A homelessness rally was held in the Market Square in Downtown Belleville this morning, calling for change in how the City approaches the ever-growing homelessness concerns in the area.
The rally saw several unhoused individuals expressing their frustrations and concerns, as well as community members active in supporting those with no fixed address.
Melissa Lynch, also known as ‘Ma’ to the homeless community, says ‘This is ridiculous’.
“I’ve said this over and over and over again, this is my family out here. I will fight. This is the 8th time I’ve had to move since January. People like Phyllis (Coffman) have been a great help, but we don’t have a place to eat the food she brings or tell her a place to come to even drop it off,” Lynch said.
“There’s one man who has been staying in a place and has been told to leave, but that place is where they’re telling the rest of us to go. The Downtown core, the gazebo getting torn down because we hangout at it, all of the electrical outlets have been disconnected. When you put in these electrical outlets downtown, what did you expect? Who do you think is using them? Who are you putting them in for? Essentially, people in the street. But yet, they’re shutting them down,”
“We matter, we’re human beings, we don’t want to have carts of stuff, I don’t want to live out of a cart. I just want a piece of property, the others want a piece of property, we all just want to live. They need to know that we are not going anywhere, I’m going to stay here until someone comes out and addresses us. And it’s not going to be security, it’s not going to be police, I’m going to wait until Mr. Mayor comes out here and talks to me,”
“They need to figure it out. If they don’t want to see us and they want us put away like we don’t exist, find a piece of property and put up a fence. Hide us away, but this is ridiculous. And to think, where are we supposed to go?”
Lynch says if they don’t want them to be in ‘full-view’ then help needs to be given.
Phyllis Coffman, a strong community advocate who often supports the homeless in the City, says ‘You can’t just shoo them off into the bush and once they get there, move them again.”
The group at the rally is pushing for more help for the homeless population and to stop the constant moving and relocating of individuals who are causing no harm to the area they’re staying in.
Both Coffman and Lynch say that while there are a select few who may cause disturbances or who may be struggling with mental health and addictions concerns, it is unfair to group every unhoused individual in the same box, and most ‘Just want to live.’
(HAILEY MACDONALD)
