Chatham's biggest homeless encampment is staying in place for at least a couple of weeks.
Chatham-Kent's (CK) council met on Monday to discuss the new location on Grand Avenue East and whether the municipality's current protocols needed to be changed to limit the impact on residential properties.
A motion from Mayor Darrin Canniff recommended changing the distance encampments can be from private property from 10 metres to 100 metres. Instead, council deferred making a decision until its next meeting on August 11 so the municipality's administration can identify locations in Chatham that could be used if the distance is changed to 25 metres, 50 metres, or 100 metres.
The decision to defer came from Councillor Alysson Storey. She believes many people are frustrated with the new encampment because it showed up out of nowhere.
"My belief is we needed to do this differently than the decision to move to the (Grand Avenue East) site. I think we have a chance to improve on that process, to make sure everyone is aware what's happening."
Council was told there would only be two viable locations in Chatham if the distance was set at 100 metres: the southeast corner of Thames Grove Conservation Area and O'Neill Nature Preserve (formerly Paxton's Bush).
Exact locations weren't shared for 25 metres and 50 metres, however, administration explained options would still be limited as the current 10 metres is already very restrictive. The only other 10 metres options mentioned at the meeting were the aforementioned Thames Grove location and a greenspace next to Chatham's courthouse.
People hoping for the Grand Avenue East encampment to quickly move would have been disappointed even if council approved a change to the distance from private property. This is because everyone living at the location would have been given around two weeks to move, just like what was done when they moved from Thames Street.
Storey explained she understands the decision to defer won't be liked by everyone.
"I can appreciate the frustration, I share that frustration. This is a extremely difficult situation, we're dealing with people's lives, people's safety and security... this was never going to be a easy discussion," she added.
Meanwhile, CK's council did approve other measures included in Canniff's motion.
This included continuing to work with Reach Out Chatham-Kent (R.O.C.K.), encouraging people in the encampments to consider using the nearly finished transitional cabins, identifying buildings that can be turned into supportive housing, limitations on the number of tents people can have at an encampment, creating an encampment bylaw and hiring at least one bylaw officer to overlook all encampment measures, and having Chatham-Kent police install CCTV cameras where needed around the encampments.