Welcome to CAPs
OK, so this one is a lot, and objectivity is again challenging. I’ll start with a quick summary, so please look at this list, and then I have a request for you. It will take you five minutes and 23 seconds. Stick with me, Londoners.
Basics: councillors met for the Community and Protective Services Committee’s latest meeting on Monday afternoon. For the full agenda, video, the whole kit and caboodle, go here, but as usual I’d advise against it. It’s a lot.
The main points
Homelessness and drugs: Councillor Susan Stevenson was told she can’t stop agencies handing out drug kits, needles, condoms and the like.
Rats and public health: Councillor Hadleigh McAlister’s big issue - rats - was discussed at length and the consensus was we need better enforcement of existing bylaws.
There are tighter rules on short-term rentals such as Airbnbs.
And the committee was due to debate Community Housing Financial Challenges (Item 5.2) but Jo Dee Phoenix1, President of Tolpuddle Housing Co-operative, delivered a speech that TOLD IT LIKE IT IS. This follows last week’s impressive CTV exclusive in which Tolpuddle pleaded for help from the City. More on that… now.
The request for you: just listen
Here’s an audio clip of 5 minutes and 23 seconds, in which Ms. Phoenix knocks it out of the park (although she’s a bit close to the mic, so don’t turn it up too loud). The full transcript is also at the bottom of my post. The whole city needs to hear this.
And here are some choice quotes:
We have tried as a board of directors to work in partnership with the City of London through your staff on many occasions for funding, for solutions, for help, for resources and we have received nothing but crickets.
Our most recent meeting with three city staffs, it took me six weeks to coordinate because they were unwilling to meet on site with us.
Tolpuddle has been the victim of many decisions by council. The victim. Most recently we’ve been the victim of the housing list because those people aren’t vetted and council for some reason wants to pat themselves on their back when they house somebody who’s homeless.
Well then
Ms. Phoenix spoke of homeless people being housed at Tolpuddle without support or funding to meet their complex needs, and problems experienced by other residents as a result. She spoke well, to say the least, and shocked most of the room into silence. There were a few moments where nobody knew where to look - this audience is used to a softer message, without such candour2.
The committee agreed to fund requests for support, which seemed to be security and more, and to have staff work with the housing co-op. Well done to everyone who stepped up to help. London’s related, holistic issues related to housing and homelessness do, however, continue to exist.
Opinion alert: We were led to understand the “whole” of the city, with all its agencies and resources and experts, was being focused on addressing the issue of homelessness. Against that background, this criticism is shocking.
Those affected deserve change. Will they get it? Well, so far they’ve only had some attention because the local TV station did a story. My heart goes out to those people, and I have massive admiration for Jo Dee Phoenix. Thanks for giving her your five minutes, too.
Let’s not forget this story. I’ll return to it in future.
Moving on to the rat problem
The issue of rats was discussed at length and the outcome was a call for stronger enforcement. Here’s CTV, CBC and LFP.
And here are the salient points, as I see them:
Robert Shields (pictured), who spoke to the committee, has been inundated with comments about rats since he appeared in the first story about this: CHEWING THROUGH WALLS! He watched a lot of committee work and seemed bemused but unsurprised by the outcome.
Everybody had ideas on what to do, and who to get a report from, and it’s really clear that time is running out for this council to get anything done tick tock tick tock tick tock. We heard “Q3” a lot, and of course there is an election due on October 26.
The City of London already has bylaws to deal with this problem. This seemed to come as a surprise to some in the room; a member of council actually asked staff about it, apparently to make a sensible point but still, bloody hell.
Despite this, I counted 38 people in a room combining in deep discussion seeking to solve this problem. See my previous point. Sometimes I can’t keep my face straight.
Opinion alert: The most fundamental reason for a local authority to exist is to collect the garbage. This is true all over the world. Ours is bad at it. The bylaws exist and, in a town obsessed with taxation levels and small government, they are not enforced well.
Better public services would address the rat problem, and so many others. This is obvious to me and everyone else who does not work at City Hall3.
Support for drug users
Moving on to Councillor Susan Stevenson’s current bête noire: agencies helping people with items like drug kits, condoms and so on. The CTV coverage shows, conversely, that council may have a desire to increase services; the LFP story is over here.
Somewhat amusingly, Stevenson was told she can’t stop agencies handing out drug kits, needles, condoms and the like. Dr. Alex Summers took time away from the Health Unit’s cyber woes to school folks gently. For example, he explained needles are given out based on provincial health standards and, frankly, city councillors don’t get a say.
But that won’t stop some of them, and this issue will stick around, especially on social media. We might hear about it again at Full Council on March 31.
Airbnbs for two-year-olds
Another important item: those short-term rentals and the new rule that Airbnbs are limited in the number of people per room. Daryl from CTV yet again4.
(This begs the question - if we can’t enforce the bylaws that stop rat infestations, who’s policing whether a child is 2 or 3 years old in a local Airbnb?5 Unclear.)
Aesthetic break
And finally - WILL YOU PLEASE PEE
I can’t believe I need to say this again, but somehow we have elected a council that can’t police its own pee breaks. If you can bear it, you can call up the video and head to 2hrs 35 mins6 for this ludicrous discussion, but here’s the gist.
The committee chair, Councillor Corrine Rahman7 suggested a break before the next item - I forget which. It had been three two and a half hours, after all. Councillor David Ferreira agreed, and said he needed a bio break. So the committee had a vote… and voted against having a break. Ferreira left the room briefly anyway8, presumably to do the necessary.
Opinion alert: this isn’t how teams work. We’ve reached the point where elected members are happy to deny someone the basic dignity of a washroom break, and the amazing situation of a city councillor who can’t seem to get his colleagues to agree to anything. If there wasn’t an election due soon, I’d suggest we have one. What a mess.
Enough
Look out for more from me soon. I’ll do something about the Planning committee, plus a roundup on Friday, and I’m planning BONUS POSTS for next week, when City Hall meetings are suspended for March Break. Might dig into the basement archive…
Thanks for reading and please tell your friends!
And here are the words of Jo Dee Phoenix. Awesome.
APPENDIX: Tolpuddle President’s speech - full transcript
Note: I used a bot for this and have done an edit, but if you see a problem, let me know. Thanks!
My name is Jo Dee Phoenix and I’m currently the president of the board of directors at Tolpuddle Housing Cooperative. Many of you in the room know me and have worked with me in the past. I’ve been a long term resident of Tolpuddle for approximately 11 years.
Most recently, I’m sure we’ve all seen the news story of last Friday, Thursday or Friday I had a whole five minutes worth of something I prepared to say but recent actions or again, inactions of council has diverted my attention.
If anybody in this room does not feel the urgency of this issue, I don’t know what it is we can do to help you.
We house 134 units of highly vulnerable low income people and we’ve been given no assistance from the City of London via their staff.
Nobody at council stood up and asked questions.
Nobody did the footwork to find out what I was going to talk about today.
We have tried as a board of directors to work in partnership with the City of London through your staff on many occasions for funding, for solutions, for help, for resources and we have received nothing but crickets.
There was a change in housing division staff that we weren’t even made aware of.
As a matter of fact, the last meeting that we had, who is somebody who’s not even with the department anymore, we were told that there was going to be a security audit. That was 16 months ago. The city staff hasn’t followed up.
Our most recent meeting with three city staffs, it took me six weeks to coordinate because they were unwilling to meet on site with us.
They were unwilling to meet on site and when we did meet on site, we were told they had a limited 30 minutes.
They were going to talk and we were going to listen.
That is not a partnership.
That is not what the city manager stood up and told council about last week.
That we work closely to form partnerships to see what resources we can extend.
That’s not happened and it hasn’t happened at toe puddle for 10 years.
Tolpuddle has been the victim of many decisions by council.
The victim.
Most recently we’ve been the victim of the housing list because those people aren’t vetted and council for some reason wants to pat themselves on their back when they house somebody who’s homeless.
You’re not doing them or the community any services or any favors.
Somebody who is suffering deeply from mental health and addiction issues.
They need help. They need to be made Well, I just heard the councillor speak to Dr. Summers speak saying that exact same thing.
But we want to take somebody off the street in the active throes of addiction, in the active throes of a mental health crisis, put them behind a closed door at Tolpuddle and say, we’ve done our job.
Tolpuddle doesn’t have the resources to help that person. As I said last week, we are a piece of the puzzle. We’re not the first step.
Council has done nothing to help those people but to try to house them. What resources do they have at Tolpuddle? They have zero. So what happens is they rely on the support systems they have from the street.
Because government at all levels, it’s not just you guys, it’s all levels.
The resources they have on the street, the support they have on the street, they invite them into their homes and then we have to deal with it because council, through staff, isn’t giving us any resources.
We now have 24/7 security - 24/7 security.
I was told by a previous housing division manager that the city was doing a security audit and that there would be money attached to that. As I said, that was about 16 to 18 years months ago.
We are in an operational deficit. If we don’t get help now, it is going to be an urgent matter that the city has to deal with.
Thank you, madam chair.
ends ends ends
Correct my spelling if I have her name wrong. I’m using online sources.
And what a delight it was to watch their faces.
Daryl worked hard for us this week. Buy that man a pint.
Noting this isn’t in the report, I’ll add that a committee discussion had two years old as the maximum age for an extra person in the room. This didn’t go ahead anyway. It doesn’t matter if it’s not enforced well.
Apologies, I miscounted the hours and added an hour to bladder capacity. They waited two hours and 35 minutes, for the record. The point stands.
Taking over as Chair from Councillor Elizabeth Peloza, who is handling cancer with an admirable attitude.
Unsure if ace or deuce. Let us know, David.
Jo Dee is a force for sure! Glad you shared her testimony. And thanks for these roundups. Now that it’s not my job to tune in, I can’t bear to watch.
Thank you for making some of what is going on at City Hall easily digestible by busy voters who might not otherwise get the story. We need informed citizens to get out and vote for better.