Thunder Bay Councillor at-large Rajni Agarwal has filed a motion to amend the city’s ten-part Human Rights-Based Community Action plan.
The plan was created as a strategy for dealing with homeless encampments with humanity and dignity.
Point #4 of the city’s plan called for building a temporary shelter village. Three weeks ago, City Council settled on the Hillyard site as the location of that village.
Now, Councillor Agarwal is motioning to delete that piece of the plan. In her motion, Agarwal argues that the federal government’s new $13 billion Build Canada Homes plan offers a better solution for Thunder Bay’s homeless crisis.
“The request to remove the temporary village is in order to get the full robust housing required with proper partnerships for permanent structures in lieu of the temporary sheds. With the government funding allocation of $1 billion dollars towards homelessness we should be able to get a much larger grant to properly serve the population,” the motion states.
Agarwal points out that three years ago, the city secured $20.7 million from Canada’s housing accelerator fund, which was a $4 billion program. “If we looked at the same sort of proportion, we should receive close to $60 million,” Agarwal says.
The Councillor is also focused on the fact that the temporary shelter village is just that – temporary. The shelter village was always intended to be a transitional solution for the city, to eventually be replaced with a more long-term solution. Agarwal believes the city should focus on a permanent solution instead.
City Council initially voted for the Hillyard site back in July. In mid-September, a new vote challenged the site, but Hillyard survived. A nine-vote, two-thirds majority was required to scrap Hillyard, and only eight votes were secured.
Similarly, Councillor Agarwal’s motion will require a two-thirds majority vote to delete the temporary shelter village from the human rights plan.
“How confident? I don’t know,” responds Agarwal on being asked if the vote can succeed. “I hope we all work together for a good permanent solution because I know that as Council, we do want that. We want legacy, we want permanent, we want people to be in a better place, and everyone on Council feels the same.”
