Collingwood council is seeking legal advice for a new policy to address "some of the crisis issues related to having unhoused in our community," according to the mayor.
During the June 24 meeting, council went into closed session for an agenda item listed to as "Camping, Trespass and Moving of Personal Belongings – Unhoused Persons."
Following the closed session, Mayor Yvonne Hamlin explained council decided to direct staff to seek legal advice on the topic for a future policy to govern how town staff respond to people experiencing homelessness who are camping and/or trespassing on and in town properties, as well as when and how their personal belongings can be moved.
Hamlin said there's no timeline set for the policy, and the only direction was for staff to work with a solicitor to "come up with a plan.
"We need to set up a procedure for dealing with some of these things," said Hamlin.
She said the matter came to council as a suggestion from staff but she didn't think the town was receiving public complaints about people experiencing homelessness.
"There was a concern about some of the places in our downtown area where people are taking shelter," said Hamlin. "A lot of people have asked about that ... so I think that has generated discussion around, should we have procedures or not, because we don't."
Homelessness has been a frequent agenda topic at Collingwood council this spring, with a recent presentation by Mina Fayez-Baghat, to confirm a $1.1 million transitional modular housing build in Collingwood as well as double the outreach funding in Collingwood from $100,000 to $200,000, which includes street patrol focused on addressing the impacts of homelessness on downtowns.
The county also plans to bring a new storage facility to Collingwood this year, specifically for the purpose of storing belongings for people who are unhoused.
