Downtown business owners say they’ve had far fewer problems with people struggling with homelessness and mental illness since Sarnia police started foot and bicycle patrols this summer.
“It was brutal before the police increased their presence,” said Phytos Athanasiou, owner of Vicks Corner Deli at the centre of the downtown core.
“I’d see people sleeping across the street, yelling, screaming, pissing on the wall. One lady was literally living in the doorway there but typically there were two or three people,” said Athanasiou.
The constant presence of homeless individuals with erratic behaviour deterred customers from going downtown, he said.
But there was a dramatic change in mid-July when Sarnia Police Services began daily sweeps of the downtown in the morning and regular foot patrols from Wednesday to Saturday. That’s according to each of the six shop owners surveyed by The Journal on Wednesday.
Being located only a few blocks from a homeless encampment at Rainbow Park still impacts downtown to varying degrees, but most businesses confirmed that staff and customers feel much safer since police officers and auxiliary members began walking the beat.
At one end of the scale, Taylor Pevec, Greens Café front-of-house manager at 196 Christina St. North, said homelessness has seldom posed a problem for the restaurant.
“We like to be a safe space for displaced people,” she said. “We’ve had no issues with anybody. There may have been the odd person sitting at our emergency exits but they were never a problem.
“We don’t even see them anymore,” Pevec said.
At the other end of the scale, Junior Baker’s owner Nicole Moore who operates right across the street from Greens, said her experience with mentally ill and addicted individuals compelled her to start locking her shop doors during business hours beginning in late August.
A sign is now posted at Junior Baker instructing customers to call or knock on the locked door to get service. This is a growing trend among downtown storeowners.
“I just got tired of it all,” said Moore, explaining why she decided to lock up 24/7. “I have lots of kids and families who come down here and it feels horrible to not be able to say this is a safe place.”
In the space of one week, Moore witnessed a man shooting up outside her shop and had a customer with apparent mental health issues set a switch blade on her counter and wave it around.
“That was it for me. I posted (on Facebook) that the door would be locked from then on,” she said.
When Moore announced publicly that she was locking her door, she said she received an outpouring of support that included Lambton County’s CEO, City Coun. Chrissy McRoberts and police.
It’s been quieter since the door’s been locked and police are around more often, she said. But she still worries.
Like other owners, Moore said she’s been downtown for a long time and doesn’t want to leave.
“Downtown is so beautiful and this is our ideal location in so many ways,” said Amy Spadafora who purchased Urban Escape at the corner of Cromwell and Front in 2020.
Her store, which specializes in custom furniture, art and clothing, weathered the pandemic but was hit by a “zombie apocalypse” when the Rainbow Park encampment established in early 2024, she said.
“We can’t catch a break. We’re the first store as they walk down Front Street from the park and we were having people so out of it come in to use our change rooms. We witnessed open use of narcotics and alcohol.
“When we saw them coming and locked our door, we had one reefing on it.”
Her solution was to lock her door even during business hours and install a doorbell for customers. And Spadafora went to the police, the mayor and the city solicitor.
“I’m about finding solutions,” she said. “I want to figure out how to navigate this crisis.”
Shortly after her appeal for help, Sarnia Police Services introduced regular foot patrols that involve auxiliary members and officers who volunteer their time outside their regular duties and are paid primarily from the overtime budget, said Chief Derek Davis.
Beginning July 11, morning platoons began a daily 7 a.m. sweep of downtown. And the regular foot patrols started.
Between July 11 and Aug. 31, the downtown foot patrol logged 332 hours, moved countless people along, arrested nine and laid 14 charges, according to Davis. The patrols cost about $51,000 during that period with about half of that coming from the overtime budget.
“It appears to have been well received and, yes, foot patrols will continue,” Davis said. “We want to have a more sustainable presence downtown.”
Increased police presence has made a difference along Front Street, Spadafora said.
“As a business owner, I feel it is working,” she said. “We’ve had no incidents since the patrols started. It’s lowering the anxiety and I’m very appreciative of that.”
Emily Poster concurred.
“It’s been months since we’ve had to call first responders. We used to have to call weekly,” said the manager of Backhome Coffee Roastery located next to the Sarnia Library on Christina Street.
“Things have definitely improved. There used to be as many as 20 people (under the overhang) spending the night at the library,” Poster said. “We dealt with a lot of theft.”
Sometimes the homeless at the library set fires to keep warm and that worried Poster.
But there’s been no one there since the patrols began, she said. “Things have definitely improved.”
A few doors down, Alain Lacroix at King’s Pawn said he too hasn’t needed to call an ambulance to help an addict in months.
"The last few months have been awesome," he said. "We’ve had no issues since the police presence.”
The days of coming to open up and finding someone sleeping in his doorway or relieving themselves behind his building, seem to be over, Athanasiou added.
“I think people working and shopping down here are more comfortable.”