Brampton councillors blame lifesaving program inside Grace United Church for downtown struggles they have consistently ignored

After years of delaying critical investments badly needed in downtown Brampton, and failing to address the underfunding of housing programs and vital social services, Brampton councillors are blaming a beloved humanitarian initiative for the ongoing struggles they are largely responsible for.

Regeneration Outreach, which operates in a well known downtown Brampton church, provides lifesaving services to vulnerable residents.

On October 20, Brampton’s legal department sent a warning letter to Regeneration Outreach, blaming the organization for the increasing number of calls related to public intoxication, drug use, break and enters and other crimes in the downtown area. 

“While the efforts of responders are commendable, this chronic, illegal and inappropriate behaviour in a residential community, must cease. That responsibility lies with Grace United Church and Regeneration Outreach,” the letter, written by Colleen Grant, the City’s Deputy City Solicitor, claims.

According to statistics provided in the letter, complaints in the area surrounding 150-156 Main Street North, where Regeneration operates out of Grace United Church, more than tripled compared to the previous year.

The City bylaw department reported 145 incidents from January to September, compared to 43 in all of 2024. The letter also cites Peel Police data to highlight incidents including public intoxication, narcotics use, weapon possession, noise complaints, indecent behaviour, graffiti, vehicle theft, property damage, encampments and parking issues. 

This call data is related to “150 and 156 Main Street, Central Public School, and the surrounding areas”. 

The City of Brampton’s legal letter provides no direct evidence linking any of these incidents to Regeneration Outreach or the people relying on its services. While issues with loitering and public drug and alcohol use around Grace United Church have been publicly reported, the City does not explain why it would be the responsibility of Regeneration Outreach, or the church to resolve problems with crimes or social issues in the “surrounding areas”. The City also does not address why it would be the responsibility of a social service organization, or the church where it operates, to handle criminal matters that fall to Peel Police. 

“We’re not responsible for what happens off our property,” Ted Brown, CEO of Regeneration Outreach, told The Pointer. He says anyone caught drinking or using drugs on the church property is “given a break from our service”. 

“There’s zero tolerance for that. We don’t hand out alcohol, and what occurs outside our walls isn’t something we can control.”

The letter follows a previous threat sent by the City’s legal department, on direction from Councillor Rowena Santos and approved by her fellow council members, to Regeneration Outreach in July. The correspondence stunned the social service organization, with officials telling The Pointer in August that it was sent without first consulting them about the issues or potential solutions. 

"In the past, we had a really good partnership and relationship with them, so it was very saddening to know that they were having meetings and conversations about us without consulting us or having any conversation with us,” Jenna Robson, director of operations with Regeneration Outreach, told The Pointer at the time. 

She said talks to find Regeneration a new location broke down last year without a solution.

Brown, the CEO, said a property had been identified by the City for a potential relocation of Regeneration’s services, but talks fell apart.

"We were negotiating, but I can't really share the reasons why those negotiations broke down.”

Discussions with the Region of Peel have continued, and he says a new location might have been found. 

“Based on our conversations with the Region, I believe things are moving forward with a potential new location.”

He explained that Regeneration has been working on finding a suitable place to relocate for about five years, but as property costs have increased, the financial situation has made it difficult.

"We’ve had a needs assessment done by an architect and have assessed the costs involved. A lot of work and effort has gone into this, but rapidly rising property prices and escalating construction costs over the past year have made the process especially challenging.”

In a post on her website, Councillor Santos claims the City has been involved in the discussions to relocate Regeneration Outreach. 

“While the City has gone above and beyond its jurisdiction to help facilitate relocation, Regeneration has yet to demonstrate any initiative to find a new space or present an updated model of service delivery,” she claims in the post, contradicting what Brown told The Pointer.  

Santos has come under fire from Brampton residents who say she has divided community members and tried to mislead them around the issue of encampments (where many vulnerable residents find shelter). The blaming of Regeneration Outreach for these issues is at odds with the Region of Peel’s newly approved protocols for homelessness and encampments which focus on a “human rights based” approach. 

The statement by Santos, who is responsible for the ward along with Councillor Paul Vicente, that the City has gone “above and beyond” to assist Regeneration is hard to stomach for some residents.

"I witnessed Rowena Santos at city council stating they would offer assistance to Regeneration by providing building solutions and collaborating with the organization. Now she’s changed her position from what she publicly declared. There are things she could do to support Regeneration, but she chooses not to—and so do (Mayor) Patrick Brown and Paul Vicente. All three of them are not supporting this,” Tracy Pepe, a vocal Brampton community activist, told The Pointer, adding it's unclear why councillors like Santos are veering from past statements. “Either she's fabricating it—which would be a profound thing to lie about—or something has changed.” 

Under Mayor Brown, Brampton council has put off critical investments into the downtown. Revitalization efforts, which would have been completed soon after Brown was elected in 2018, were cancelled by him in order to achieve his campaign promise of a tax freeze. At the same time, Brown and Santos (both sit on regional council are responsible for housing and social services) have repeatedly refused to address the underfunding of programs that leave vulnerable and unhoused residents with few places to turn. 

Councillor Rowena Santos and Mayor Patrick Brown have both refused to speak up during budget discussions at the Region of Peel about the need to increase spending on housing and other critical social services that could help vulnerable residents in downtown Brampton.

(City of Brampton)
 

Without any questioning by Brampton’s elected officials at the table, Region of Peel council has approved unprecedented, and unsustainable, increases to the Peel Police budget—the largest expenditure on the Region’s bottom line—which has left very little for the services that could help alleviate the issues they are now blaming on Regeneration Outreach. Last year, Santos, Brown and Vicente were silent when residents warned that an alarming 23.3 percent increase to the Peel Police budget for 2025 would leave social services and other initiatives to mitigate homelessness without adequate funding. 

They voted for the unprecedented police spending, and are now blaming Regeneration for the crime problems that the same police force was supposed to address with its extra $144 million. A small fraction of that could have helped Regeneration secure a new property and create expanded programming to help the same Brampton residents Santos and Mayor Brown are now targeting through threatened legal action. 

The Pointer sent questions to the City of Brampton and Councillor Santos, about the specific location proposed by the City, why the negotiations with Regeneration broke down, and asked for further clarification about the data provided in the second legal letter. No response has been received.

A reluctance to take responsibility and address issues in the downtown core has become a theme of Brampton council under Mayor Brown. 

In 2021, after Brown cancelled the Downtown Reimagined program in 2019 to revitalize the city centre (which would have been completed in two years if not for his actions), he attempted to delay further infrastructure work. 

He attempted to have regional council delay the replacement of water mains, many at risk of failure, in the Four Corners area, due to cost escalations and engineering concerns. Peel Region staff debunked Brown’s misleading claims, pointing to reports that showed the engineering issues had been addressed long before he cancelled the Downtown Reimagined project immediately after his 2018 election. Brown was pushing to delay the work in order to achieve another tax freeze in Brampton. His efforts, which were voted down by regional council, were supported by Vicente and Santos. Santos spoke during public meetings about the need to delay the badly needed downtown revitalization work. Now, she is blaming Regeneration for the decay of the area, which residents and area business owners have been warning council of for more than a decade, demanding investments for the withering city centre that Santos, Brown and Vicente have ignored.

Brampton’s decaying city centre was supposed to be revitalized by the Downtown Reimagined plan, which was approved, before Mayor Patrick Brown and Councillor Rowena Santos had it cancelled.

(Top and middle, The Pointer files; bottom City of Brampton)

More recently, instead of discussions about investing in upstream solutions to help those dealing with mental health and addictions issues, Brown, supported by Santos,  pushed to create an involuntary treatment program to remove these individuals from the streets.

“We have to try something new,” Santos said. Her claim that involuntary treatment programs are new belies reports about the use of these programs in places such as Europe that date back more than a decade. 

Despite the claims of Brown and Santos (who previously worked for the Ontario NDP and now takes positions directly opposed to the Party’s core mandate such as its support for safe injection sites), research suggests the approach of forcing people into treatment may be more harmful than helpful. Studies indicate that involuntary treatment often fails to produce long-term results, with some patients becoming more vulnerable to drug use after leaving these highly controversial forced arrangements, which critics describe as a violation of fundamental human rights. 
 

For decades, Regeneration Outreach has been a beacon of humanity, kindness and humility, where people can drop in for a meal prepared by volunteers inside the kitchen at Grace United Church in downtown Brampton.

(Regeneration Outreach)

Regeneration Outreach has a long history of serving vulnerable individuals by offering a wide range of programs, including essential services like breakfast and lunch, haircuts, clothing, and laundry, as well as programs to help people get connected with needed healthcare services.

According to the organization’s 2024 Impact report, with the assistance of 40 sharing partners, it has provided support to 488 people to obtain necessary identification and connected 215 people with income support, legal help, and addiction and mental health support. In 2024, the organization was working with 629 volunteers who devoted 31,300 hours of service, with the top volunteer completing 1,202 hours of service. 

The number of Peel residents struggling to find housing or living on the street is steadily increasing, and heavy-handed moves like those being taken in Brampton and efforts by the PC government under Premier Doug Ford, who criminalized homelessness with the introduction of Bill 6, which received Royal Assent in June. It created stricter penalties for those living in encampments or caught using drugs in public, instituting $10,000 fines and jail sentences. Around the same time, the PCs introduced separate legislation to close safe consumption sites across Ontario, a move that eliminated spaces for those who use drugs to do so safely, under supervision and out of city parks and alleys—a move that was lambasted by critics, warning it would lead to more deaths and increased drug use in public.

Santos and Brown have attacked safe consumption sites and opposed a Peel Region move to expand their use. They have also been outspoken about their decision to support Ford’s efforts to eliminate encampments and remove individuals from spaces where they were able to find shelter.

Now, many of those same people Santos forced out of encampments, are being attacked by her under legal threats issued to Regeneration Outreach, which they rely on for a range of lifesaving services.

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