By Sylvie Bigras
I have written a letter to Mayor Sutcliffe expressing our concerns of the ever-growing security issues unfolding in Ward 12, and more specifically in the Lowertown/ByWard Market area.
The Lowertown Community Association (LCA) prides itself on its citizen engagement efforts and keeps a watchful eye on all activities happening in its neighbourhoods. We are witnessing that many violent crimes tend to occur in proximity to emergency shelters.
Ottawa’s approach to providing aid to individuals experiencing homelessness, substance abuse and other mental health issues has concentrated the city’s residents most in need into one area.
Rideau-Vanier Ward has twelve emergency shelters as well as two hotels that serve a similar function. The Bernard Grandmaître Arena is also scheduled to be converted into another emergency shelter for the 2023 summer season.
Rideau-Vanier Ward has twelve emergency shelters as well as two hotels that serve a similar function. The Bernard Grandmaître Arena is also scheduled to be converted into another emergency shelter for the 2023 summer season.
This over-concentration is unfortunately facilitating predatory actions in the vicinity (e.g. drug dealing, gang recruiting, pimping/prostitution, trafficking). To put it simply, this approach is enabling wolves to prey upon the vulnerable.
At the City Council Social Services budget consultation on February 28 a number of delegations expressed serious concerns about their safety and security in Ward 12. A few examples among many:
The General Manager of Les Suites Hotel walking staff to the LRT at night as they are too afraid to go out on their own (and the hotel has lost significant long-term tenants);
The Theo Ottawa residence for university students at Rideau and King Edward regularly finding human feces at its entrance and expending massive amounts to try and add security to the building;
Young Rideau Centre employees who refuse to use the stairwells due to feces, urine, sexual activity and people shooting up, who do not want to get in the elevators when others are present and who are harassed, threatened and assaulted.
It is unbelievable that residents and businesses in the downtown core of the capital city of Canada have to live in fear. It’s even worse for the vulnerable who are preyed upon.
Your leadership is required to ensure that all citizens of the city of Ottawa are safe and secure, especially those who are in a precarious situation. As such, we are calling upon you to initiate a new way forward by working with your city councillors to:
- Establish, by the end of 2023, an action plan to de-cluster the City’s approach to mental health, substance abuse and homelessness;
- Implement, as part of this action plan, a prioritizing framework where all wards are considered and ranked on the introduction of new social services. It is no longer reasonable, responsible or effective to ask Rideau-Vanier Ward to exclusively assume this responsibility; and
- Adopt new dedicated funding streams to ensure long-term success of the identified milestones pertaining to the action plan. Lack of funding can no longer be a hurdle that inhibits the progressive care your citizens require.
The complete text of the letter can be found on the LCA website at https://www.lowertown-basseville.ca