A complex homeless encampment complete with power and appliances in several structures has been dismantled by police in southeast Edmonton after it was discovered last week.
The Edmonton Police Service said it was one of the most elaborate encampments officers have ever seen, with a mini-power grid, including solar panels, and multiple home appliances.
“To say I am not impressed — that would be a lie,” EPS Const. Brett Earley said in a video posted to the force’s social media, adding that the site was incredibly unique.
Five people were living at the camp, police were able to confirm when they arrived at the site last week. One said they’d been living there since last winter.
Great pains were made to hide the little village from the outside world, police said in a social media post containing video of the site in an industrial area near 34th Street and Roper Road.
“It was almost completely camouflaged and included four multi-level structures surrounded by a fence made of trees and broken branches,” the post said.
The fence included a wooden gate and all of the structures inside the compound were covered in tree branches.
The huts had handmade doors with branch handles and windows. One even contained a fake plant.
Power was supplied by four generators and solar panels, and police said the electricity powered a chop shop for stolen bikes that also contained welding equipment.
The structures had been built without nails or other forms of support and were at risk of collapse, police said.
“One bad gust of wind, one bad weather night and that thing could come down and crush whoever is inside, unfortunately,” Earley said.
Inside the huts, EPS said officers and park rangers found wood-fired stoves with lit fires, an impressive stone fireplace, stone and marble flooring laid in an organized pattern, a working mini fridge and washing machine, and live electrical wires police said were strung haphazardly.
Two of the generators were buried underground and one was used to pump water from a creek to a running sink and the washing machine inside one of the huts.
The encampment was built up in a grove of trees in the middle of an industrial area with few amenities nearby.
“There is not a lot of access to food, grocery stores, anything like that out here and I think that just goes to show how widespread these encampment issues are becoming outside the downtown core,” Earley said.
The encampment caused significant environmental damage to the trees and root systems of the forest it was built in, police said, and the nearby Fulton Creek was dammed in multiple places to provide running water to one of the structures.
Police said 15 weapons, including three guns, a crossbow, knives, swords and a machete, and about $8,000 worth of stolen goods were found. Police have so far returned two backpack blowers and a mountain bike to their rightful owners, the post stated.
The encampment has since been dismantled. Those living in it were offered access to services and supports, which police said they refused.
EPS said 20 violation tickets were written, and 10 warrants executed.