result in additional human suffering. I just don’t think we want that on us,” Trosow said. “Let's not delay this. It doesn’t help the people who are suffering, it doesn’t help the neighbourhood, it doesn’t help anything. It just makes us look petty.”
The motion to refer the proposal failed 9-6 with Councillors Rahman, Jerry Pribil, Peter Cuddy, Paul Van Meerbergen, Steven Hillier, and Susan Stevenson opposed.
Mayor Josh Morgan offered his opinion by the end of the meeting over the proposed hub geared towards women and female-identifying individuals, some with children at 705 Fanshawe Park Road, noting that he’s seen a lot of comments from residents who expressed opinions that are untrue, namely out of anxiety.
“I know that this is a very difficult conversation for people in [northwest London]. You drive around that part of the city and you see people are doing well. And we have this opportunity to support the community as a whole,” said Morgan.
“We can make all sorts of assumptions about what those people are, and what they might do, and their backgrounds. Or, we could be one of the most compassionate parts of the city… As a community member, when this thing opens, I’m gonna show up with my family and say ‘how can I help?’” Morgan said. “These are women, some of them with children, who need help.”
The final vote on the RFPs for the hubs was subsequently the same as the vote on the vote to refer the decision with the same councillors opposed.
