A photo making the rounds on social media has spurred a great deal of discussion in Midland.
But Mayor Bill Gordon said it’s wrong for some to blame the town for “allowing this” and suggest it is turning a blind eye to the photo that features a man with his pants down as he stands in a vacant storefront area on King Street, which has become a popular congregation spot for many.
“This photo and what is going on with increased frequency in our community is not acceptable,” Gordon said. “We remain compassionate and caring, but also balance the need to maintain law and order as well as dissuade activities that make people feel unsafe in our community.”
Gordon says the person in the photo is local and well known to street outreach workers and police and has shelter options, “but seems to prefer to make a spectacle of himself in a prominent downtown empty storefront vestibule.
“Our amazing Salvation Army outreach worker has cleaned this up again and he has moved on for now," the mayor added.
Gordon says the owner of the vacant storefront is in the process of putting up gates to eliminate vagrancy on the property.
“I applaud that effort,” Gordon said. “Council will be looking to tighten up our loitering and nuisance bylaws and may ask police to pursue criminal mischief charges for those who put up signs and otherwise deface public and private property.”
As well, Gordon said council will be looking at the costs to provide roving private security in the community to act as a deterrent and to report directly to OPP when they see a need for enforcement.
“We cannot contract additional police officers so we need to look at other solutions,” he said, noting the province continues to have a moratorium on more officers being hired for the local force.
“I will work towards vagrancy and loitering bylaws and making it harder to harass people downtown and hold those who do accountable. We have lots of services to help with addiction, homelessness and mental health; more than most communities," Gordon added. "If people refuse to use them and choose to harass our residents and visitors instead, then they will find it increasingly difficult to do so in the days to come.”
And the situation only seems to be getting worse, according to local residents.
Marlena Ladouceur, who runs Bayshore Lanes, says she and her husband were in a downtown Midland store Friday afternoon and could see a group huddled together on the steps of St. Paul’s United Church “doing very inappropriate things.”
“If you know the TV show Shameless, it honestly felt like we watched two episodes live,” she said. “It’s sad this is happening on our main street, not good for businesses or tourists and local shoppers, but I’m not sure of the solution, it seems to be happening in every town and city nowadays.”
But Sarah Giddy rose to the man in the photo’s defence, pointing out that many do not know the full truth behind the picture.
“No, he wasn’t just standing there with his pants down,” Giddy explained. “There were people standing across the street taking his picture and his unfortunate situation and laughing so he was angry, turned around and mooned them.”
Giddy says she wondered what others experiencing a similar situation would have done.
“So yes, this is unacceptable and better choices could have and should have been made here, even just as simple as ignoring the people taking these pictures,” she said. “But in the heat of the moment sometimes you make silly decisions.”
Giddy says she has asked one particular group of people who hang out downtown why they don’t have a tent and go set up camp.
“Their response was that the moisture and dew is another constant struggle for them. They wake up in the morning and everything they have is soaked. Blankets, clothing, everything. Yes we have a shelter, but with limited space so not all people who are struggling are able to stay.”
Giddy says people should count themselves lucky and “put yourself in their shoes for just one day. It’s not an easy life.
“Addiction is hard. Not only on the addict, but also their families who can only sit and watch it slowly take a family member away," she said.
Adam Robitaille says the current system that deals with illegal drug use doesn’t seem to be working.
“Illegal drug use should be prosecuted with prison sentences, but instead of prison they are put in a mandatory drug treatment centre where they have to graduate or stay locked up,” he said. “(The) cost would be astronomical for a few years, but in time you would hope with some rehab efforts some would get clean and become contributing citizens.”
Gordon acknowledged that drug addiction, mental-health issues and homelessness are all issues beyond a small municipality's jurisdiction, adding that they'll continue pushing the county and province for more supports.
“Virtually every one of the 444 municipalities were doing so at the (AMO) conference in Ottawa last week,” he said. “This is an epidemic and our beautiful small town has no immunity. Your council is committed to continuing to do what it can within its limited capacity.”
