ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½

“It’s hard to have a job when you have no shower, you have no food and you have nowhere to keep your clothes and you don’t have a phone because it’s being stolen out of your tent,” said Kimberly Curry, executive director of the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½-based Seeds of Hope Foundation.

“Yes, there are people in encampments — or there can be — who are taking advantage, like in all areas of society. But 90 per cent do not want to be there.”

Critics at Queen’s Park said Ford overlooked the role that skyrocketing rents and the cost of living are having on people, particularly those struggling to survive on Ontario Works, the Ontario Disability Support Plan or low-wage jobs. A recent report found more than one million Ontarians visited a food bank last year. 

Shelters are also overcrowded and turning people away, unable to keep up with rising demand for beds. On average, 233 people nightly were turned away from ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ shelters in August.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles called Ford’s remarks “heartless.”

“Housing is a human right, not a luxury … instead, the person in charge of our province is too busy using his soapbox to belittle vulnerable people.”

“Doug Ford continues to blame everyone but himself for the housing crisis,” added Green Leader Mike Schreiner, calling for more affordable housing and community supports. 

Ford made his controversial comments Monday in Cobourg, east of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, where a local radio reporter asked him about more than 1,000 people on a waiting list for affordable housing in the area.

The premier summed up government supports for homeless people before he offered this advice at the announcement of provincial funding for water and sewer services in a new housing development:

“Do you know what’s the best way to get people to be able to get out of the encampments, get out of homelessness? Get an application and drop it off at one of these companies, and start working,” he said, referring to construction firms working on the development.

“You need to start working if you’re healthy. Bottom line, if you’re unhealthy, I’ll take care of you … but if you’re healthy, get off your a-s-s and start working,” Ford added, spelling out the word. 

“You can’t have people setting up encampments in beautiful neighbourhoods, they just can’t do that. It destroys the neighbourhoods.”

A spokeswoman for Ford later told the Star that the Progressive Conservative government is looking at “all options available to the province” to deal with encampments. 

“We’re hearing from municipalities and residents who are rightly frustrated with the encampments in their communities.” 

On Tuesday in Port Colborne, the premier reiterated his push for homeless people to find jobs and said he applauds the City of  people with supports to get them out of parks and residential areas.

“Sure, if we can give them a shelter, give them an opportunity, get them back on their feet, have an address, they can go out and apply for new opportunities.”

Curry said housing is a critical first step toward finding a job, which is why the Seeds of Hope Foundation has paid for temporary lodgings in bare-bones rooming houses to help clients stabilize their lives. 

There is a long list of cracks in Ontario’s social safety net, such as the uphill battle to get help for mental illness and addictions, but the lack of affordable housing is the biggest factor, said Sarah Ovens, a case manager with All Saints Community Centre in Moss Park.

She noted the wait for publicly subsidized affordable housing in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ is a decade long with nearly 90,000 on the list at the end of June.

“People need housing before they can try to do anything else, stabilize anything else, whether it’s employment or mental health treatment or substance abuse issues,” Ovens added.

“To look at an encampment and say that these people should just get jobs, that’s not a real policy position.”