An encampment at Bayfront Park is seen on a cold day in December 2024. Hamilton mayor Andrea Horwath says the city aims to end park encampments.
Hamilton councillors and the mayor voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to end the city’s encampment protocol, rules dictating where people in tents could stay and not be forced to move. The vote was on a motion by Ward 14's councillor that noted an Ontario court found clearing park encampments doesn't violate Charter rights.An encampment at Hamilton's Bayfront Park is seen on a cold day in December. This week, council voted by a large majority to end the city's encampment protocol.
The motion called for city staff to bring a report to the committee Feb. 26 that details "the necessary resources and staffing needed to transition from the current Encampment Protocol to the City of Hamilton Parks Bylaw." A generator sits beside a tent in disrepair at an encampment at the base of the Claremont Access in Hamilton.
Brad Clark, councillor for Ward 9, was one of many who felt council's significant investments this term on housing and homelessness — which include new rent supports and subsidies to keep people in their homes, added shelter spaces and plans for more affordable housing — amount to a fair balance to ending park encampments.
Grace Mater, the city's general manager of healthy and safe communities, said it will be important for residents to know the parks won't be immediately cleared out on the first day of the return to enforcing the parks bylaw. Brad Evoy, executive director of the Hamilton-based Disability Justice Network of Ontario, said in his delegation that the housing doesn't exist to end encampments all of a sudden.
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