Hamilton businesses share safety concerns amid homelessness crisis

Businesses on James Street North say they’re seeing an increase in crime and a decrease in public safety in Hamilton’s downtown core.

Many business owners are pointing to the Cathedral Café – a church on the street that offers free meals to the homeless.

Christ’s Church Cathedral on Hamilton’s busy James Street North provides breakfast and lunch to around 150 people in need each day.

“Some people are really frustrated and see programs like this as bringing un-housed people to the area,” said Andrew Matthews, manager of social services at St. Matthew’s House.

“We see it as we’re here because there are un-housed people in the area – sort of a chicken and the egg situation.”

The church has run the program for a few years and have worked in partnership with St. Matthew’s House and the City of Hamilton since the start of 2024.

St. Matthew’s House says they do see some spillover of conflicts from the people they help on the street, though they try to prevent it.

“People are able to come here and spend the day with us and that means they’re not wandering the streets, they’re not gathering on street corners,” Matthews said, “we see ourselves as part of the solution.”

While business owners on the street say they understand the need for programs like this, they also say they’ve noticed a change on James Street North since it opened.

“It’s causing quite a bit of problems for us on the street with drugs, broken windows, graffiti – it’s just not a good look about,” said Morty Morgenstern, owner of clothing store Morgenstern’s.

Morgenstern’s family clothing store has been a James Street staple for over 50 years. His brother also runs Charred restaurant down the street.

He says foot traffic has been down over the past few years, as some people don’t feel safe wandering around the area, and that it has affected his business.

“To be perfectly honest, I think the only way to do this properly is to move it somewhere else,” he said. “And I’m sorry, I know no one wants this in their area, but neither do we. Why should we be penalized?”

Mary Luciani, the owner of Pale Blue Dot, a store that sits next to Charred, is hoping Monday’s meeting will bring solutions on how businesses and the church can work together.

“I’m just hoping we can come together and talk about what we can do as a community to promote positive change, to bring people back down here to feel safe and excited about being on James North – and just our downtowns in general,” she said.

“This is a conversation that’s definitely larger than just this community here.”

James Street North is one of many Hamilton business districts feeling the pinch.

Hamilton police expanded its core patrol team in the King Street East area last summer, after businesses in that area made similar complaints.

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