Homelessness, Mental Health, Addictions - these are all issues that St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe says need to be addressed.
Click HERE to listen to the Mayor discuss the issues on Niagara in the Morning.
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.