Concerned Owen Sound Taxpayers

It's Time to Address a Chronic Problem

The Deterioration of Our Downtown Core

I happened to drive by Safe N Sound yesterday and what I saw was troubling. Three people among the usual crowd were bent over looking at their feet in what is commonly described as the “fentanyl fold”—the characteristic posture sometimes associated with people under the influence of powerful opioids.

Residents routinely encounter people sleeping or lying on sidewalks and in public spaces, sometimes appearing unconscious or incapacitated. Open drug use has become increasingly visible, and residents and businesses are witnessing the consequences of addiction and homelessness on a regular basis.

This is not simply a matter of appearances. It is a public-safety, health and economic issue that is affecting the entire community.

The Problem is Growing

Owen Sound Police are doing their job. On September 2 and 3, 2026, police conducted another targeted downtown enforcement operation focusing on the public use and trafficking of illicit drugs. Eleven people were arrested and charges were laid involving fentanyl and methamphetamine. Officers also seized suspected quantities of both drugs and encountered an unresponsive man apparently experiencing a drug-related medical emergency.

But repeated police operations are not a solution to homelessness and addiction. They are a symptom of a problem that has not been adequately addressed.

Downtown businesses are dealing with vandalism, theft, public drug use and disorder. Business owners have expressed concerns about the safety of themselves, their employees and their customers. The City itself recognized the seriousness of the situation when it brought together 102 downtown stakeholders in July 2025, including business owners, police, social-service organizations, elected officials and the Chamber of Commerce, to discuss deteriorating conditions in the River District.

More than a year later, the problem remains.

And there is another cost that taxpayers cannot ignore: policing is becoming increasingly expensive. The City's 2026 budget allocated $9.5 million to the Owen Sound Police Service, a 5.5% increase.

We cannot continue spending more and more on enforcement while failing to address the conditions that generate repeated calls for police, emergency services and other public resources.

“It’s the County’s responsibility” is Not Good Enough

Whenever homelessness has been raised during Council's public question periods, residents have often heard some variation of: “It’s the County’s responsibility.”

There is some truth to this. Grey County has important responsibilities for housing and homelessness services.

But saying that the problem belongs to the County is not an adequate response from municipal government.

The City controls or influences many of the conditions that directly affect what residents experience every day: municipal land and buildings, zoning and planning, public spaces, by-laws, policing, community safety, economic development and the allocation of municipal resources. The City can also bring the County, police, health providers, shelters, service agencies and community organizations together around a common plan.

The present Council had the opportunity to show that kind of leadership. It could have studied successful approaches in other communities, brought the necessary partners together and developed a measurable local strategy.

Instead, too often, responsibility has been passed from one level of government to another.

Owen Sound does not have to wait for someone else to solve this problem.

There is a Better Way

The experience of Medicine Hat, Alberta, demonstrates that communities can make substantial progress when they stop treating homelessness as a collection of disconnected problems and instead manage it as a coordinated system.

Medicine Hat began its 10-year plan in 2009 and developed a coordinated approach involving real-time data, coordinated access, Housing First, prevention and diversion. In 2021, it became the first Canadian community recognized for achieving functional zero chronic homelessness. Since 2009, more than 1,323 people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness had been housed, including 358 people who had experienced chronic homelessness. Shelter use also fell by 64%.

The lesson for Owen Sound is not that we can simply copy Medicine Hat. Our communities are different.

The lesson is that homelessness can be managed much more effectively when somebody is responsible for coordinating the entire system and measuring whether it is actually working.

A Practical Solution for Owen Sound

The starting point should be a single coordinated local homelessness strategy, developed jointly by the City, Grey County, police, health and mental-health providers, shelters, addiction-treatment services, housing providers and community organizations.

One organization or coordinating body should be given clear responsibility for bringing these pieces together and reporting publicly on results.

1. Establish a coordinated system

Create a single coordinating body responsible for managing the local homelessness response, maintaining a real-time By-Name List, coordinating services and setting measurable targets.

A By-Name List is more than a list of names. It provides current, person-specific information about people experiencing homelessness and helps service providers understand who needs help, what type of help is required and whether people are actually moving into stable housing. Medicine Hat identified real-time data and coordinated access as central elements of its success.

2. Make Housing First a central component

Housing First recognizes a basic reality: it is much easier to address addiction, mental illness and other challenges when a person has a safe and stable place to live.

Housing does not cure addiction, nor should housing be provided without appropriate supports.

Owen Sound needs a deliberate strategy that combines housing with access to mental-health services, addiction treatment, counselling, detox and other supports.

3. Prevent people from becoming homeless

The cheapest person to house is often the person who never becomes homeless.

A local prevention program could provide limited emergency assistance with rent arrears or utilities, landlord-tenant mediation and legal assistance where these interventions can prevent eviction.

Diversion should also be used wherever possible to find alternatives to entering the shelter system in the first place.

4. Establish clear encampment and public-space protocols

Housing and enforcement must go hand in hand.

While adequate housing and appropriate supports are not available, outreach teams should offer people shelter, housing and assistance.

Once appropriate housing or shelter alternatives are genuinely available, however, municipal by-laws and public-space rules must be enforced consistently.

Public parks, sidewalks, doorways and business entrances cannot become permanent substitutes for housing. People should not simply be moved from one sidewalk or encampment to another. The objective should be to move people from the street into housing—and then enforce the rules that protect public spaces and the wider community.

This is not about criminalizing homelessness. It is about establishing a clear and predictable system in which compassion and accountability operate together.

5. Measure results—and make them public

Owen Sound needs measurable objectives rather than another study or another stakeholder meeting.

Council should establish targets for:

Progress should be reported publicly at regular intervals.

The Opportunity Before the New Council

Owen Sound's homelessness problem did not appear overnight, and there is no single solution.

But there is a better way forward.

The new Council should stop asking which level of government is responsible and instead ask a more useful question: What can we do together to solve the problem?

The answer is a coordinated system built around housing, prevention, treatment, accountability and enforcement.

Medicine Hat's experience shows that this approach can produce measurable results. Its model is Canadian, data-driven and adaptable.

Owen Sound has the police, social agencies, health professionals, housing providers, businesses and community organizations needed to begin the same kind of coordinated effort.

What has been missing is the leadership to bring them together, establish clear responsibility and insist on measurable results.

The next Council has an opportunity to change that.

We should not accept a future in which more police resources are required every year simply to manage the consequences of homelessness and addiction.

Housing people, providing the supports they need, preventing homelessness where possible—and enforcing public-space rules once reasonable alternatives are available—is a far more sustainable path.

Owen Sound can do better. It's time to start!

Vote for Change!