A motion put forward by Beaches-East York councillor Brad Bradford to quickly clear encampments near schools, parks and daycares passed a vote at city council late Thursday night.
That doesn’t mean Bradford, who’s running for mayor in the next election, was happy.
Instead, Bradford said his motion was “watered down” by an amendment.
The amendment, put forward by Coun. Paula Fletcher, outlined that the city will concentrate on removing encampments within 50 metres of a school, daycare or playground within 24 hours of being reported.
Bradford’s original motion aimed to remove any encampment within 200 metres of schools, daycares or playgrounds, within 48 hours of being reported.
Bradford says the change means only a handful of encampments would ultimately fall under that umbrella.
“Yesterday, I moved a reasonable and common sense motion designed to give playgrounds back to our kids by clearing encampments near schools, parks and daycares,” Bradford wrote on X on Friday.
“Rather than listening to parents … Mayor Chow and her allies on council watered down the motion to address only 5 per cent of encampments across the entire city.”
“That’s not good enough for my family or for yours.”
Coun. Stephen Holyday supported Bradford’s original motion, and bemoaned the city’s lack of action on the topic.
“There are no longer places for local kids to play and I think a compassionate approach is to help these people and get them into places like shelter and programs, such as treatment, that they need,” he said at City Hall on Thursday.
Coun. Gord Perks, meanwhile, was a vocal opponent of Bradford’s plan.
“It’s (homelessness) a problem that we are managing as well as we can within our resources, and just moving a motion that says ‘oh there’s a magic wand that can make homelessness disappear in our neighbourhoods’ is just dishonest politics,” he said.
