Baby, It Sure is Cold Out There: Fear and Loathing in Tiffany-Barton

The hostile response by some to the prospect of temporary shelter or affordable housing in their communities is a cold the thermostat can’t measure.

This morning it was cold when I woke up. Of course it was, it’s December in southern Ontario. Don’t let “southern” fool you. While it’s not as cold as the northern areas of Ontario and not as snowy, ice has formed from a puddle outside and when I let the dogs out, they came back in lickety split. They know when to come in from the cold.

But for a number of homeless people living rough in Hamilton, or anywhere in Canada, there is no in to come in to. Their in consists of a tent, made of fabric and a few tarps, to protect them from the harsh winter elements. A tent may break the wind and keep off the snow, but a tent is useless in the fight against freezing temperatures. And it’s freezing out there. Staying warm is a full-time endeavour.

Not only did I wake up to a cold morning, but as I opened up my social media, still snug in my warm bed, I started reading comments about the homeless from my fellow Hamiltonians. One post after another, I got to wondering what is wrong with people that they can express so much hate to such a vulnerable group. Much of it anonymous, but there were people I know who live good lives, speaking from the safety of their own homes, demonizing a population. A population with nothing. Talk about cold.

In directing their ire toward the homeless, the real culprits, those with the power to effect meaningful change, are getting away with murder. Murder by neglect.

We need to redirect that anger to break through to politicians who make the decisions and hold the purse strings. And while it’s tempting to lash out at homeless people who are themselves victims of failed social policies, they are not the problem. The problem is the lack of housing, the lack of adequate social assistance, the lack of meaningful mental health supports, and the lack of realistic addiction treatment; culminating in a woeful lack of leadership, particularly at the provincial level, where the real power resides to fix these problems.

It’s easy to hate an addict. It’s easy to fear someone with mental health dis-ease, to get mad when stuff gets stolen and space vandalized. I’ve had property stolen, my home invaded and robbed, prior to COVID and the rapid rise in homelessness. I get the sense of violation and anger. I feel it vicariously when it happens to others. It’s affected decisions on what to leave out and how I secure my property. I know I’m not alone in this, which is too bad since household creativity really sparks up the community. Who wants to put up decorations if they’ll disappear? It’s demoralizing to everyone.

Then there are the bad actors who hide themselves behind the homeless, diverting blame, particularly among the rebel youth population. Rebel youth who have homes, but nothing to do and an urge they can’t seem to control. Yes, these are your kids. It’s 11:00. Do you know where your children are?

In this pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps culture, we are quick to blame the person for their lack of advancement, not the institutional structures that hold people down.

The homeless force us to confront our own fears of failure, they serve as a reminder of what will happen living outside of good orderly direction. They are the example to avoid. We don’t want to believe it could happen to us, so we create a belief that the homeless are in charge of their lives, that their choices are the same as ours, when in reality no one is in charge of anything. A major illness, a blow to the head, a job loss, or a traumatic life event could push any of us into homelessness. The homeless remind us of that, but we don’t appreciate the reminder. It will never happen to me, we think. We need to think again. What if it did? What would you want in place for you? Hint: it’s more than a tent in the park.

Tiffany-Barton tiny houses

In the ongoing saga to site a location for a tiny house project, the city unilaterally landed on the Tiffany-Barton block, a former industrial site on the edge of residential downtown Hamilton in the Central neighbourhood.

Opposition continues to be relentless against tiny houses. It’s not as vociferous as that against the proposed location on Strachan Street, but then the Central community doesn’t have LIUNA backing their play. LIUNA, and their special interest in the Strachan site, being right across the CN rail lines from their premier event facility, was instrumental in shutting that site down, resulting in a lost winter of relief for some of those that needed it most.

Nor did the city open itself to public consultation in the same way, with the memory of angry crowds leading to a cancelled event not that far in the past. One of the reasons the tiny house group rejected the Strachan St. site was community pushback; they feared for the safety of their people from neighbourhood retaliation. That about sums up the response of some Hamiltonians to homeless people. A very vocal and angry some.

But the Tiffany-Barton space is not ideal either and not just because of NIMBY-ist community pushback. The site is contaminated with who knows what industrial chemicals that have leaked into the soil over decades of industrial use. Previously, an ambitious plan put forward in 2019 by Aeon Studio Group was cancelled citing increased borrowing costs and a slowdown in the arts sector, but I have to wonder what the cost of land remediation played in nixing the deal. Land remediation has been holding back the development of brownfields all over the city. Former gas stations are a real problem.

Then there’s the optics of housing people in a caged in area. When I first saw the fencing going up, just poles in the ground, I was shocked.

You can’t help the thoughts that come to mind and what flashed through mine were images of concentration camps. Then the chain link went up. The only thing missing is the barbed wire. Could we treat the homeless any more like animals? These are our neighbours. But I understand that safety goes both ways, and the fence protects the site from the vandalism of an angry community. It’s given new meaning to the concept of a “gated community”.

A complaint to the province resulted in a site shutdown. And of course there was a complaint. Maybe even plural complaints. The province responded with requirements, including a list of contaminants. The city bought the land for a stadium, but that fell through. Did they not know what they were buying? In their November 2023 presentation to council, Aeon says they were doing environmental testing to determine what remediation would involve. This should not be a secret.

Tiffany-Barton had already been the site of an encampment. People with trailers and RVs, which were not covered under the encampment protocol, joined existing residents after the encampments at Woodlands Park and behind city hall were cleared. It was only last year, at this time just before Christmas, that the story of Tim and Heather Grant made the front page of The Spec. It was truly heartbreaking and demonstrated the huge gaps in services for those in need, but it was only one story of the thousands that struggle with housing in Hamilton. The good news is that Heather now has a home, but the journey to get one cost her husband his life.

You’d think such a heartrending story would have an effect on people to catalyze and mobilize them to do something about the housing problem. But in reviewing 2024, one of the defining debates over housing erupted in Stoney Creek when the issue was reduced quite literally to valuing space for cars over homes for people. There would still be parking, just a reduced number of spots.

But people got really weird over losing parking, like unreasonably weird, which tells me there’s something else going on beneath the surface. And when that surface was scratched, what oozed out was the fear and loathing of those on social assistance or anyone in need of deeply affordable housing, like the working poor. Concerns about parking gave way to fears for property values and the character of the neighbourhood, both code words for classist fearmongering. The issue divided the city. Mayor Andrea Horwath pulled out her strong mayor powers to force the decision in favour of affordable housing. It’ll still be years away, but the debate exposed both the need and the opposition.

That same kind of opposition has reared its head against the Tiffany-Barton space. In a Facebook Group, an “anonymous member” posted the preamble to a GoFundMe petition for A Better Hamilton, aimed at relocating the project somewhere else, preferably Confederation Park. Out of sight, out of mind. They also call for more transparency and a balanced approach that considers resident’s “safety, security and livelihoods.” They want money for legal fees to fund their opposition. I’m not posting the link. If you want to support it, you can find it yourself.

I’m not unsympathetic. Everyone has a better location always in another neighbourhood. Personally, I think the ideal location is on the grounds next to St. Joe’s Healthcare at West 5^th but that’s under provincial jurisdiction. Since it’s the province’s problem, the project should go on the province’s land. And with a hospital specializing in mental health right there next to it, where better could there be?

The need I understand. There is a clear path from failed government policies to the housing crisis. But the opposition to any kind of solution beggars belief. How can people not want to see the problem solved? Where is the empathy toward the poor and vulnerable? Where is the logical reasoning that can see the cause and effect of government policy and demand better from our provincial leaders?

Every location put forward for the tiny houses pilot was rejected in part because of community pushback. People don’t see that tiny houses in a small community with wrap around supports are better than encampments anywhere, never mind the parks. It’s a black hole in their reasoning.

The tiny house solution is not perfect and has its detractors on human rights grounds, and rightfully so. Permanent housing beats temporary shelter every time. And there’s no reason why there can’t be a creative design aesthetic in affordable housing. We could find problems upon problems. But until that housing is built, it’s better than a tent. The solution is permanent housing.

What I opened with is the repeated reluctance by some very vocal Hamiltonians to see the homeless as human beings in need of any kind of protection: from the elements, from state overreach, or from community hate, of which they feel no shame in partaking.

The slow reaction of the state to respond to the growing emergency in social housing, and its reluctance to increase social assistance to realistic levels particularly regarding the stratospheric increases in housing and the overall cost of living, reinforces already rigid class divisions while leaving the poor to live in such hopeless conditions they eventually die from them. The gap between rich and poor keeps growing.

The city has adopted a “whole of city” approach to deal with the housing challenge. This means that all city departments that touch upon housing are coordinating their efforts. It is a crisis that people have nowhere to live; the solution is all hands on deck.

But where is the “whole of city” approach when it comes to the people of Hamilton? Imagine if all hands in Hamilton were on deck and pulling in the same direction? If instead of NIMBY we adopted YIMBY, a Yes In My Back Yard attitude. What a remarkable transformation that could unleash in neighbourhoods all over the city.

To end on a positive note and an example to others, while I was having coffee with friends, one suggested I look up the local organization IMBY – In My Back Yard – as an example of Hamiltonians literally bringing the solution home with tiny house-type secondary units on their residential property. There are a couple of what could be secondary units recently built in an alley near me. I barely notice them. An interesting element of the IMBY initiative is they’re tackling the housing crisis within an epidemic of loneliness to encourage neighbourly connections and community between the homeowners and their tenants. I didn’t have time to look further than this Spec article before finishing this piece, so details and an update will have to wait for another time.

I wanted to add, just for reference, a recent video of Mayor Horwath (X, Facebook) touring a number of affordable projects that combined will bring online over 650 new units, which, along with the over 400 repaired City Housing units, will add close to 1200 units to Hamilton’s roster.

Also, I met last week with the city’s Housing Secretariat Justin Lewis along with Michelle Baird, Director Housing Services, in the Bay St project mentioned by the mayor in her video. We had a good discussion about what the city needs (hint: rhymes with honey) and toured a couple of units. More on that when I get around to transcribing my notes.

Oh - one last thing. The city is in court as I type this defending itself against a human rights challenge brought by 14 homeless individuals arguing that barring them from the parks and public spaces in the absence of housing options is a violation of their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. More on that to follow for sure.