Belleville City Council

From 2006 to ’14 we basically had some couch-surfing, but really no visible homelessness. I went away for basically two terms — eight years — came back, and we have approximately 200 homeless

So it’s grown and grown and growing, and there doesn’t seem to be an end to it.

It’s basically a health crisis. It’s a social economic crisis. And I don’t see that successive governments at the provincial level … are tackling any type of thing that we can see — whether it’s poor policy decisions, or they’re just not interested in it

When I look at it, why aren’t they interested? Basically the cost, but the homeless don’t vote, and I hate to say it. But it’s a social crisis right now and we need to get out in front of it.

Mayor Neil Ellis to CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning