Homeless State of Emergency Could End

Thursday, 20 July 2023 10:26

By Geoff Waterfield

Health and Social Services now sends vote to whole Regional council

The Niagara Region's Health and Social Services committee has taken a step forward to end the State of Emergency for homelessness and addiction, by voting to stop it.

Councillor Laura Ip brought forth the idea, saying it adds unnecessary work to regional staff for a problem they are already dealing with. Others agree it is only symbolic and does nothing to further deal with the homeless and addiction problems.

However, Councillor Pat Chiocchio spoke passionately for the Emergency, disputing other councillors who say it's useless.

"So without a State of Emergency we also said 'When will it be over?'... Well, when our numbers go down, and an emergency ends. If it doesn't end for two years, it doesn't end for two years, and we are still in a State of Emergency," he says.

He questioned the claim it's providing more work to the region's CAO, Ron Tripp. Tripp couldn't give a specific time for the amount of work done, but he added he didn't see a benefit to the Emergency declaration.

Councillor Ip also said the Emergency declaration only confuses the public on work already being done for years.

And, she addressed the point an Emergency should stay for as long as needed. "The point about a time limit on an emergency, is generally the definition of an emergency, regardless of this particular issue, regardless of the act. Homelessness, let's be extremely frank, mental health and opioid addictions, will never be zero."

The group also voted to change it from State of Emergency to State of Crisis, which was a motion from Mayor Mat Siscoe. He says cancelling the Emergency implies the problem is over, but changing the name shows council still considers this a crisis situation.

The Regional council as a whole will vote as to whether the declaration is ended.

Homeless State of Emergency Could End

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