Councillors in Thunder Bay are mulling over how to best approach the homeless situation and tent cities.
An intense debate on a report on ways to best manage the situation spanned three hours during Monday’s council meeting.
The city decided to no longer pursue an empty lot on Victoria Street as a possible location for a pallet shelter village.
Other changes include establishing and monitoring minimum distance guidelines between tent areas and places like schools, homes and playgrounds.
The report stems from public consultation and a request from council last month asking staff to dig deeper into the issue.
As part of their work, staff reviewed other municipalities approaches to designated encampments while reviewing federal recommendations to help draft a clear definition of designated encampments.
Thunder Bay is following a human-rights-based approach prioritizing responses to the unsheltered homeless.
Bigger changes like sanctioned sites, face various challenges leading to a focus on actions within the city capacity, such as supporting outreach and looking at permissible encampment sites.
Moving forward administration will report back to council later in the year with an update while advocating for additional funding, and fostering collaborative relationships in hopes of developing solutions to this crisis.
Council has a few weeks to look over the report before it is up for a vote on July 15.
