How London Mayor Josh Morgan describes plan for homeless camps

At last count, London, Ont., had 45 campsites set up in various parks and wooded areas along the Thames River, occupied by people without a home.

The setups have sparked controversy between residents living nearby, advocacy groups helping to provide services and city staff working on solutions. 

Mayor Josh Morgan said Tuesday on London Morning that the status quo can't continue. He's supporting a plan to offer what he calls short term help into the fall. He shared the plans with Rebecca Zandbergen.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

RZ: What is happening with the homeless plan? 

JM: We will receive a health and homelessness plan update, including the $25-million donation, in July. There is a consultation happening right now on what the hubs will look like. What are the criteria that people would like to see , where they would be placed. What can we do with them to help them be a positive force in the community. That will come out in July.

RZ: When will they open? 

JM: We will not even get the first hub online until the fall because it is a complex process. Obviously, the status quo is not something anyone is happy with. The people who are suffering aren't happy, the outreach workers, the communities, the business, the city.

So what we have is a short term six- to eight-week encampment strategy that is coming before council tonight [Tuesday], which is really meant to be a triage. We call them depots, but really these are 90-minute drop-ins at specific locations where people can get access to basic needs, food, water, garbage collection, some conversation with support workers, and then that group moves on to the next spot and does the same thing in another location.

RZ: Is this only about the people who camp along the river? Or is it for people we see in the core?

JM: This is really about the encampments. We are trying to deploy services to meet basic needs to make the situation better. And I'll be blunt, if the situation does not get better through this process, we'll adjust it. We're not going to blindly move forward with something that is not working. 

RZ: How much money do you have set aside to collect the garbage, deliver the food? And I assume you're setting up some porta potties as well?

JM: Yeah. So that's another thing we've heard is that there is a need for basic washroom services. So those are basic services coming in. So this plan is a short term plan. It will cost $400,000 to $500,000 for us to deploy this over a number of weeks. And again, it's about bringing basic services to people. 

LISTEN | The full interview with Mayor Josh Morgan and Rebecca Zandbergen: