Encampment fire prompts political push to shut down service depot and relocate homeless Londoners

The ward councillor for Watson Park wants that encampment to be dispersed following a recent fire. CTV London's Daryl Newcombe explains.

Less than a day after fire tore through a homeless encampment, Coun. Hadleigh McAlister called for the remaining unhoused Londoners living in Watson Street Park to be relocated, and for the stationary basic needs depot to shut down in favour of a mobile service.

“Ultimately, we do need to relocate this encampment because there are serious safety concerns,” McAlister told colleagues on the Community and Protective Services (CAPS) Committee.

On Sunday night, three people were displaced by a fire that swept through their encampment near the Thames River.

McAlister’s emergent motion would direct city staff to assist with relocating the remaining 36 unhoused Londoners (and 19 pets) to shelters and connect them with appropriate service supports.

At the same time, a stationary service depot that has provided basic needs including food, water, and hygiene stations would be shut down as soon as possible and replaced with a mobile service previously approved by council to launch May 1.

“The depot was meant to go until the end of March, we extended it to the end of April to afford more time for the mobile service to get up and running, but we absolutely need to get that service going,” McAlister explained.

Members of the CAPS Committee agreed that allowing unhoused Londoners to concentrate their encampments around a location where basic needs are provided has proven increasingly problematic.

However, Downtown Coun. David Ferreira warned that unless the remaining people in the encampment receive shelter spaces, relocating them to other parks will just increase the concentration of people there.

“When we concentrate people outdoors, we are going to run into issues,” Ferreira said. “But in this situation if we don’t have the alternate locations, we will be moving concentrations to other areas.”

McAlister’s motion received the committee’s recommendation.

Afterwards, he told CTV News that tents wouldn’t be banned from Watson Street Park, but discontinuing the stationary service depot should improve the situation for the unhoused and neighbours.

“Encampments are more dispersed [in other parks],” he added. “People know where the services are during the day, but having the depot essentially led to a concentration and a lot of the issues that I’ve heard about.”

City council will consider the motion at its meeting on April 22.