Encampment outside Hamilton City Hall continues

Several homeless people and housing advocates have been camped out in front of Hamilton City Hall since Tuesday. They received a notice from bylaw officers gave on Thursday to vacate within 24 hours, but are sticking to their cause.
That 24-hour notice came and went, and the tents remain in front of city hall. A few of the people who are currently homeless say they just want the city to find them somewhere safe to live
Elizabeth Schaub, 32, has been living on the streets since 2013, says “my son was apprehended by CAS, I spiralled out of control losing the main thing that kept me going each day.”
Schaub admits drugs have a hold of her, “I’ve been addicted to drugs since I was 14, the only time I was clean was when I had my son, when CAS took my son I spiralled back into a relapsed, and it’s been a fighting the battle ever since.”
She says her lifestyle is a difficult one, with nowhere to live and no one to trust.
“I ended up unfortunately doing some trank dope, and I ended up blacking out and they stole my ID and they stole my wallet, they took everything that I had and all my clothes. They took my taxi voucher to get home. They took everything and I’ve been here ever since.”
Schaub is part of the protest outside of Hamilton City Hall where close to a dozen tents are set up.
“The government is doing nothing, they want to help so many other countries, unfortunately, I’m all for that but we really need to start here at home first with a damaged country how are we supposed to help anybody else.”
Matthew Dawkins-Smith, 35, has been homeless for three years, “I moved out of my apartment in Guelph to move in with my son’s mother. We went through a bad split-up and I have been struggling ever since.”
Dawkins-Smith says nothing can prepare you for being homeless in the winter, “’there’s endless challenges, there is the safety issue, there is weather conditions. This cold weather has been really hard to stay warm, to avoid hypothermia.” He says a couple of people recently went to the hospital a few nights ago suffering from hypothermia.
Angela Vos isn’t homeless but hopes this protest will get the city to work faster to find safe housing for the city’s homeless population.
“I want to do this because they matter, they matter. My son died in 2020, I screamed for help when he relapsed, all of his services were cancelled through COVID and I just see these guys falling through the same loop.”
As of 3 p.m., by-law officers could have started removing their tents and belongings, but Vos said she wasn’t going anywhere, “we’re going to lock arms in solidarity…they are not going to get to anybody’s stuff because these people need care.”
Today the city did not have this protest encampment removed today, and even more people showed up throughout the day to show their support for the people living in the tents.