Midland’s ad hoc homelessness action committee has been dissolved after just four meetings, bringing to a close the discussion of how Midland can tackle one of its greatest challenges.
“I’d love to stand before you virtually and tell you that ‘We solved homelessness in Midland after just four meetings!’, but we did not,” stated Coun Bill Gordon during a recent council meeting.
Last September, council unanimously supported Gordon’s recommendation “that a Committee of Council be established to consult on initiatives that saw a collaborative effort between all stakeholders to provide an alternate to tent cities and homelessness”, with fellow councillors Carole McGinn and Beth Prost appointed with him to the effort.
“Basically, it allowed us to curate and understand the issues being faced in our municipality, how they relate to the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH), as well as the Simcoe County Alliance to End Homelessness (SCATEH)," Gordon explained. "So we had all the key stakeholders dropping truth bombs on us -- and you can watch those meetings on YouTube."
But council decided to do away with the group since a staff report concluded that “the matter of homelessness falls under the jurisdiction of the County of Simcoe, and that the county is actively advancing initiatives to address homelessness throughout Simcoe County.”
During the four meetings that took place between November and April, Gordon talked about how the representatives for CAEH and SCATEH imparted information upon the three town councillors “like drinking from a fire hose."
“We realized quickly that these were duplicating efforts,” Gordon said. “We were taking time out of their schedule when they’re actually serving the very people whom we’re talking about, to meet and educate us in our own little forum that we created.”
Mayor Stewart Strathern was disappointed, expressing hope that the committee could have provided direction to council upon dissolution while citing the popularity of the questionnaire on affordable housing through the Engaging Midland website.
He suggested that the town could look at the supporting the street outreach program, focus on destigmatizing homelessness, and other avenues “without getting into some serious costs associated with the tax levy.”
Gordon stated by the council meeting’s end that he would be attending SCATEH committees as a citizen and not as a council member. SCATEH generally meets on the first Thursday of each month.
