Homelessness and addiction are emerging as key concerns among Ottawa voters as the city’s mayoral race heats up, with new polling showing widespread dissatisfaction on City Hall’s response.
In a new poll published by Liaison Strategies, 70 per cent of residents believe homelessness in Ottawa has gotten worse over the past year, while 63 per cent of people disapproved of how the city has been addressing the issue.
The polling, commissioned by Ottawa Compass and iPolitics, surveyed a random sample of 1,000 Ottawa residents from Aug. 14th to 19th, using interactive voice recording technology. For the total sample, the margin of error is plus and minus 2.77 percentage points.
Respondents were asked what the biggest obstacle to reducing homelessness, 26 per cent pointed to a lack of affordable and supporting housing, while 25 per cent cited insufficient addiction and mental health treatment.
Residents were also asked what they believe the government should prioritize the most when responding to homelessness and severe addiction. Among the top responses were housing at 25 per cent, voluntary treatment at 20 per cent and mandatory treatment at 18 per cent.
Over 40 per cent of the respondents also said they “strongly support’ allowing courts to require treatment without consent when someone poses a serious risk.
The findings come as Ontario’s big-city mayors press the province to rethink how it responds to homelessness, mental illness and addiction, including opening the door to discussions surrounding involuntary treatment.
OBCM Chair and Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said on Sunday the caucus unanimously agreed that they want the province to undertake a review on the legislation governing involuntary admission and consent to treatment.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is among the 29 mayors represented by OBCM, but was reportedly not present for the vote.
The mayors are not explicitly calling for mandatory treatment. Instead, they want Ontario to review the Mental Health Act and Health Care Consent Act, and consider a “compassionate care and intervention model,” including what safeguards would be needed to protect the rights and well-being of people with severe mental illness or substance-use disorders.
BACKGROUND: Ontario Big City Mayors press province for review of mandatory care, expanded addiction treatment in jails
Currently, the province allows involuntary psychiatric admission in certain circumstances. Under the Mental Health Act, someone with an apparent mental disorder who poses a significant risk to themselves or others, faces serious physical impairment or meets certain criteria involving a recurrent treatable disorder can be detained in a psychiatric facility for up to 72 hours for assessment.
Decisions around treatment are separately governed by the Health Care Consent Act.
But some Ontario’s leading mental health and addictions organizations are urging caution before those powers are expanded.
Addictions and Mental Health Ontario, the Canadian Mental Health Association Ontario and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health say the province should first ensure people who are voluntarily seeking treatment can actually get it.
“There is an urgent need to help people struggling with chronic homelessness, mental health and addictions, but we need to focus on solutions that work,” Jennifer Holmes Weier, CEO of AMHO wrote in a statement on Monday.
“Before expanding mandatory treatment, we need to make sure timely, voluntary care is available in every community to people who are already asking for help.”
Mayoral candidates response
“I support the call of OBCM to the province to advance mandatory rehabilitation for individuals who truly need it, such as treatment of severe addictions in limited, high-risk circumstances,” Sutcliffe said in a statement to iPolitics.
“This is the most compassionate option for individuals who cannot or will not seek vital care voluntarily and it is the way to do right by communities that are victims of drug and addictions crisis.”
Sutcliffe defended the city’s record, pointing to increased investment in supportive and affordable housing, the expansion of ANCHOR, the alternative neighbourhood crisis response program, additional policing and outreach workers in communities affected by the toxic drug crisis.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but we are making progress,” Sutcliffe said.
If re-elected, Sutcliffe said he would double the rate at which supportive housing is funded and built, calling it the “single most important step to ending homelessness.”
He also pledged to release a broader plan on homelessness and the toxic drug crisis during the campaign.
Mayoral candidate Neil Saravanamuttoo weighed in on the issue, pointing that the city requires more affordable housing with “wrap-around services” in the long-term, but points to a need for a more “pragmatic” approach now, and expanding ANCHOR across Ottawa.
“It means rapid response teams to clean up needles and other debris, it means securing same day recovery treatment programs,” he said in a statement sent to iPolitics.
“It means looking at what’s working in other cities to provide new forms of affordable temporary shelter, such as the Village Transition in Gatineau.”
Saravanamuttoo also noted that there’s a need to be “open” to a review on the compassionate care and intervention model.
Homebuilder Alex Lawson took a more enforcement and recovery approach, arguing the city has put too much emphasis on harm reduction without providing sufficient pathway to recovery.
“Harm reduction has to be a path to recovery or we’re just making it easy to do drugs,” Lawson said in a statement to iPolitics.
“My focus is going to be on taking the drugs away and getting people to help they need to get off the streets,” he said.
Lawson, who has been highlighting drug use and public disorder in Ottawa on social media, said he plans to release a broader policy in the next month.
“I’ll say this much right now: when I’m mayor, the party with drugs in Ottawa will be over,” he said.
City Councillor Jeff Leiper, meanwhile, emphasized expanding access to treatment, while addressing people who are struggling with mental health and addiction with dignity.
In an apparent reference to Lawson’s social media posts, Leiper said he would not film vulnerable people to make a political point.
“I won’t do what other running for mayor are doing and film people at some of the lowest points in their lives to use their misfortune as a political prop. These are people. They are our neighbours and many are struggling with addiction, mental illness and poverty,” Leiper said in a statement sent to iPolitics.
Leiper said as a mayor he would work with the provincial and federal government to build 1,500 non-profit homes annually, establish an acquisition fund to preserve existing affordable rentals and make the city’s ANCHOR program permanent, while expanding it city-wide.
