St. Catharines homelessness issues were in the spotlight today with Premier Ford asked about what his government plans to do to clean up the streets.
Doug Ford says he has been talking to Mayor Mat Siscoe about the issue through text message, and that it's a serious issue that is facing various communities.
"We are allocating millions of dollars through out Ontario. The Auditor General came out with a new report and a new formula. We will always be there to build homes."
Siscoe called on all levels of government for immediate action earlier this week saying his office has been bombarded by complaints of people openly doing drugs, going to the washroom outside, and even having sex in public areas, most commonly the downtown core.
Ford says this kind of behaviour is very hard on communities.
"When you go down the street and you see people shooting up needles, and they are on drugs. They need rehabilitation, that's the first step, then we have to get them into a home, and then we have to get them back on their feet."
Ford says Ontario needs more rehab facilities.
Siscoe went before the region's public health and social services committee this week to talk about some of the things that are impacting the city.
He says the new self cleaning washroom at Geneva Street and Niagara Street is a prime example of the problem, "feces spread all over the wall, it's a self cleaning unit that actually can't clean itself. We are seeing people jamming things into the bathroom trying to destroy it, we have had the panic button hit for the NRP several times so the NRP are having to show up. It's to the point now where we believe we are going to have to have security there. We have had people trying to live in it as a shelter."
Siscoe says there are more than a dozen complaints every day to his office from all over the city.
He adds this isn't just about moving people out of certain areas, "I don't think you can just scatter people to the wind and expect that everything is going to be ok, the problem is we don't have enough shelter spaces, we don't have enough bridge housing, we don't have enough transition housing, supportive housing, so there is nowhere for us to offer shelter for folks."
The Niagara Region declared a mental health and addictions state of emergency back on February 23.
Siscoe says with that the region and all levels of government are going to have to spend money to fix the issues.