EXCLUSIVE: City council candidate wants to restore safety to Oshawa’s downtown
Dave Thompson, a candidate for Ward 4 Councilor in Oshawa, an area that encompasses Oshawa’s downtown, speaks with Juno News about crime, safety, government transparency, and ending handouts.
In Oshawa’s downtown, an area with the most condensed number of social services in Durham Region, surging numbers of homeless, and ubiquitous flagrant drug use, one city council candidate is pledging to restore safe streets, end paraphernalia handouts, and investigate allegations of Toronto sending waves of homeless to the city.
Dave Thompson, a candidate for Ward 4 in Oshawa, which encompasses the city’s downtown area, spoke with Juno News in an exclusive interview pledging to restore the streets of Oshawa, with his plan to put “cops on blocks.”
From 2019, before the Covid-era lockdowns, to 2024, the last time the city released its Point-in-Time counts, Oshawa’s homeless population has increased roughly 14-fold, from about 50 people in 2019 to 699 in 2024.
Oshawa accounted for 52 per cent of Durham Region’s 1,345 homeless individuals in 2024. By comparison, the entire region identified 369 homeless individuals in 2017.
