Orillia is looking into the feasibility of installing four portable toilets and providing regular garbage pick-up for the larger homeless encampments in the city.
At Monday’s council meeting, Couns. Janet-Lynne Durnford and Jay Fallis brought the idea forward, which narrowly gained the support of their peers.
City staff will prepare a report on the feasibility and costs of the idea by Oct. 16.
“There are many benefits to ensuring that we have some portable toilets that are available at our larger encampment sites, and I would also note that it is an issue of human dignity, as well as safety,” Durnford said.
“We’re very aware that longer-term, medium-term solutions and remedies are needed, but this is, I believe, a good first step.”
Not all councillors were sold on the idea.
“I think, in general, this is a good idea. However, I was in Toronto last week and there were porta-potties in an area very similar to this and they were absolutely disgusting, completely just destroyed,” said Coun. Whitney Smith. “There was no concern for the fact that someone’s paid for that facility to be there.”
Smith added residents of Ward 1, which she represents, have issues with encampments.
She said she was recently robbed close to her office, which is near the Orillia Recreation Centre — an area she said has encampment issues.
“I don’t support it because I don’t want to see people now having a resting place that they can go and spend time and potentially vandalize, and now be in neighbourhoods or communities where other people are then negatively affected by it,” she said.
“Daily cleaning is part of this proposal, and we have had preliminary discussions with staff about the cost of this measure, and it is fairly minor,” responded Durnford.
“We already have public washrooms that are available in many of our parks and other facilities, and they are managed by the city and cleaned by the city and not necessarily subject to regular vandalism.”
Fallis said council also needs to consider the “cost of not doing this.”
“If someone doesn’t have this porta-potty available to them, they’re going to go in the bush or they’re going to go on the sidewalk, (and) it creates a lot more health issues that we aren’t considering, and I think the same goes for the garbage, as well,” he said.
“I think we ultimately are going to win if we deal with these … basic-level issues and provide this population with a level of decency.”
Smith, however, similarly highlighted there are public washrooms throughout the city, and “we should just leave it at that.”
“We’re providing that human right for people, and it’s a Ward 1 issue, primarily, where these encampments are,” she said.
“Are the encampments just going to be continued to be riddled throughout Ward 1? If you want to put public washrooms, put them in one of your wards.”
“The city bathrooms don’t provide this kind of access over the winter, so over that time, there are few options,” responded Fallis. “We do have the porta-potties in all the wards, I believe, in a lot of different parks, but (we want to) spread it out as much as we can.”
The inquiry motion passed with a 5-4 vote.
