The city of Hamilton is known for its poor city governance. Most developers won't even entertain the idea of building projects in the city and those who have, very publicly regret it! This is because of the city's inability to stick to a plan and their love for red tape, permits and taxes. A perfect example of this was a bowling alley/bar. that was being opened in the downtown. They started work then half way through, just stopped and it sat half done for more than a year. While on a photo walk I saw people working and asked them what was happening with it. One of those people was the owner and he was more than happy to share his frustrations! A new student housing building had just been built and he saw an opportunity in the mall across the street from it. Open a bowling alley with an arcade and bar. He even wanted to have live comedy shows etc. A great business plan with university students right across the street, and the city agreed. They started renovations and all was going well, until the city came and shut them down. What had they done wrong? Nothing! The city just wanted more permits and the permit fees. That cycle continued three more times. Then after all that, the city changed a bylaw that now required that mall to be closed at 6pm. How could an entertainment center like that stay in business while closing at 6pm? It couldn't and that business is now gone. This has happened to countless businesses and development plans over the last decade.
Using that info as a preamble for what is currently happening in the city, it is really hard not to assume absolute and complete corruption! The city is experiencing an explosion in drug addiction rates and homelessness. Nearly every park in the city has a tent encampment in it with skyrocketing crime and fires all around them. The city started to remove these camps until an NGO filed a lawsuit against the city stating it was against their human rights to remove the camps without providing them a place to live. With this lawsuit filed, the city could no longer remove the camps until the case was resolved. This left residents to deal with constant fires, whole parks and areas not usable due to garbage and needles everywhere, crimes, attacks, car thefts, etc. etc. Needless to say the tax payers have not been happy at all!
To add insult to injury the city then unveiled it tax plan for the next 4 years, residents will have a 40% property tax increase in that time and a 20% increase in water service taxes. Facing insane taxes and a totally lower standard of living in the city, people became even more angry and rightfully so. But the city council being backed by extreme left wing people (Hamilton has always been extremely on the left) have been in full support of all this and labeling anyone angry with it. As evil people with no compassion, far right wing, and whatever else they can come up with to demonize.
Then it was brought to light that the main city councilor involved in keeping the camps in parks etc. Is very close friends with the people running the NGO behind the lawsuit, they even campaigned for him during the election. The ethics committee found this to be a breach of public trust, but did not see a need for any punishments for an unknown reason. Propagating the problem for everyone, and allowing countless people to die from overdoses and violence. All to further an insane agenda.
The lawsuit finally ended last month, the NGO lost with the judge citing basically how insane of a suit it was. Some very interesting information came out in the ruling as well. Homeless people testified that the NGO strongly advised them to stay in the camps and not to go to homeless shelters for help.
You can read about the lawsuit here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/encampment-ruling-1.7418184
The next move by the city, a plan of tiny houses for the homeless. This is not a new idea, an organization that runs them in other cities proposed a plan for Hamilton. Even providing city owned locations that would be good fits. This discussion between the city and the organization went on for all of 2024, with that organization backing away from the city. Citing the city not budging away from a plan that was doomed for failure.
The city went ahead alone and picked a location that is only minutes from the downtown core. An empty lot that has sat empty for decades because it is heavily contaminated land. The tiny house organization stated that the houses needed to be on the outskirts of the city, with heavy security to ensure drug use etc. was not taking place. So the city did the opposite.
These two photos show the absolute mess from an encampment that was beside the location (an encampment that saw many fires, stabbings and murders).
About 16 of the planned 40 tiny homes are being installed as of today. The insanity of the city moving forward with this location does not even come close to ending there. They did not consult the thousands of residents in the area about the project. Those residents who are very angry, decided to hold their own community meeting about it. Inviting the police, every city councilor and the mayor. Police representatives attended but not a single councilor or the mayor did.
They are using a location that has heavily contaminated land, in an area that the residents are up in arms about and that an organization that specializes in these programs deemed as doomed for failure. Sound bad? Now here is the absolute kicker in this saga. The city announce they had purchased the tiny homes from a local indigenous company for the best deal possible. $35,000 dollars plus taxes and shipping for each unit. Less than a week later it became known that the company they selected had received a cease and desist letter from an American company, for using their photos of their tiny homes. In the next week it was also discovered that the "local" company had just been created only 3 weeks prior to getting the city contract and this was their first job. The tiny homes were purchased from the website Alibaba and got shipped in from China. Sounds very local doesn't it? The actual cost of each unit on Alibaba? $1100 each. That is a more than $33000 rip off for each of the 40 units. Was the contract terminated? Is the city taking the newly formed business to court? Nope they have accepted it and are silently moving forward. Tens of million of tax dollars just gone.
So far it has been a doomed plan on contaminated land, zero community involvement or consultation, and tens of millions of dollars being scammed. And that is still not even the end of it.
This tiny home community is being called a zero resistance community. Meaning that there will be no curfews, no restrictions on who comes in or out and no police involvement. The addicts will be provided with clean needles and pipes and the only onsite staff will be medical employees and one security guard. So in essence not a solution to the problem at all! They will house 40 to 80 of the drug addicts (out of the estimated 3000 in the city) for free. But not help them beat addiction or anything else.
Our taxes are increasing 40% and 20%, the city can't be bothered to listen to the people, the city is rewarding the drug addicts and criminals, scaring away development and business, and tens of millions of the tax dollars just vanish without consequences.
To me these are photos of flat out corruption in action and nothing more.