What’s Goin’ On – Part II
The Universe is full of randomness. Some weeks it is all I can do to come up with anything worth writing about in this space. Other weeks, like this one, offer up more topics than I can justifiably expect people to read about. So, I will put out only three posts, but given that self-imposed limit, what you read below had to be one of them.
To my surprise and delight, a reader responded to the challenge to solve a puzzle I laid out in this post, that being to explain the regular clearing of the rail underpass on Richmond Street of homeless people and debris.
Said reader sent me this link, suggesting it might hold the answer:
It’s from the London city website (london. ca) and describes something called Coordinated Informed Response (CIR).
The page that link takes you to includes a Description of Services for CIR, that says this:
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That’s intriguing but cryptic, but the page also includes another link, where there is a good deal more info:
You can go there and read everything about CIR yourself, but my take is that they look after and provide services to those who are homeless, while also assisting London businesses that have to deal with the consequences of having those folks around their establishments.
One paragraph on the latter page goes like this:
The Downtown Response Team is part of the City of London’s Coordinated Informed Response (CIR). They provide an on-the-ground presence along Dundas Street from the Fork of the Thames to Quebec Street, as well as along Richmond Street from Oxford Street to Dundas Street.
If you know London then you know that means this DRT’s territory does not include the underpass along Richmond nor along Wellington beneath the RR tracks. It doesn’t even include the section of Richmond from Dundas to Horton, which is certainly a haven for homeless folks. But we are all big boys and girls, and realize that what is written on a website rarely contains the whole truth.
It is also true that I could find nothing on the CIR website that indicated unambiguously that they were in the business of clearing people and/or their stuff from anywhere. The closest statement to that is the following:
Report an issue with an encampment
If you notice an encampment in your neighbourhood, please do not enter the area yourself. If someone appears to be in danger or there is a violent situation, call 911 immediately. For other concerns, you can report an issue through the Service London online portal, over the phone by calling 519-661-4570, or by emailing service@london.ca.
So if you see danger or violence, call the Police (well, duh) but other than that, file a report by phone or internet. Not encouraging. No statement that CIR or anyone else will even investigate.
This ambiguity is reinforced by the following caption just above a map:
The following map identifies locations where encampments are proactively enforced. These are mixed use spaces that are regularly utilized for multiple purposes.
What does it mean to ‘proactively enforce’ an encampment?
All this means that I am not ready to say it is certainly these CIR folks who are regularly clearing out those underpasses, but it is indeed the best answer out there right now.
That being the case, I say here in this (sorta) public forum that if the reader who sent me this answer (he knows who he is) shows up at the Richmond Tavern any time between 6:30 and 9pm on Wednesday, September 2, then I will personally see to it he drinks for free as long as he stays. I am not without influence at The RT. Just sayin’…
(The music will be awesome, too, btw.)
A final piece for this ongoing puzzle. If you have been following along at home, you will recall the tent and umbrella village from Photos 5, 6 and 7 of my previous post, situated at the south end of the Wellington Road underpass.
As I noted, I do not walk that route, but I do drive along Wellington often, and when I last drove by that location on August 11, that village was gone. No tents, no brollies, no garbage. People, for sure, but no one who looked like they had taken up residence there.
That village looked pretty well-established to me when I took those photos. My gal agreed. But it is gone, at least for now.
CIR’s doing? Again, I dunno, but it remains the only live possibility I have.