The City of Barrie says it's now in a position to enforce a camping ban in its parks use bylaw.
Whether that actually happens is the question after municipal bylaw enforcement, accompanied by Barrie police, handed out 21 bylaw infraction tickets at the Berczy Street Park homeless encampment Tuesday morning.
No one was evicted, although that could change.
“Until recently, the city’s authority to evict individuals from encampments has been limited due to the lack of available shelter space in the County of Simcoe’s shelter system,” said Dawn McAlpine, the city’s general manager of community and corporate services. “The county has been able to make shelter spaces available starting this week for the individuals in the Berczy Park encampment.
“The individuals in the Berczy Park encampment were advised of the offers of shelter last week,” she added. “In light of the availability of shelter space and offers of shelter spaces being extended, the city is now in a position to enforce the parks use bylaw’s prohibition on camping. The specific enforcement response will continue to be guided by the 2023 Ontario court decisions.”
Last year, an Ontario Superior Court ruling deemed bylaws prohibiting homeless
McAlpine said when a complaint is received by Barrie’s municipal law enforcement office, or an encampment is discovered while on patrol, the local sheltering and outreach organizations, the County of Simcoe and city police, are notified of the matter with a request for attendance to provide shelter and support services that may be available as the initial part of the response.
The city has had many complaints related to encampments, McAlpine said, and there have also been several fires in encampments this year.
“Camping in public parks is not safe for anyone,” she said.
Berczy Street Park, which is located near Codrington and Berczy streets, contains one of Barrie’s homeless encampments. Much of the 2.2-acre park is occupied by tents, with fire pits and clothing hanging on lines and branches to dry.
BarrieToday obtained a copy of a Notice of Action Required, issued at 10:30 a.m. by city enforcement services, for behaviour contrary to city bylaws, dated Sept. 3, 2024.
The notice was for placing debris on city property contrary to the nuisance bylaw, fouling the land by urinating and defecating, and camping within a public park, contrary to the parks use bylaw.
The violations are to be corrected within three days, the notice says.
A Notice of Action Required is not an eviction notice, however.
Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon said its officers were assisting the city on Tuesday morning in Berczy Street Park.
“We were standing by in case required or necessary and we were not required,” he told BarrieToday.
The number of officers on hand at the park, located southeast of Wellington Street East, as this went on is unknown.
But city police have said there have been a number of unwanted persons calls and noise complaint calls in the area.
The city said in May it was not proceeding with evictions in its Barrie encampments, but municipal law enforcement staff are advising individuals when their actions or behaviours are contrary to municipal bylaws.
On Aug. 20 at 5:17 p.m., Barrie police responded to a reported stabbing which had taken place on a walking path near the dog off-leash area, just off Coulter Street, in Sunnidale Park, which has a homeless encampment.
The teenage victim was taken to Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie and later transported to a Toronto hospital for further treatment of what police called a non-life-threatening injury.
Police say they are trying to locate a suspect who is described as a white male, between 30 and 35 years old, standing five-foot-six to five-foot-nine with a medium build, brown eyes and brown hair. He was wearing a baseball hat, white collared button-up shirt and a brown suit vest.
Police have said the incident is believed to be "isolated and unprovoked."
After the stabbing, Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall said in a statement: “I want everyone to know, that when we find out all of the facts, all options are on the table when it comes to keeping our community safe.
“We are committed to taking every necessary step to prevent such tragedies in the future,” he added.
The County of Simcoe is the designated service manager for Barrie under the Housing Services Act, 2011. This means the county is responsible for addressing affordable housing and homelessness for all 16 of its member municipalities, as well as the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia.
