Anger and frustration over the homeless encampments inside Berczy Park near Barrie’s downtown have neighbouring residents at their boiling point.
The park, which is located along Peel Street, includes a somewhat secluded and shaded path winding its way through a stand of tall maple trees and along a stream that drains into Kempenfelt Bay. It’s closely surrounded by houses and an apartment complex.
Much of the park is occupied by tents, with fire pits and clothing hanging on lines and branches to dry. A few black garbage bags filled to near bursting sit at the entrance on Peel Street. Small- and medium-sized bits of litter are strewn throughout the park grounds.
On a recent afternoon, a short but stocky and strong-looking older man walks his small dog along the pathway in the park. He says hello and immediately begins to complain about the state of the area.
“A pile of crap,” he tells BarrieToday. “The city won’t do a damn thing about it. People have been in touch with the city and the police, and they say they can’t touch them.”
Ed Thiffault, 74, has lived in the large apartment complex adjacent to the park for many years.
“I pay rent,” he says, with frustration building in his voice. “What do they pay? And who does the cleanup?”
As for his safety, Thiffault says he isn’t concerned, as he can “handle things” himself, but he says he’s more concerned about women and girls visiting the park, especially those who live in his apartment building.
“They should be able to be free to walk through here, but they’ve quit. They don’t go through here at all anymore,” he says.
Thiffault advises people to go around the park instead.
“We can’t use our own parks anymore because of this,” he laments.
One of Thiffault’s concerns is the risk to public health the encampments may present.
“Look how many tents there are around here. Where are the public washrooms? (There are) none. This is a water course,” he says as he points out the stream nearby. “Has the water been tested at the lake? Is anything going to happen with people’s health because of this?”
Thiffault points out a young woman in the distance who has changed her clothes in the open and is now crouching to relieve herself at the edge of the stream.
David Mac Donald, the victim of a recent knife attack near Meridian Place in downtown Barrie, where both he and his dog were stabbed, and who lives in the Berczy Park area, told BarrieToday he’s moving away from the neighbourhood after living there for the past 10 years.
He said he visited the park regularly while walking his German shepherd, Gibson.
“I used to throw sticks for him, but now I can’t because there could be needles,” he said. “It’s only been the last year-and-a-half that it’s been like this. I’m not naive; I’m used to some rough people, but this scares me.”
Meanwhile, another neighbourhood resident is also up in arms over the never-ending problems she says she’s experiencing with the encampment and its occupants.
In an email sent to Simcoe County council, and that was forwarded to BarrieToday, Natasha Finbow describes her frustration.
“Persons experiencing homelessness have started erecting tents in the beautiful park close to the Busby Centre, which has created an extremely troublesome issue with several women being grabbed, (and) an elderly woman having what she thinks is a gun being pulled on her,” Finbow said.
“I have had very scary interactions with those coming up from the side of my house from the park and using drugs on my driveway,” she added. “What makes it worse is my eight-year-old daughter pointed out a dead body behind our house. All this in front of a children’s playground and right on my property line, what should be my safe place to retire to at the end of a hard day.”
Finbow also described the cost her family has had to incur trying to stave off trespassing on their property.
“People steal electricity constantly, climbing over my fence and setting off my alarms in the middle of the night four times a week,” she said. “The most recent situation that made me flee with my two young children was the massive encampment fire on the side of my new fence, recently installed at a high cost of $100,000 to keep the encampment out of my backyard.
“I realized at that time we couldn’t stay safely in this house any longer,” she added. “The home is a $2.4-million home with property taxes of $15,000 per year. This will bankrupt my family by paying for two residences and I cannot sell the house because of the camp that now surrounds it, nor can I safely live in it. We’ll lose everything, very soon.”
Finbow, in an interview with BarrieToday at her home, described being surrounded by tents in the park. She says the inhabitants are also incorporating part of her fence into structures being built for shelter. She also reiterated people were stealing electricity from the outside outlets of her house.
She claims police, in an effort to help, shut off the outside electrical outlets, which were “constantly” being used with extension cords from the encampments along her property line. In doing so, power was cut off to a stand-up freezer and a fridge-freezer combination, resulting in the spoilage of more than $1,500 worth of food, she says.
Finbow said she had fled her home in fear earlier in the year, and was not at the house at the time. She says her housekeeper let the police in.
When Barrie police were asked about these incidents, an official told BarrieToday they were unable to speak about specific individuals, but did say there were a number of unwanted persons calls and noise complaint calls in the area.
“In terms of police response, officers have generally attended the area to remove the unwanted persons if they are still in the area, or address the noise complaint, if it’s still taking place,” police spokesperson Jennett Mays said.
Mays described one other incident in the park that was reported to police on July 29 at around 5 p.m. An alleged victim reported they had been grabbed by a male, but there were no physical injuries. Officers attended the scene and could not locate the male suspect.
“Further investigation didn’t lead to any additional information,” she said.
In a May 12 email to Finbow from Coun. Craig Nixon, who represents this area of Barrie, he responds to her request for help.
“Although I cannot share details at this point, I can advise that I have been in weekly meetings with the social services department of the County of Simcoe to implement both short- and long-term solutions to this serious and ongoing issue,” Nixon wrote.
The county is the designated service manager for the City of Barrie under the Housing Services Act, 2011. That means it’s responsible to address affordable housing and homelessness for all 16 of its member municipalities, as well as the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia.
In the email, Nixon also says officials have made “serious progress” and he says he’s “very optimistic about the project that is being discussed.”
“Hopefully, an announcement will be made soon,” he said.
When contacted this week by BarrieToday, Nixon said there was no update on the project.
“I’ve certainly met with Natasha and her husband a few times, and I’m more than aware, and I know the powers that be in various departments of the city are more than aware, of the situation, and it is hopefully something that is going to resolve soon, but other than that, I really can’t say,” he said.
Simcoe County Warden Basil Clarke recently spoke to Village Media about how the upper-tier government is addressing homelessness, following last week’s talks at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa.
The county released its 10-point homelessness prevention strategy in 2023, and work on that is underway.
“We’re not focusing on more shelters. We want to transition people through the system,” said Clarke.
The county also has a $217-million project in the works for Rose Street in Barrie, near Bayfield Street and Highway 400.
The residential/institutional project is to include two towers — of nine and 11 storeys — and 215 units with a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units of affordable rental housing, along with a four-storey parking structure.
As of April 19, 2024, the County of Simcoe says it was aware of 1,217 people who are homeless. Approximately 600 of these individuals were in Barrie — unhoused and living in various situations that may include shelters, couch surfing or in a vehicle, and without a home address.
