October 15, 2024 • 9 mins
Ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino joins Jon Liedtke on AM800 CKLW to discuss recent polling that shows Ontarians want Premier Ford to do more about encampments and what more needs to be done locally to help tackle the growing issue.
This interview aired on AM800 CKLW
This interview aired on AM800 CKLW
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
New polling is out. Nearly two thirds of Ontarian's think
that the Premier Doug Ford must do more to deal
with homeless encampments in the province, saying he's not doing enough.
Fifty four percent think that tents in municipal parks are
a big problem, while thirty percent say they are a
minor problem, and sixteen percent insists they're not really a problem,
(00:23):
but it's obviously something that signals to people that things
are not working right. That's according to the president of Abacus,
which did the polling, David Coletto. Sixty two percent of
people feel Ford is not doing enough to help municipalities
deal with encampments. Joining me right now to discuss the
issue of encampments. We have our own here in the
city of Windsor. One was just dealt with not too
(00:45):
long ago last week. Ward three counselor Ronaldo Augustino joins
me right now.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Hey, how you doing, Good morning everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Welcome to Fall, Yes, welcome to Fall. We all have
our jackets that we've brought into the studio today and
trying to stay warm, and that's something Rinaldo. I heard
you chatting with my colleague Kyle Horner about last week.
We are approaching the colder season right now fall, but
again getting closer to winter and to expected snow, it
gets more and more difficult for our people who are
(01:13):
unhoused to be able to abide on our streets. And
encampments are a concern. They're a way for people to
come together and congregate and keep warm if they start
a little fire here or there, but it's not safe.
It's something that the city doesn't want to see has
to deal with. What's it like having to deal with
encampments that pop up? From your point of view.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's constant work.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
We just had to deal with one on Riverside Drive,
right at the foot of all Latin Riverside Drive, and
there were nice people and they've just been displaced. And
that's what's happening. People are being displaced for other people
that can pay more right, and that's I think if
you start looking at from that lens, you understand the
situation more and more. But there's also people that are
being displaced are almost because of addictions, mental health issues.
(01:56):
It's one of those situations that I look at what
we do here in the City of Winter. We're really
good because we micro manage the situation, and to our
city's credit, you know, we have our teams out there
that are all working together, whether it's with CMHA or
whether it's with the Mission or any of our shelters.
There's a good team of people working together here, including
wins of police. But we're also lucky because we're a
(02:17):
small city, right, We can really get to places very
quickly and we don't let things grow out of control
because once things start to multiply, that makes the job
even tougher.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
But it's one of those things that I get to
calls about every day.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I got a call about one the other day behind
on different place, and you come to find out that
it's actually not even an encampment. It's just all the
people that live in nine to twenty oh let want
to find a place outside where they can congregate and
drink right and listen to music. And you know, it's
one of those things where it's just it's another one
of the NonStop issues of being downtown.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Downtown has its own set of unique circumstances, but you know,
those circumstances are expanding into other words, we're seeing encampments
throughout the entire city at time and it's not a surprise.
I know the city is doing currently one of its
homeless counts.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I believe there's something just before the winner goes. I
believe that that is something that is being put together
at the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Again, how important is it to be able to garner
those numbers, to be able to forecast and project what
you need to do.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, It's very important.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It's also important to understand the shelter system and what
we're out there.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
And you know, you get I hear a lot from.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
People and say, well, counselor that the shelters are almost
maximum capacity. In a sense, that means we're actually doing
a pretty good job because we're getting people off the
streets into our shelters. So those two numbers really aligned
together to find out exactly what's going on on our streets.
So to me, there's you know, the shelters, there's a homelessness,
(03:44):
there's the encampments, there's people staying with friends and family,
there's a waiting list for housing.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
There's so many components to this.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
But again we have different different categories and different people
micromanaging each one of those.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
As you said, there's a number of different reasons why
someone might be on how It could be that they've
fallen on hard circumstances. It could because of mental health, addiction,
it could be for any number of reasons. But what
we know is is that when someone is on the street,
in a lot of cases, it's because they can't find
a bed to rent. And that could be because there's
someone who's renting a room or a house that could
be leasing a place, but that's they're not because someone
(04:18):
already is leasing who's looking to buy, but they're not
able to buy because there's already things that are taken.
Point being, is that housing stock comes down to this issue. Obviously,
that's one of the biggest focuses of the city council,
of the province right now, quite frankly of the country.
But people say, we just don't have enough rooms in
the city. Is that the case? Are we are we
full up right now? Ronaldo?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
We're it did again. No, we're not. We're not even close.
We have a lot of rooms.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
It just happens to be a lot of those rooms
are in buildings that are empty, right And that's you know,
one of the one of the things I've been doing
is floating an ideal idea. And this is why I
really like working with our opper levels of government, especially
the province, is they're very up into listening to ideas. So,
you know, I look next door, for example, at sixteen
sixteen right beside where we are here, there's about forty
(05:07):
empty rooms there that are not being used.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Forty yes, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And then you look at the Securities building, You look
at other buildings in this city where projects have been
started but the funding is not there to complete them,
or because of the bank systems that are going on
right now, the impossibilities of getting a loan being in
the housing market are real. So is there an avenue,
and this is an idea I've been floating. Is there
(05:32):
an avenue where we can somehow either provincially, federary, municipally
or all three together provide some type of funding for
projects that have already been started but haven't been completed
for financial reasons.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is there a way for us to go to a
landlord and.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Say, hey, I understand you have X number of empty
rooms and you can't get a loan and you can't
afford to finish them, and you're waiting to make that
money so you can pull the trigger on those moves.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Is there a way we can step in?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
And if we step in, well, you you'll be required
to take people off of our housing list. So it's
an idea I've been talking to quite a few people about,
and to me, it's a really low hanging food idea
because there's so many empty rooms in this city that
just need to be finished, right, that just need to
be finished them.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Money's got to be there to finish them.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And if those rooms were finished, we could take some
people potentially off that list, not the people that are
in the highest acute levels. Of course, those people need
a different type of supports. And then, of course there's
a lot of people out there that I could say, yeah,
you know what, let's build up five hundred tiny homes
on one condition you follow the rules. That's a whole
another that's a whole other conversation, because there's a lot
(06:40):
of people that would rather say, yeah, you know what,
I'll be happy sitting up here by myself and my
own tent, being able to make my own rules.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So it's very complex.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It'd be a lot cheaper to go and renovate existing
rooms that need completion than to start the entire process.
And I know that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corps traditionally,
going back, you know, decades and decades decades, has been
able to provide the loan and then reduce the interest rate.
They take what, let's say, you know, back in like
the seventies, for example, a twenty percent interest rate and
(07:12):
drop it down to a two percent interest rate for
the recipient after amount of time that they used it,
because they're bringing something that's beneficial to the community. But
you know, Roaldo, you and I have both operated in
a small business sector, and when I look at this,
the first thing that I'm thinking of right now is
we always talk about trying to get that silver bullet
and get the new battery plant, or get the new
auto shop. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think
(07:33):
it's something that we should always be striving for. But
you know, you employed a number of people, a small
handful of people. I did as well. The idea being
is we could try to get a thousand jobs, but
if we can foster you to get another twenty jobs,
if I can hire another fifteen people, if you can
do that and reach a bit more of a critical mass,
you don't need to do the silver bullet, you can
spread it across. That's sort of what this sounds like.
(07:54):
We don't have to go build a whole new neighborhood.
We can just renovate some buildings that already exist and
deal with the immediate situation at hand.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
And to do that, you also need to understand the
needs of the people that are looking for those rooms, right,
and that's where the relationships matter, you know, And that's
one of the things that again, and don't have my
head stuck in the sand.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I know we have our own issues here.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But the building the relationships with the people that are
out there on the street is something that is critical
to this to this project because understanding why they're not
in housing and what helped to get them is also important.
And I think that's part of the account that we're doing,
as well as understanding the needs. But yeah, looking at
the empty spaces that currently exist and having some kind
(08:39):
of even when you look at like abandoned homes.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I know, we have the vacant home tax, which is fantastic, but.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Even looking connecting with those owners and saying, hey, you know,
what is the reason that you're leaving the South Empties.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
The insurance issues from fire. What can we do?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
What can we do as a country, as a province,
as a city to step in and you know, uh,
it's it's it's a way to connect, connect, but also
get some of these empty spaces occupy occupied. And if
they're occupied, then you're gonna see the problems get less
and less and less and less. Because housing stock is
a big issue and we have a lot of empty
(09:15):
spaces in this city that I could think of off
the top of the Agencys Hunter on all that Avenue
is another one. What's it gonna take to get that
built and converted into residential apartments, even if it's a
short term thing. What can we do because you know,
it's got to be projects that in the long run
can also be sustainable for people, and that's you know,
(09:35):
getting people indoors, especially at this time of year where
things are getting colder is a big thing.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And if we can do that, that's gonna help.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
With these encampments, well, they're all our community members, That's
how it works. These are all our neighbors. Regardless of
whether or not someone is housed or unhoused. They're all
windsor rights through and through Ronaldo Augustino is the Ward
three Counselor for the City of Windsor. Thank you so
much for your time.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Thank you very much.
New polling is out. Nearly two thirds of Ontarian's think
that the Premier Doug Ford must do more to deal
with homeless encampments in the province, saying he's not doing enough.
Fifty four percent think that tents in municipal parks are
a big problem, while thirty percent say they are a
minor problem, and sixteen percent insists they're not really a problem,
(00:23):
but it's obviously something that signals to people that things
are not working right. That's according to the president of Abacus,
which did the polling, David Coletto. Sixty two percent of
people feel Ford is not doing enough to help municipalities
deal with encampments. Joining me right now to discuss the
issue of encampments. We have our own here in the
city of Windsor. One was just dealt with not too
(00:45):
long ago last week. Ward three counselor Ronaldo Augustino joins
me right now.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Hey, how you doing, Good morning everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Welcome to Fall, Yes, welcome to Fall. We all have
our jackets that we've brought into the studio today and
trying to stay warm, and that's something Rinaldo. I heard
you chatting with my colleague Kyle Horner about last week.
We are approaching the colder season right now fall, but
again getting closer to winter and to expected snow, it
gets more and more difficult for our people who are
(01:13):
unhoused to be able to abide on our streets. And
encampments are a concern. They're a way for people to
come together and congregate and keep warm if they start
a little fire here or there, but it's not safe.
It's something that the city doesn't want to see has
to deal with. What's it like having to deal with
encampments that pop up? From your point of view.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's constant work.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
We just had to deal with one on Riverside Drive,
right at the foot of all Latin Riverside Drive, and
there were nice people and they've just been displaced. And
that's what's happening. People are being displaced for other people
that can pay more right, and that's I think if
you start looking at from that lens, you understand the
situation more and more. But there's also people that are
being displaced are almost because of addictions, mental health issues.
(01:56):
It's one of those situations that I look at what
we do here in the City of Winter. We're really
good because we micro manage the situation, and to our
city's credit, you know, we have our teams out there
that are all working together, whether it's with CMHA or
whether it's with the Mission or any of our shelters.
There's a good team of people working together here, including
wins of police. But we're also lucky because we're a
(02:17):
small city, right, We can really get to places very
quickly and we don't let things grow out of control
because once things start to multiply, that makes the job
even tougher.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
But it's one of those things that I get to
calls about every day.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I got a call about one the other day behind
on different place, and you come to find out that
it's actually not even an encampment. It's just all the
people that live in nine to twenty oh let want
to find a place outside where they can congregate and
drink right and listen to music. And you know, it's
one of those things where it's just it's another one
of the NonStop issues of being downtown.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Downtown has its own set of unique circumstances, but you know,
those circumstances are expanding into other words, we're seeing encampments
throughout the entire city at time and it's not a surprise.
I know the city is doing currently one of its
homeless counts.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I believe there's something just before the winner goes. I
believe that that is something that is being put together
at the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Again, how important is it to be able to garner
those numbers, to be able to forecast and project what
you need to do.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, It's very important.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It's also important to understand the shelter system and what
we're out there.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
And you know, you get I hear a lot from.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
People and say, well, counselor that the shelters are almost
maximum capacity. In a sense, that means we're actually doing
a pretty good job because we're getting people off the
streets into our shelters. So those two numbers really aligned
together to find out exactly what's going on on our streets.
So to me, there's you know, the shelters, there's a homelessness,
(03:44):
there's the encampments, there's people staying with friends and family,
there's a waiting list for housing.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
There's so many components to this.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
But again we have different different categories and different people
micromanaging each one of those.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
As you said, there's a number of different reasons why
someone might be on how It could be that they've
fallen on hard circumstances. It could because of mental health, addiction,
it could be for any number of reasons. But what
we know is is that when someone is on the street,
in a lot of cases, it's because they can't find
a bed to rent. And that could be because there's
someone who's renting a room or a house that could
be leasing a place, but that's they're not because someone
(04:18):
already is leasing who's looking to buy, but they're not
able to buy because there's already things that are taken.
Point being, is that housing stock comes down to this issue. Obviously,
that's one of the biggest focuses of the city council,
of the province right now, quite frankly of the country.
But people say, we just don't have enough rooms in
the city. Is that the case? Are we are we
full up right now? Ronaldo?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
We're it did again. No, we're not. We're not even close.
We have a lot of rooms.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
It just happens to be a lot of those rooms
are in buildings that are empty, right And that's you know,
one of the one of the things I've been doing
is floating an ideal idea. And this is why I
really like working with our opper levels of government, especially
the province, is they're very up into listening to ideas. So,
you know, I look next door, for example, at sixteen
sixteen right beside where we are here, there's about forty
(05:07):
empty rooms there that are not being used.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Forty yes, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And then you look at the Securities building, You look
at other buildings in this city where projects have been
started but the funding is not there to complete them,
or because of the bank systems that are going on
right now, the impossibilities of getting a loan being in
the housing market are real. So is there an avenue,
and this is an idea I've been floating. Is there
(05:32):
an avenue where we can somehow either provincially, federary, municipally
or all three together provide some type of funding for
projects that have already been started but haven't been completed
for financial reasons.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is there a way for us to go to a
landlord and.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Say, hey, I understand you have X number of empty
rooms and you can't get a loan and you can't
afford to finish them, and you're waiting to make that
money so you can pull the trigger on those moves.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Is there a way we can step in?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
And if we step in, well, you you'll be required
to take people off of our housing list. So it's
an idea I've been talking to quite a few people about,
and to me, it's a really low hanging food idea
because there's so many empty rooms in this city that
just need to be finished, right, that just need to
be finished them.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Money's got to be there to finish them.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And if those rooms were finished, we could take some
people potentially off that list, not the people that are
in the highest acute levels. Of course, those people need
a different type of supports. And then, of course there's
a lot of people out there that I could say, yeah,
you know what, let's build up five hundred tiny homes
on one condition you follow the rules. That's a whole
another that's a whole other conversation, because there's a lot
(06:40):
of people that would rather say, yeah, you know what,
I'll be happy sitting up here by myself and my
own tent, being able to make my own rules.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So it's very complex.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It'd be a lot cheaper to go and renovate existing
rooms that need completion than to start the entire process.
And I know that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corps traditionally,
going back, you know, decades and decades decades, has been
able to provide the loan and then reduce the interest rate.
They take what, let's say, you know, back in like
the seventies, for example, a twenty percent interest rate and
(07:12):
drop it down to a two percent interest rate for
the recipient after amount of time that they used it,
because they're bringing something that's beneficial to the community. But
you know, Roaldo, you and I have both operated in
a small business sector, and when I look at this,
the first thing that I'm thinking of right now is
we always talk about trying to get that silver bullet
and get the new battery plant, or get the new
auto shop. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think
(07:33):
it's something that we should always be striving for. But
you know, you employed a number of people, a small
handful of people. I did as well. The idea being
is we could try to get a thousand jobs, but
if we can foster you to get another twenty jobs,
if I can hire another fifteen people, if you can
do that and reach a bit more of a critical mass,
you don't need to do the silver bullet, you can
spread it across. That's sort of what this sounds like.
(07:54):
We don't have to go build a whole new neighborhood.
We can just renovate some buildings that already exist and
deal with the immediate situation at hand.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
And to do that, you also need to understand the
needs of the people that are looking for those rooms, right,
and that's where the relationships matter, you know, And that's
one of the things that again, and don't have my
head stuck in the sand.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I know we have our own issues here.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But the building the relationships with the people that are
out there on the street is something that is critical
to this to this project because understanding why they're not
in housing and what helped to get them is also important.
And I think that's part of the account that we're doing,
as well as understanding the needs. But yeah, looking at
the empty spaces that currently exist and having some kind
(08:39):
of even when you look at like abandoned homes.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I know, we have the vacant home tax, which is fantastic, but.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Even looking connecting with those owners and saying, hey, you know,
what is the reason that you're leaving the South Empties.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
The insurance issues from fire. What can we do?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
What can we do as a country, as a province,
as a city to step in and you know, uh,
it's it's it's a way to connect, connect, but also
get some of these empty spaces occupy occupied. And if
they're occupied, then you're gonna see the problems get less
and less and less and less. Because housing stock is
a big issue and we have a lot of empty
(09:15):
spaces in this city that I could think of off
the top of the Agencys Hunter on all that Avenue
is another one. What's it gonna take to get that
built and converted into residential apartments, even if it's a
short term thing. What can we do because you know,
it's got to be projects that in the long run
can also be sustainable for people, and that's you know,
(09:35):
getting people indoors, especially at this time of year where
things are getting colder is a big thing.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And if we can do that, that's gonna help.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
With these encampments, well, they're all our community members, That's
how it works. These are all our neighbors. Regardless of
whether or not someone is housed or unhoused. They're all
windsor rights through and through Ronaldo Augustino is the Ward
three Counselor for the City of Windsor. Thank you so
much for your time.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Thank you very much.
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