About
Compassionate Solutions to Homelessness and Encampments
Homelessness and encampments in Guelph demand more than short-term fixes. Alec supports a coordinated, citywide response that combines prevention, mental health and addiction supports, and truly affordable, supportive housing. He will work with frontline agencies, neighbourhoods, and people with lived experience to reduce harm, connect residents to services, and restore public spaces. Alec believes every policy must balance compassion, safety, accountability, and respect for taxpayers.
Alec has been highly vocal about the city’s homelessness crisis and encampments. As someone who works security in the downtown core overnights; and volunteers at social agencies; he sees and deals every day the gaps in our social system.
His publicly stated positions and criticisms centre on the following core areas:
1. Centralized and Serviced Encampments
Instead of allowing scattered encampments throughout local parks (such as Joseph Wolfond Memorial Park), Purves advocates for one or two centralized, monitored locations. He believes the city needs a dedicated, properly serviced space equipped with basic facilities like washrooms, garbage, and recycling disposal. This will provide easy access for mental health workers and emergency services. He argues that this approach would provide dignity to the unhoused while ensuring that public recreational spaces remain safe and accessible for the broader community.
2. Criticisms of City Management and “Reactionary” Policies
Purves has repeatedly criticized Guelph’s City Hall and Council for what he calls a failure of leadership and “reactionary” decision-making regarding vulnerable populations. His specific criticisms include:
- The Daytime Shelter Strategy: He blasted council’s handling of the daytime shelter project, arguing that underfunding the initiative forced shelters to close early at 2:00 PM, which ultimately pushed individuals back onto downtown streets and failed local businesses.
- Closure of Warming Centre: He vocally opposed the sudden closing of the temporary warming centre at City Hall, citing a total lack of consultation and no alternative options.
- No Supper Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays: With Council only funding half of the requested amount to run a full-time day-time shelter; these are days that there is no hot meal or shelter.
- Bylaw Enforcement Costs: He has critiqued the high costs associated with city encampment bylaws and enforcement.
3. Healthcare-Focused View on Mental Health and Addiction
In his campaign videos, Purves has emphasized that the crisis must be viewed through a healthcare lens. He has stated that a portion of the unhoused population suffering from severe mental illness and substance use disorders require dedicated long-term care. He compared their circumstances to terminal physical diseases, stating that the community must recognize they need food, beds, and clean facilities because they are “suffering humans in crisis”.
4. Public Washrooms and Infrastructure
As part of his official campaign platform published on the Alec Purves Campaign Website, he has pushed to fast-track public washrooms at Guelph Central Station. He frames this as a necessary infrastructure piece to support dignity for transit users, seniors, and people experiencing homelessness alike.