OTTAWA
Encampment fire shows need for safe, heated places to sleep, says councillor


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr says people living in Ottawa encampments should have access to heated but safe semi-permanent housing options. (Michel Aspirot/CBC - image credit)

A fire at one of Ottawa's many homeless encampments highlights the need for safe, heated semi-permanent housing options for people living on the street, the local city councillor says.

Other communitiesin Ontario have championed structures like sleeping cabins that contain a bed, sink and offer heat and Ottawans need something like that, according to Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr.

"You're reducing that risk of having somebody using a combustible within [a] tent," said Carr, a member of the city's emergency shelter crisis task force.

Carr's comments on Thursday came one day after a mid-afternoon fire at a cluster of about five tents in her ward near the intersection of Industrial Avenue and Riverside Drive.

The damage wasn't extensive enough to warrant further investigation, a spokesperson for Ottawa Fire Services said.

Recent signs of a fire at a cluster of tents in Ottawa on Jan. 4, 2024.

Recent signs of a fire at a cluster of tents in Ottawa on Jan. 4, 2024. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

There were 23 fires at encampments last year, up from eight in 2022, fire officials told CBC. The city said Thursday it's aware of 45 encampments in Ottawa.

Carr said that because shelters and transitional housing units are full — and because some people choose to avoid them, despite the city doing its best to offer everyone a place to stay — encampments will remain a reality.

They need to be as safe as possible, she said.

"It's a risk to leave the encampments the way that they are."