Letter: A Reader Reflects on Downtown Homelessness and Community Frustration

A letter to the editor on what one reader witnessed downtown and her concerns about how frustration over garbage is being directed at unhoused residents.

An overflowing city garbage can surrounded by torn open trash bags, on 2nd Ave East in Owen Sound’s “River District” downtown core. Photo credit: Richard-Yves Sitoski

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor,

This morning I witnessed something downtown that left me deeply unsettled.

Several police and bylaw officers were standing beside a number of grocery carts filled with the possessions of unhoused community members. The carts were tucked neatly into the alcove of a vacant storefront and had clearly not been there long. Presumably, the people who owned them had temporarily stepped away, perhaps to use a washroom or access services, intending to return shortly.

I asked the officers whether they intended to remove the belongings. They told me they did. When I asked whether the property owner had filed a complaint, they admitted they had not even contacted the owner.

I told them I intended to follow up and would return later to ensure the belongings had not been disturbed.

When I came back about an hour later, the carts were gone. In their place sat an unhoused man surrounded by garbage bags filled with possessions. He told me police had instructed him that if he did not empty everything from the carts into bags, the belongings would be taken away entirely. He also said he had been told he was trespassing - yet after forcing him to bag up his belongings, they left him there anyway.

Nothing had been resolved. No one had been helped. A vulnerable person had simply been humiliated and intimidated.

It felt less like community safety and more like bullying.

I am especially concerned because in recent weeks there has been increasing public anger about overflowing garbage bins downtown, with insinuations that unhoused people are responsible for the mess. But anyone paying close attention can see that much of this overflow appears to be ordinary household garbage likely being discarded in public bins because garbage pickup costs have become unaffordable for many residents.

We should be very careful before turning frustration about garbage into hostility toward people who are already struggling to survive.

Our unhoused neighbours are human beings. Many are living with trauma, disability, poverty, or mental health challenges. They have already lost the safety and stability of housing. The answer cannot be to further strip them of dignity, security, and the few possessions they still have.

A compassionate community is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable members. We should be asking how to support people into safe housing and stability - not whether we can justify making their lives even harder.

I hope others in our community will speak up when they witness this kind of treatment and remember that unhoused people are our neighbours too.

Sincerely,

Tamara Sargent
Owen Sound

---

Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of The Owen Sound Current and its editor or publisher.