Ontario’s mayors have had enough. With Barrie among them, they’re urging the province to declare a state of emergency over what’s been called a “community safety and humanitarian crisis” of homelessness and addiction. But beneath the headlines, Barrie’s real crisis may be compassion fatigue—an exhaustion, not of resources alone, but of empathy itself.
The numbers are stark: Ontario’s municipalities now shoulder over half the $4.1 billion funnelled yearly into homelessness and housing programs. Barrie, like its peers, has “dug deep,” as Burlington’s mayor put it. Yet, despite new provincial spending—$1.7 billion for supportive housing, $75.5 million for new spaces, 28 treatment hubs—frontline realities barely shift. The gap yawns wider, with calls for $11 billion more over the next decade to even begin closing it.
In Barrie, encampments dot the landscape in summer, vanish in winter, and return like clockwork. Forced evictions, often justified as acts of public safety, instead fuel anxiety and hostility. As one federal advocate noted, “People with experience on the street reported that they are constantly being forced to move, which creates greater stress and hardship.” Rarely do these moves come with stable alternatives. Frustration grows not just among the unhoused, but among neighbours, city staff, and police—compassion, stretched thin, snaps.
Evictions and short-term shelter solutions are band-aids on a gaping wound. Public perception, sometimes inflamed by political rhetoric, weaponizes safety concerns. The cycle repeats: encampment cleared, residents displaced, patience frays. Meanwhile, addiction recovery hubs and modular units promise hope but often stall in a thicket of red tape and “not in my backyard” resistance. Provincial funds, though labelled historic, seldom keep pace with need in cities like Barrie.
The toll is measured in more than numbers. As compassion fatigue sets in, the city risks losing the very empathy needed to sustain long-term recovery—for both housed and unhoused residents. The challenge for Barrie now isn’t merely financial. It’s to reignite compassion amid exhaustion, to hold firm to the belief that no one’s survival should depend on the patience of those less vulnerable. As the emergency call from Ontario’s mayors grows louder, Barrie faces a choice: retreat further behind policy, or lead with renewed resolve to care for all its neighbours.
References:
Mayors urge Ontario to declare state of emergency to address homelessness, addiction
Ontario should end forced encampment evictions: housing advocate
