Social Planning Council of Oxford Responds to Recent Comments on the Homeless

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Friday, 22 October 2021 13:21

The Social Planning Council of Oxford County has responded to recent remarks about enabling drug users by giving away free stuff.

OXFORD COUNTY - Homelessness has been a hot topic in the City of Woodstock this week.

On Thursday council decided to hire a full time security guard at Museum Square after someone purposely set a fire a couple of weeks ago underneath a gas line, which nearly destroyed the building. Council also voted to remove the benches and picnic tables from the downtown core, because they claimed the only people using them are the people causing the problems. Both of those moves are temporary.

Woodstock County and City councillor Deb Tait put forward both motions. She also generated discussion earlier this week with an interview with Heart FM news. In the interview, Tait says we need to stop enabling drug users by giving them free stuff. She said she believes in a hand up, not a hand out and while the people giving away free meals and clothing have the best intentions, it is not helping the homeless situation in downtown Woodstock. You can read her comments in the article here.

The Social Planning Council of Oxford County has responded to the remarks. Executive Director Stephanie Ellens-Clark says people need to have some some compassion.

"Currently there is a lot of negativity in the community, on social media, public forums, meetings, in private conversations and walking down the street about our community members who are living in poverty and struggling. Many people are speaking in hateful and judge mental ways when many of us are one job loss or pay cheque away from being in similar circumstances. People are people, we are all members of Oxford County."

Ellens-Clark goes on to says there are misconceptions and misinformation behind a lot of this negativity.

"For example, not all people experiencing homelessness have addictions and not all people that have addictions are experiencing homelessness. There is now more known about the causes of homelessness, addictions and other social issues and we are continually learning more about the ways to end homelessness and support people during this dark point in their life."

She says their is no easy solution or easy fix to this crisis.

"The current crises are a result of decades of policy decisions at all levels of government and this is not something that can be fixed with one small change overnight. This is going to take years of stepped approaches to recover but there is hope. Currently community partners and agencies are supporting people with recovering from life challenges. There also have been communities in Canada that have ended homelessness. We need to work collaboratively as a community, as a County, province and country to ensure that everyone is able to live a life where they feel that they are a member of society rather than being excluded for life circumstances that are not their fault."

Meanwhile Heart FM also recently spoke with the CAO of Oxford County Michael Duben about the homeless situation in the County, specifically Woodstock. He says this is a crisis that is happening everywhere, not just in Woodstock.

"Municipalities have been dealing with this for a long time and it is not just in Ontario. When you look at other urban areas, they are trying to focus on education, on trying to limit the impact that homelessness may have on downtown cores and the ability of businesses to be able to continue to offer safe environments and I know that is a huge issue in Woodstock and it should be."

Duben says the County has several people and groups trying to deal with this issue.

"There is many different people involved in trying to address homelessness. The County's role is fairly limited, we don't get involved in mental health issues or addiction issues or things like that. We do get funding from the Province every year, it is call CHIPI funding, which is Community Homelessness and Prevention Initiative. We assist the Province in trying to provide housing to people who need housing, that is where most of the money goes, education awareness, homelessness prevention and dealing with people who are near homeless."

You can listen to the full interview with the CAO below: