A person lies on the sidewalk of Dundas Street in downtown London, Ont., which is trying new methods to care for vulnerable people on the streets after years of deepening crisis.Those who visit London, a pleasant city of 420,000 in the heart of Southwestern Ontario, will see grand old churches, yellow-brick century homes, lovely parks and soaring new apartment towers. They will also see shocking scenes of human suffering.
Instead of being concentrated downtown like most other services for the vulnerable, they will be scattered around London, in comfortable neighbourhoods as well as needy ones. ‘Get a job,’ reads some graffiti on a bench near the Thames River encampment. London has grown less affordable since rents doubled over the past six years.
Rents have doubled over the past six years, pushing tenants out of cheap rooms and apartments. More than 300 people use the city’s shelters daily, filling them to capacity. Another 300 or so live in tent encampments. “The beauty of what’s happened in London,” says Greg Nash, a director at the London InterCommunity Health Centre, “is that the entire community has come together and said, ‘This is no longer acceptable. This needs to change.’”
The first hub, scheduled to open in December, will cater to Indigenous people. Two others will follow next year, one for youth and another for women. Eventually there could be as many as 15.