'You lose that sense of hope': Windsorite describes what it is like to be forced from a homeless encampment

A Windsorite is describing what it is like to be forced from a homeless encampment.

Bobby Reaume said he was was forcibly removed from a ‘tent city’ in Hamilton four years ago.

“They came with backhoes,” Reaume said. “Police and they just, like, push. They push you right through. So, then they (people who are homeless) all start scattering.”

He told CTV News living in a tented city wasn’t a choice – it was his only option.

In 2020, Reaume said he was released from jail during the COVID-19 pandemic and shelters were closed.

“I went across the street, and they said, ‘pull up a piece of grass, make your little spot, and someone will be here with a tent or sleeping bag, eventually’.” Reaume explained. “And of course, unfortunately, I had a needle my arm within five minutes because I was a drug user.”

Reaume candidly admitted he also sold drugs in the encampment.

“You feel like you're nothing and, you know, it's hard to get clean or to get going again when you're always pushed away,” Reaume said. “It's not always addicts, but there's people that just don't have nowhere to go. So, you lose that sense of hope again.”

In moments when his “head was clear”, Reaume started to notice what the drugs (that he was selling) were doing to the other people living in the encampment and he made a choice.

“Something just said, okay, it's time to get clean,” Reaume said.

Born in Windsor, Reaume wanted to return home for a detox program and try to find a way to rebuild relationships with his family.

He called Brentwood Recovery Home 30 to 40 times but they were always full.

Finally, he was promised a spot at Launch Pad in Windsor but only if he arrived here sober.

That, was four years ago.

Today, Reaume has two jobs, volunteers at The Soup Shack soup kitchen and says he’s clean and sober.

“I believe that, you know, I was put through that for a reason, and hence why I'm at The Soup Shack now,” Reaume said. “I just kept moving forward, and I had to start over, and I had to do everything over again.”

As Ontario rolls out new legislation that will give police more powers to clear encampments and find illegal drug users, Reaume fears it will only make the problem worse.

“I understand we have a lack of housing, (and) we have a lack of funding. But we have to figure something for these guys to, (somewhere) to put these people,” Reaume noted. “You can't just keep chasing them, out, out, out, out. Then, the work becomes somebody else's problem.”