There is a growing divide among St. Catharines residents as homelessness reaches all new highs across North America.
As the cold weather intensifies, most Canadians’ biggest concern is scraping off their windshield in the morning, or the frigid walk from their car into work. For the rapidly growing unhoused population in the Niagara region, the start of winter is much more consequential, signifying many more uncomfortable and restless nights outside in the freezing cold.
On Jan. 1, Mat Sisco, the mayor of St. Catharines, acknowledged that housing issues and homelessness have reached crisis-level highs and that something must change. In an interview with the St. Catharines Standard, Siscoe said that helping those who are suffering is on his list of priorities in 2025.
In November 2024, Siscoe was included as one of Niagara’s Big Three mayors to support the use of the Notwithstanding Clause (NWC) to remove homeless encampments. At a council meeting on Nov. 4, Mat Siscoe co-signed a letter along with 11 other Ontario mayors that explained their rationale for demanding the Premier override the Charter rights of vulnerable residents and invoke a rarely used legal measure. Welland Mayor Frank Campion indicated in a letter to the Premier that he was requesting the use of the NWC to assist Welland “in finding reasonable and compassionate solutions in addressing the complex legal, social, and public safety concerns and roadblocks.” PelhamToday stated that the clause is essentially “a way for governments to override the rights of their citizens.”
One unhoused individual told CHCH News that “it’d be basically impossible to move right now, in this weather. There’s nowhere to go. Out here, everyone’s basically ripping each other off — it’s very hard, very hard living. The rent is insane, triple the price it was. Even if you have the money, you can’t get a place because you need good credit.”
Homelessness in Canada is up 20 per cent since 2018 with the housing crisis pushing many people onto the streets.
In the letter to the Premier asking for the use of the NWC, Mayor Siscoe said that the large population of unhoused individuals are resulting in “encampments on public land, up against people’s property or adjacent to schools. Whether anyone likes this fact or not, the reality is that encampments tend to have a much higher incidence rate of drug use, of human trafficking, possession of weapons and other illegal activity. We need to be able to prohibit encampments in areas of sensitive use.”
Executive Director of the St. Catharines Salvation Army Juan Burry pointed out the reason why people desire to remove the homeless encampments: “If there is an encampment, it comes with a whole host of issues (such as) debris, behavioral problems.”
St. Catharines resident Rob McConnell said to CHCH News, “We’ve found syringes, crack pipes, knives, human feces, used condoms throughout the neighbourhood. There’s prostitution, drug deals going on day and night. The use of drugs in plain view is an everyday occurrence.”
In an interview with CHCH News, Mat Siscoe insisted that he’s still “pushing Niagara Region because that’s where those dollars are and they’re the ones that make the decisions.” As a lower tier municipality, St. Catharines is not responsible for social services such as housing, shelter and homelessness.
Reporter Alicia Marshall has spent countless hours offering immediate help such as tents, blankets and food. She states in an article by The Pointer, “I can assure you, our unhoused think the government does not care. Our unhoused have no hope they will be able to access assistance and supportive living conditions.
There’s no doubt any longer that winter has arrived, and with January’s biting winds comes concern for those without shelter and while supposed sympathy is there, a plan is not.