Efforts to enforce daytime camping ban at Kingston’s Belle Park thwarted for 2nd day

Efforts to enforce a daytime camping ban at the Belle Park encampment fell short for the second straight day Thursday.

On Wednesday the city started applying a parks use bylaw requiring tents and temporary structures to be taken down an hour after sunrise.

But just like the day before, bylaw enforcement officers backed off after being greeted with a blockade set up by residents and their supporters at Belle Park Thursday morning.

“(It’s) the same thing as yesterday – we showed up, they showed up, they turned away,” said supporter Ivan Stoiljkovic, from the Katarokwi Union of Tenants, who vowed not to leave the site.

2:41 City of Kingston delays by-law enforcement at Belle Park homeless encampment

“Hopefully the city will come to their senses at some point soon.”

The city announced last month that it would start enforcing a ban on daytime camping in municipally owned parks during the first week of April.

Under the rules, tents and temporary structures must be removed an hour after sunrise but can be set back up an hour before sundown.

The move comes after an Ontario Superior Court decision last November stopped forced evictions at Belle Park, ruling a city bylaw banning overnight camping was not constitutional and violated the campers’ Section 7 Charter right to life, liberty and security.

Paige Agnew from the city said staff decided to leave the park again Thursday morning to keep the situation from escalating.

Agnew, Kingston’s commissioner of growth and development services, stressed the city has no plans to abandon its efforts to enforce the bylaw and said staff will continue with “a measured approach” for now.

2:11 Kingston to begin enforcing daytime camping ban at Belle Park encampment

That approach includes talking with residents and working with community partners to share information about storage options as well as daytime shelters and support services, Agnew said.

“Our focus is really trying to obtain compliance with care and consideration and certainly from a voluntary perspective,” she said at a Thursday morning press conference.

“Hopefully with persistent effort there will be the ability for us to have a breakthrough.”

While the focus remains on voluntary compliance for now, a press release sent from the city later in the day did not rule out legal options.

“(As) a last resort, the City will consider all available legal remedies,” Agnew is quoted as saying in the release.

While the city works to enforce the bylaw, advocates say more supports are needed for residents who will be left without shelter during the day.

1:44 Kingston to enforce daytime camping ban at Belle Park, city parks

Ashley O’Brien, a former worker at Kingston’s Integrated Care Hub (IHC) who has worked with camp residents for years, says other than the IHC, none of the shelters offer beds during the day.

“People need to rest,” O’Brien told Global News on Thursday. “People who are housed are able to go home, sprawl out on their couch, and that’s just not accessible to people who are experiencing homelessness.”

The city says while it will continue to work toward applying the bylaw, efforts are likely to be reduced in the coming days as city staff prepare for “exceptional operational demands” for Monday’s total solar eclipse.

In the meantime, Stoiljkovic says the blockades will remain up at the Belle Park encampment.

“It’s a community like any other, it’s a neighbourhood – people have their homes, they happen to be tents – that’s all there is to it,” he said.

“Unfortunately, (the) city would rather spend millions of dollars on terrorizing people than providing housing for them.”

1:53 Court decision stops Belle Park eviction