By JG Markham, YCL-LJC member in Windsor-Essex
Banner photo by Sanjay Maru/CBC
On a cool Tuesday morning, November 3, Windsor Overdose Prevention Society (OPS), Family Services Windsor-Essex, YQG Cares, and members of the YCL-LJC Windsor-Essex club took part in a brief demonstration to raise awareness that the City of Windsor was planning to forcibly evict those in the local tent city. The tent city is a small gathering of houseless people who cannot be accommodated at the local shelters — there, they look out for each other and prevent drug overdoses. If you had not known of the tent city, you likely would have never noticed it, as the area looks overgrown with plant life and trees. The next phase of the day, which Windsor IWW members also attended, consisted of assisting in moving individuals away from the tent city site.
Commodity-based housing, or housing for profits and not needs, has created an artificially-inflated housing market which has depleted availability of affordable housing. Forcing rent higher and higher, with property values soaring, this model of housing forces families and individuals into homelessness. Mass unemployment keeps stable housing out of reach for most working class families, especially younger generations. These two crises — the drug epidemic and the housing epidemic — created and exacerbated under capitalism, and compounded by the austerity measures applied to our healthcare system, have led to the magnification of issues like we see in Windsor country-wide. Landlords and land developers from out of town or even out of country purchase highly sought-after homes, looking to turn a profit rather than to house people. Housing is a right, a basic need, not something to be commodified, and this crisis can only be resolved by socialism.
According to those who lived near the tent city, Windsor Police would often use the nearby parking lots for prolonged breaks, allegedly staying up to nearly an hour and a half on some days. Soon, tractors and bulldozers were brought in to clear the tent city and its belongings by force. Windsor Police utilized the resources of the Windsor Fire Department, having them use fire hoses to spray down the Tent City and “put out fires.” Under police direction, numerous personal belongings were drenched and destroyed; often times these belongings are all that these people have to their names. All of this is happening in November, as we enter the freezing temperatures of Ontario winter and the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Windsor Fire then marched in with Windsor Police, spraying CO2 onto campfire sites, making it nearly impossible to restart a flame.
This is not the first time Windsor Fire has soaked the tents. They use the area for ‘training’, running hoses into the embankment where the tent city resides, and flushing it out with high-pressure water. The City claims that this is all okay, due to the fact these people are “trespassing”, and that the City has the right to use the area for training and tests. If the city truly cared about their citizens, they would be doing something to address the housing crisis, not to violently oppress them.
Volunteers at the November 3rd demonstration gave statements and showed the media what was happening. They began to immediately work on various legal forms and paperwork for individuals. Food was handed out, drinks were available, what supplies and clothing were available were given to those who needed them. One older gentleman saw the gathering, stopped his vehicle, and came over to donate to the cause. Later, volunteers hauled belongings up mud staircases, endangering themselves in order to assist their fellow Windsorites.
City Council, the Mayor, and the Councillor responsible for this ward of the city were nowhere to be seen. Mayor Drew Dilkens instead, roughly 1km down the road, gave a warm speech to Police Chief Pamela Mizuno and the Windsor Police Services, thanking them for their so-called “efforts” during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Windsor Police refused to give any evictions notices or trespassing letters to tent city residents. In fact, when asked, they could not even clarify to volunteers where the property line was.
When there’s development work, with new condominiums and businesses rising nearby, that’s when the homeless and those suffering from Substance Use Disorder or other mental health concerns become an issue to Windsor City Council. It is only when they stand in the way of development, property values, and liberal idealism that they are addressed: that is, addressed violently, forcibly, and without a sliver of sympathy.
Substance Use Disorder, commonly referred to as drug addiction, is also a growing crisis in Windsor-Essex, alongside our housing crisis. It is usually referred to as the “drug epidemic” or “opioid crisis”, but these turns of phrase lack the true scope of the crisis. On October 20th and 21st, a large string of overdoses occurred in Windsor. That week alone, 11 people suffered from overdoses, 8 of them involving fentanyl. Many of these could have been prevented through measures such as the administration of naloxone.
Let me remind everyone, Windsor is also home to the same mayor and city council which refuses to give life-saving naloxone to their police officers, despite all the evidence supporting its life-saving properties. Some officers carry their own supply, although this is done unofficially. It is one of the only police forces in Ontario that does not carry naloxone. According to the CBC News on Oct. 13th, Windsor Police arrived onto the scene of a drug overdose first, before anyone else, on at least 14 different occasions, sometimes over 9 minutes before the arrival of EMS. Naloxone saves lives, and refusing it — especially during a drug and housing crisis — puts vulnerable peoples lives at risk.
Prescription medicines like Dilaudid or morphine are safer than fentanyl, but were once over-prescribed with no precautions. We also saw a surge of ADHD medications like Adderall and Ritalin over-prescribed in the late 1990s and the 2000s — all of this due to pharmaceutical corporations misleading the public, claiming low-to-no chance of addiction or dependency on these new drugs. This, a terrible lie with profound consequences, all for the sake of profits.
Not all substance users use because of over-prescription or injury. Some use to treat or cope with other mental traumas, like PTSD, schizophrenia, ADHD, depression, or other mental health issues. It is no wonder then that the industrial and farming-dominated regions of Ontario, particularly Southern Ontario, are in the gripes of a substance abuse crisis, an opioid crisis, a drug epidemic. Doctors over-prescribe to combat symptoms of being overworked and sustaining injuries, people use substances to give them that “extra kick” they need to fight symptoms of exhaustion, and others use to try to achieve some sense of “normalcy” under capitalism, to not feel terrible, and to escape the conditions we are forced into. This crisis is merely an indication that the people no longer see any future, any hope, any prospect of living a dignified, fulfilling life in capitalist society. The conditions of the working class have not only stagnated, but have begun to be viciously eroded and attacked. Just look around Windsor-Essex: you can see all the abandoned factories and buildings, the husks of a former booming city — a constant, stark reminder of neoliberalism.
Windsor needs to fully address this crisis now, not tomorrow. We need a safe injection site, not tomorrow but now! We need implementation of proper mental health supports and services, not watch them be cut under the likes of Ford or the Liberals. We need truly universal healthcare and pharmacare. As young communists, we demand accessible and fair housing for everyone. We advocate for full, dignified employment and an end to precarity. We strive for free education and vocational training for all! Decriminalize all drugs and substance use! Therapy not prisons! All of these demands would enable us to combat these expanding and worsening crises.
YCL-LJC Windsor-Essex is currently gathering donations for those affected by the housing crisis.