Belleville Council has adopted the Terms of Reference for the newly established Understanding Homelessness Task Force to review issues relating to the addiction, mental health and homelessness crisis in the City of Belleville.
The decision came this afternoon at their regular Council meeting at Belleville City Hall.
On September 26, 2025, Mayor Neil Ellis announced the creation of the Understanding Homelessness Task Force (Task Force) to review issues relating to the addiction, mental health and homelessness crisis impacting the community. The Task Force will be chaired by the Mayor and will include one additional member of Council, representatives from Belleville Police Service, Hastings County and other key community partners.
The mandate of the Task Force is to review issues relating to addiction, mental health and homelessness crisis in the City of Belleville, hear from services providers, agencies, community organizations, businesses, and residents, develop an action/communication plan that can be implemented and make an impact on the crisis while the City of Belleville awaits further support from provincial and federal partners, and provide a formal report to Provincial and Federal Governments with its findings and recommendations.
The Task Force will remain in effect until its Final Report is presented to Council, unless extended by Council resolution, but no longer than the end of the term of Council.
Many of the Councillors at today’s meeting wanted to stress to the public that the homelessness concern in Belleville, as well as many other areas across the province, are a provincial government responsibility, and they are calling on both MPP Allsopp and MPP Bresee to provide further actions and solutions to the concerns.
“Every city is faced with the unhoused, it’s not just us, it’s not just Ontario, it’s across Canada,” said Mayor Neil Ellis.
“This is the biggest social issue we are going to face. And unless our MPPs, who are responsibile for mental health, homelessness, and drug addiction come to the table and that’s what I said to the paper today. One of those MPPs has sat around this table and has seen the issues we are having. Things like shelter beds, we lack them,”
“I sat with the Downtown Business Association last week and actually cut out and put on to the tables what the City or the municipality is responsible for and what we use your taxes for. And on that sheet of paper, it does not say mental health, homelessness, doctor recruitment. We can’t do it on our own. Hopefully this plan will come out and put more emphasis on the government.”
Councillor Carr also expressed his concerns over the growing issue.
“When does the Ontario government take juristictional responsibility for the lack of health and mental health services, as well as affordable housing for our vulnerable population?” he asked
“We talk about it all the time, but we are trying to wrestle something that is not our juristictional responsibility. When do these issues become the primary focus of our two MPPs Allsopp and Bresee? They’ve both been in the riding for many months, they continue to be in the riding. I scan the news everyday, I don’t see either one of them talking about it. They’ve made their one announcement on the Heart Hub funding, but they are not talking about the issues in their community of which they have juristictional responsibility, and that’s outright disappointing,”
“A rhetorical question is, is their silence a form of silent downloading? Simply, we’re not going to talk about it, we don’t want to spend the money, and we’ll let municipalities wrestle this issue without the juristictional responsibility, without the resources, and without the tax dollars to make it happen. And that’s left with how do we try to fund something that we were never designed to fund?”
These meetings in regard to the Understanding Homelessness Task Force will include public hearings where stakeholders, such as services providers, agencies, community organizations, and businesses, provide the views of the organization they represent on the topics being considered by the Task Force. Meetings will be held monthly or at the call of the Chair. Notice of meetings will be provided in accordance with the City of Belleville’s Procedural By-law. Meetings will be open to the public unless otherwise permitted by the Municipal Act, 2001. Meetings may be livestreamed and will be recorded.
Council meets again on Oct 27 at Belleville City Hall.
(HAILEY MACDONALD)
