Richmond Street in Downtown London. (File photo by Miranda Chant, Blackburn News)

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Helping the homeless, restoring safety, and improving the business environment are all part of an ambitious new plan from the city to revive London’s downtown, midtown, and Old East Village.

The Core Area Action Plan (CAAP) was released Wednesday and is heading to the strategic priorities and policy committee for approval next week. The bold new strategy includes 69 staff recommended actions to address homelessness and addiction issues, safety concerns, the struggles of local businesses, and the core’s ability to attract visitors.

“We need a core that is vibrant. We also need to support and put an arm around the people who are really hurting and suffering,” said City Manager Martin Hayward.

The four key needs were determined through talks held over several weeks between the city’s planning staff and local merchants, residents, outreach agencies, police, and people with lived experience.

Each of the recommended actions are broken down into work that can be done in the short term (within the next six months), medium-term work that can be completed throughout next year, and long term actions that will take until 2021 to implement. The actions include doubling the number of police officers on foot patrol, starting a community breakfast program, extending the hours of the coordinated informed response program, new housing units, a safety audit, and higher cleanliness standards.

Some of the funding for the plan is coming from business cases within existing budgets, but another estimated $3-million to $3.5-million will be needed for the complete plan from the 2020-2023 multi-year budget.

Hayward stresses while the price tag may seem steep, “to do nothing is not an option.”

“We have so much at stake in terms of people… we’ve got a number of people living rough, we’ve got a number of people that are in a very difficult place. Whether it’s mental health issues or addiction issues,” said Hayward. “We also have a number of businesses that are really suffering in our core area. Suffering because of the human issues I just mentioned, suffering because of feelings of insecurity and safety issues and with the construction that is going on. To do nothing would mean we would lose all of those businesses in the core.”

According to the report, more people are sleeping rough on the streets, storefronts, and on private property throughout the area that stretches west to east from the Forks of the Thames through Old East and north-south on Richmond Row from Oxford Street to York Street. Encampments are becoming more common with few places for the homeless to be able to go during the day. There has also been a dramatic increase in the number of people struggling with mental health issues and drug addiction in the area, the report states.

The city’s coordinated informed response team interacts regularly with just under 200 people who live on the street. As part of the CAAP, they are planning to launch a housing stability week pilot project next week.

“We are looking to house 100 people next week. That is a lofty goal in one week, but it really is just the start over some of the priorities that we are going to put over housing people over the next four to six weeks,” said Craig Cooper, the city’s manager of homelessness prevention.

“We realize winter is coming. There is a challenge for people who are currently unsheltered. They are going to struggle when it snows and when the weather gets really cold. We want to make sure we are setting the framework next week to understand the needs of the unsheltered homeless community and to work on when housing does become available beyond next week how we can match and link those people to be successful in that housing.”