The park is cleared, the number of people who are homeless remains the same

Cathy Dobson/The Independent

A year after the last tents were removed from Sarnia’s problematic homeless encampment, the neighbours are elated they can safely use Rainbow Park again.

“We scour the park for needles before taking the kids there and we haven’t found anything since it was cleaned up,” says Kim Gawdunyk, a father of three and one of the many Rainbow Park neighbours who complained that their neighbourhood was invaded by drug users, sex trafficking and violence during the encampment.

At its peak in 2024, the park had at least 100 homeless, their tents, makeshift fire pits and toilets.

“It was an absolute free-for-all and the neighbourhood suffered,” Gawdunyk said.  “I think there’s still a stain on our area of the city, but it’s our home and we are staying.

“When the weather is good Rainbow Park is being used again. It’s a beautiful, big park and the kids love going there,” he said.

A combination of outreach work, new city protocols and cold weather saw Rainbow Park inhabitants slowly move out until the final tents were removed on Feb. 20, 2025.

Melissa Fitzpatrick, general manager of Lambton County’s social services, said when the inhabitants left Rainbow Park, some went into the shelter system. Others reunited with family or found a friend willing to provide a couch.

Today the chaos of Rainbow Park may be gone but homelessness continues in Sarnia-Lambton at the same rate as when the encampment existed.  It’s just less visible, say those trying to provide support and shelter.

Despite social service workers successfully helping 20 to 30 people find housing every month, another 20 to 30 local residents simultaneously become newly homeless, said Fitzpatrick.

“The reality is that although we have significant housing placements, we are still seeing a lot of new people entering homelessness, so the net impact is a stagnant By Name list,” she said.   The By Name list is a real-time roster of people experiencing homelessness.  The list has had about 300 names on it for at least two years. Individuals on the list are living rough, couch surfing or in shelters.

Colder temperatures encourages more shelter use.  But social services and police know of approximately 10 people still sleeping outside in Sarnia this month. They choose to stay outdoors even though there are a few shelter beds available to them. Fitzpatrick confirmed that the community’s 140 permanent and temporary shelter beds are running at 95 per cent capacity.   

The county’s outreach team, Sarnia police and the CHIC (Community Health Integrated Care) team routinely go to about five locations where people are sleeping outdoors. They check on them and encourage them to access shelter beds, Fitzpatrick said.

These are people who move around a lot and sometimes camp on private property, along the St. Clair River or behind commercial areas, she said.

What’s clear is that the city’s homeless are not coming from out of town. 

“We always ask where they are from when we have someone coming into the shelter system,” Fitzpatrick said.  “Unequivocally, they are not from out of town.”

The most common reason for new homelessness is a lack of affordable rental housing, she said. While social assistance support has not increased since 2018 in Ontario, rents have.

Substance abuse and family breakdown are also frequent reasons why people are newly homeless, she said.

With homeless numbers not decreasing, several outreach programs have become more established in Sarnia since the dissolution of Rainbow Park.

Post Rainbow Park, retired legal-aid lawyer Margaret Capes and a volunteer team from the Community Law School, created a drop-in on Tuesday afternoons at Bluewater Church on Devine Street.  It’s part of a full day and evening of outreach every Tuesday that starts with coffee at The Grace Café on Davis Street, includes clothes “shopping” at the St. Joseph Church Divine Mercy Free Store, lunch at the Inn of the Good Shepherd, the Bluewater Church drop-in, and ends at Connect Sarnia on Christina Street where marginalized people can find activities and friendship from 6 pm to 9 pm.

“It was never planned to be this way, but it all happens on Tuesdays,” said Capes.  “I wish we could do it every day.”

Capes said she has learned from weekly contact with homeless individuals that many cycle in and out of local shelters regularly, sometimes living in the bush and sometimes finding a couch.

“There’s a lot of suffering and lots of addiction and mental health,” she said. “I do think the community along Devine has created opportunity for people to get connection but it’s only a Band-Aid.

“In the end, I believe they need housing, sometimes supportive housing, or they won’t break the cycle.”