Changing City bylaws keeps Belle Park encampment community in a constant state of flux

Unhoused population in Kingston has doubled since the pandemic, Councillor Tozzo states

Enforcement of new ruling will begin in April, as daytime camping is now banned in Kingston parks

Standing outside of a military-style tent in Belle Park encampment, her chihuahua playing between her feet, Jennifer Nolan-Kennedy gazed at the pile of disturbed dirt where her home used to stand.

“It was just torn down while I wasn’t here and really all of my belongings [are] either destroyed or dispersed,” Nolan-Kennedy said in an interview with The Journal.

Nolan-Kennedy, who has lived in the Belle Park Encampment since its erection in 2020, was in Prescott for a job interview when her cabin was demolished by the fire department. Left without a place to live, she’s moved into one of the communal tents towards the edges of the encampment.

Under section 15 of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, the Kingston Fire Department can remove structures if they are deemed a threat to life. Recent uncontrolled fires in the encampment have made firefighters a constant presence in the area for the past few weeks.

According to residents, the fire department has confiscated propane, wood, and stoves to reduce the risk of uncontrolled fires.

“I said [to the fire department] ‘you’re not offering us any solutions, you’re just coming in, you’re taking them [heating materials] and there’s no solution. There’s no alternative’,” Nolan-Kennedy said.

Since her cabin was demolished and her wood stove was removed, Nolan-Kennedy feels forced to turn to other, less safe ways of keeping warm during the winter. She worries about her chihuahua, who only weighs three pounds, and feels frustrated by the lack of solutions that the fire marshals recommend.

“Because I’m homeless and I’ve experienced trauma in my life and I don’t have any family or anybody to fall back on, because of those things, I don’t deserve to be warm?”

Nolan-Kennedy previously worked in marketing and hopes to get another job soon. The ever-changing landscape at Belle Park makes her long for security.

“A lot of people say like, oh, you don’t belong here. You don’t belong here, but I don’t belong anywhere right now, and that’s how it feels, because I had a little home that I made for myself, and now it’s gone,” she said.

Nicole Dawn Allen, another resident of the encampment, doesn’t think the fire department removing heating sources will quell the rise in encampment fires. Two weeks ago, she remembers building a small fire outside of her home to heat up water for tea and coffee when a fire marshal approached her, requesting she put out her fire.

“I said ‘Well, I’m going to be honest with you, sir, but I likely will make another one when you go’.” Nicole said. “I just I felt like we’re being bullied, and so I wanted him to know that.”

The marshal threatened to take all of Nicole’s firewood, which took her days to collect and cut, but in the end decided not to.

The future of the Belle Park encampment and the community that lives there hangs in the balance as the City begins to act on two new bylaws: the Community Standards By-Law, which came into effect in December and penalizes people for loitering or causing public disturbances, and the City’s enforcement of  section 11 of the Parks and Recreation Facilities Bylaw in April, which bans daytime camping in any park.

The residents of Belle Park encampment can sense that something is shifting.

The next wave of enforcement

On March 14, Brad Joyce, Kingston’s commissioner of infrastructure, transportation and emergency services, stood at the entrance of Belle Park in a suit, the lenses of three cameras focused on him. In the background, a red tent peeked through the trees, smoke rising from a fire nearby.

“[Beginning April 2] tents and other temporary shelters must be removed one hour after sunrise and cannot be erected until one hour before sunset,” Joyce said in his statement to the press.

In November, the Ontario Superior Court ruled prohibiting overnight camping in Belle Park would be unconstitutional but didn’t reach the same conclusion about daytime camping. As such, the City feels it’s within their right to stop all daytime camping in Belle Park.

Though enforcement of the debated bylaw will begin in the first week of April, bylaw officers will notify residents of the changing rules starting this week. The City has set up a traffic light system on a pole near the Integrated Care Hub (ICH), to indicate when tents are allowed to be set up or not.

“There’s places for them to go shelter as they wish as well, but if they choose to say they can, that’s their choice. We’re not forcing them to leave,” Joyce said.

According to The Globe and Mail, the City estimates that roughly 35 people live in the Belle Park encampment. Residents who spoke to The Journal estimate this number is closer to 100, but with the community constantly shifting, it’s hard to gather an accurate census.

The Journal learned through a statement from the City of Kingston there are roughly 20 beds in shelters across Kingston available on any given night. Despite this, Joyce maintained that there would be space for everyone in the encampment in shelters in Kingston.

“We do believe that, currently right now, there is a space for everybody that is currently in the encampment,” Joyce said.

The City will offer free tents which are easier to set up and take down to residents and increase storage spaces for members to store their belongings during the day. Joyce couldn’t describe  what the storage spaces would look like, or what additional daytime spaces would be available for residents to shelter in.

In November, Kingston City Council voted to end a sleeping cabin program, where unhoused individuals could stay for longer periods of time. In February, the council approved a new plan to build transitional homes as a possible replacement.

However, according to interviews with residents, people who use fentanyl and other substances would prefer to stay close to the ICH, whose property backs into the park. The ICH offers safe consumption services, food, and roughly 30 beds for the community in the encampment.

Residents of the encampment often access ICH services during the day, which has saved countless lives, according to residents The Journal interviewed. The ICH didn’t respond to The Journal’s requests for comment in time for publication.

“Nobody wants to deal with this issue”  

Allen has lived in the encampment for almost two years but wishes every day that she could leave.

“It leaves me feeling defeated with feelings of hopelessness, that I’m alone, very alone. I’m puzzled and confused and ashamed,” Allen said in an interview with The Journal.

 During her time in the encampment, Allen has been robbed and sexually assaulted. Though she’d like to move into a safer and warmer place, the shelters in Kingston often don’t allow animals and Allen won’t leave her dog, Dozer, behind. For residents who struggle with substance abuse, the safe consumption services that the ICH offers are vital.

“Kingston has a lot of really good people that need help. Smart people, young and old middle age, mentally ill, drug addicted, alcohol addicted, and homeless, all combined all here together,” Allen said.

Kingston residents who live near the ICH and Belle Park encampment have  vandalism, theft and drug paraphernalia in the area since 2020. Neighbours of the encampment have actively opposed its existence, reportedly requesting a stronger police presence in the area.

 Though Allen understands why neighbours feel uncomfortable with the encampment, she feels frustrated with the lack of support from the rest of Kingston.

“[It’s] because of the lack of support, the lack of confidence from the outside, and the lack of acknowledgement, that people here have not united,” Allen said.

Throughout his press conference, Joyce maintained the City will do everything they can to be respectful of residents. Allen remains uncertain if the City will be able to deliver the mental health and addiction services needed in the Belle Park community.

“These people, including myself, have had hope stripped from them so many times and been told that something better is going to happen and it just doesn’t. So, after a while, some people tend to look at the people who are presenting those better days ahead, as liars,” Allen said.

As uncertainty mounts about the encampment’s future, Allen wonders where she’ll go next and is unsure of the services the City claims it will provide.

“Nobody wants to deal with this issue at all it seems, except for the people living here, and not all of us want to either but because they’re just tired of it,” Allen said.

“We’re all lacking stability”

Nolan-Kennedy remembers when the City first tried to shut down the encampment in 2020, forcing residents to move their tents every week.

“We don’t have any other place to go. Here, we’ve done the best to make it like a community,” Noland-Kennedy said. “The one thing that we’re all lacking is stability.”

Without the encampment or adequate shelter space, it’s unclear where residents will go. Recently, the City of Kingston has taken measures to prevent sheltering in public places.

In December, Kingston City Council officially passed a community standards bylaw, after rules around loitering, public defecation, and the use of public spaces were heavily debated for two years.

Brandon Tozzo, one of two City Councillors who voted against the bylaw, thinks there’s a possibility the rules will disproportionately impact unhoused individuals, pushing them out of the downtown area. Tozzo wishes the City had conducted an equity review before the voting took place.

“I wanted to wait until we got that health equity review back before we voted on the community standards bylaw,” Tozzo said in an interview with The Journal.

Councillors who defended the bylaw reported conversations with constituents who felt unsafe in Kingston’s downtown.

According to Tozzo, the unhoused population in Kingston has doubled since the pandemic, but the City remains ill-prepared to handle a crisis this large.

“To be rather blunt, the City doesn’t have a ton of extra money, and we’re not here to provide housing, that’s not in our mandate,” Tozzo said.

According to him, if the unhoused population is doubling, then funding from the provincial and federal governments needs to double too. City Council wants to help people, but they don’t feel they are able to, given financial constraints.

“If we could solve the homelessness situation in Kingston with the tools we had, we would,” Tozzo said.

The road ahead

For the residents of Belle Park encampment, the future remains unclear.

“There has to be an alternative, not just taking, taking, taking. This is all we have. It’s not like we’re choosing this,” Nolan-Kennedy said.

Turning her face to look at what’s left of the encampment she has called home for the past three years, Nolan-Kennedy reflected on her future.

“I don’t think we have a future and it’s terrifying because I don’t know where we’re going to be tomorrow.”

Tags

belle park, City of Kingston, Community Standards Bylaw, ICH, Integrated Care Hub, Parks and Recreaction Bylaw

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