The City and its partners were in Calvert Park and surrounding areas along the Etobicoke Creek Trail on April 25 (2024) for further restoration efforts.
There was a fire on April 24 at one of the encampments. The Region of Peel’s Outreach team is currently working the individuals impacted to transition them to emergency shelter. The City attended the site yesterday to clean the area of all garbage and debris.
In addition to the fire, garbage from the medical building dumpsters was strewn across its parking lot. The parking lot is privately owned and was cleaned by property management by the afternoon. Region of Peel staff have informed us that a health inspector was onsite to ensure all debris was safely cleaned.
City Parks staff continues work at Calvert Park today to clear an unauthorized structure and potential fire hazard that was recently erected.
Following a motion during the City Council meeting on April 17 (2024), that a letter be sent to the Region urging to expeditiously relocate and/or provide additional shelter accommodation for residents of encampments, given the threat of flooding in the areas along Etobicoke Creek, and other public safety concerns. At Regional Council on Thursday (April 25, 2024), the letter from Mayor Brown was discussed.
Councillor Santos continues to vigorously advocate for action from the Region of Peel to relocate those in the encampments into safer housing such as hotels, and to restore balance in the area for local residents and businesses so that everyone can safely enjoy the green spaces.
April 25, 2024 Regional Council Meeting
Update from Region of Peel Human Services
A written update was provided as follow-up from the discussion initiated by Councillor Santos at the Regional Council meeting on April 25th:
- A public health inspector attended the site today and spoke to the property manager. At the time of their attendance at noon, the site had not been cleaned up. The property manager has reached out to the contractor responsible for clean up.
- Of concern to Public Health is whether the biomedical waste is being stored and disposed of correctly. We have reached out to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks for them to ensure the waste is being stored, labelled, and disposed of correctly.
- Public Health staff have also left a voice message with City of Brampton Property Standards as this is private property and the Property Standards by-law would apply.
- Daily updates will start to be provided to Councillor Santos, Councillor Vicente and Mayor Brown beginning on Monday.
- Human Services will continue to provide Regional Council with updates via email between Council meetings as required.
- Outreach continues to interact with the homeless living in encampments at and around Calvert Park multiple times per day.
- Since our update on April 12, outreach has had 55 interactions with the homeless at Calvert Park. As a result of these interactions over the last month, 12 individuals and 4 dogs have been supported to moved out of the encampment, into temporary shelter.
- Our team continues to work with Public Health re: Lyme Disease and Tick awareness.
- Our shelters remain at approximately 400% capacity however if the outreach team identifies a resident at Calvert Park who is ready to come into shelter, we have established processes to prioritize those residents over all others.
- Staff are working to add a new hotel to our roster with a goal of signing an agreement in the next 2 weeks.
- If successful, we will offer all Calvert Park residents rooms in the same hotel so they can stay together.
- We are preparing to transition 500-700 asylum claimants out of the shelter system in July and into a newly leased space. This will free up space in our shelter system for the local homeless and help us manage the seasonal summer increase in encampments.
- We held our first Encampment Policy and Protocols working session on April 18th with City of Brampton, City of Mississauga, Town of Caledon, Peel Regional Police, OPP, TRCA and other stakeholders.
- Our engagement strategy includes workshops with the homeless and concerned residents throughout the Region, with the first workshop planned for Brampton on May 9th.
- We will bring a report to Council on our progress before the summer break, with final recommendations in the fall.
Thank you for your feedback and reports related to the encampments along the Etobicoke Creek. Your ongoing engagement is vital as we navigate through this incredibly complex and challenging situation.
