Cambridge council supports Ontario's Big City Mayors resolution addressing homelessness

A plea from Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) to the province to address homelessness now has the backing of most of Cambridge City Council.

A plea from Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) to the province to address homelessness now has the backing of most of Cambridge City Council.

By a vote of six to three, Cambridge council approved a motion from Mayor Jan Liggett to support the OBCM resolution on Tuesday night. The resolution calls for, among other things, more treatment and diversion services to help deal with encampments by the expanding diversion courts for provincial and municipal offences while focusing on rehabilitation rather than punitive measures.

“I have addicts in my family, I have taken homeless [people] into my home. So before anybody says, ‘walk a mile in their shoes,’ I have done that. I have lived experience,” Liggett said during the meeting.

The three holdouts were councillors Scott Hamilton, Sheryl Roberts and Ross Earnshaw. Each said they support the majority of the resolution, but worried about it leading to mandatory treatment. The councillors thought efforts should be focused on offer better funding to existing services.

“Create more beds, create more treatment centers. Don't take away things like [Consumption Treatment Services] sites that are saving lives,” Scott Hamilton said during the meeting.

"Anything being asked in here does not preclude voluntary treatment,” Liggett said.

Julie Kalbfleisch, Director of Communications and Fundraising at Sanguen Health Centre, said putting people into diversion forces them into a choice of going to jail or seeking treatment. Kalbfleisch worries that this would only further burden the court system or force people into treatment without appropriate housing for them to go to.