Thunder Bay has similar problems to Timmins in terms of poverty, homelessness, social issues, etc. Our homeless population is estimated at over 500, our homeless shelter is always over capacity and the area around it has sporadic camps. We had a tent city of homeless people in a big box retail district but the city demolished it last year, so the homeless have spread to literally every corner of the city. Local urbexers have complained that every abandoned building they enter has several homeless people living in it, which has made the practice even more risky than it was before.
Thunder Bay had 11 murders last year, achieving Canada's highest urban homicide rate since records began at just under 10 per 100,000. Most of them were between homeless aboriginals. The most difficult thing about the cases is that so few of them have any recollection of the events actually taking place, due to the extreme substance abuse. A wide variety of substances are abused here, and we don't have enough beds to treat them. They often start these addictions in the northern reserves, which have 0 beds, and then get sent here to receive help that doesn't exist.
Thunder Bay recorded its first homicide last week (and the first in over 6 months, after a record setting year). An 18 year old man assaulted a 22 year old woman (said to be his girlfriend), who later succumbed to the injuries. The incident happened at a trailer park on the city's boundary with the reserve, and the man was from the reserve (both were native), so once again this has flared up racial tensions in the city. Fortunately, it was overshadowed by a mill burning down.
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