Increased police presence in ByWard Market pushing vulnerable people into Centretown, councillor says

In a development absolutely everyone saw coming, police presence in a place where people are unacceptably homeless has resulted in those people leaving the market to go be homeless somewhere else.

You could argue that the policing was a response to an urgent public safety concern that could be met with tools the city more or less already had, and that'd be valid. People were getting hurt out there. Still, I don't remember that announcement including anything about increased community supports for these people, so I'm not sure I want to give the city the benefit of the doubt here. Sutcliffe's answer to Troster's complaint doesn't exactly give me a warm fuzzy:

"So as we tackle some of the challenges in the ByWard Market, we're going to continue to work with business owners on Bank Street and residents of Centretown to make sure their needs are looked after as well.

I take this to mean "yes yes don't worry your cops are coming soon". Not exactly the increased health care he promised.

There is a bright spot to the article: We're about two weeks away from ANCHOR going live!

The Alternate Neighbourhood Crisis Response (ANCHOR) program will launch on Aug. 15, a new 24/7 non-police crisis response team in Centretown. People in Centretown can call 2-1-1 to request a mobile crisis team for themselves or someone else in a mental health or substance use crisis and a team of crisis response workers will respond any time day or night.