The discovery of a complex homeless encampment complete with power and appliances has once again raised concerns over the suitability and availability of supports to get homeless people off of Edmonton’s streets — or, in this case, out of the woods.
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 several generators, along with multiple home appliances.
Great pains were made to hide what amounted to a small village with four multi-level structures 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, with a fence made of trees and broken branches. 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 and artwork.
Ward Metis Coun. Ashley Salvador said with more than 4,000 homeless people in Edmonton, encampments like this are becoming more common.
“Those numbers are incredibly alarming and we’re seeing encampments in communities and in areas that we typically haven’t seen them,” Salvador said.
“A lot of folks who used to be in the downtown core are being pushed out further and further,” she said.
Encampments are showing up all over Edmonton, in places not seen before, and efforts to conceal them are becoming more sophisticated — from the southeast industrial area camp, to one discovered earlier this year under support beams at one end of the High Level Bridge.
Salvador said more encampments are showing up in places like ravines and treed areas such as the elaborate one police dismantled. It was built up in a thick grove of trees, in the middle of an industrial area with few amenities nearby.
“People are desperate and living rough in our cities right now.”
Power at the encampment 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.
The village-style camp police cleared was near Roper Road and 34th Street, where at least one of the five residents admitted they’d been living there for a year — something disappointing to Ward Sspomitapi Coun. Jo-Anne Wright.
“It’s unfortunate that Edmontonians are feeling that these encampments and outdoor areas are their only choice for shelter and housing,” Wright said on Tuesday.
“It was quite an elaborate community there that they had set up.”
Wright said Edmonton doesn’t just need more shelter space and affordable or supportive housing — it needs the right kind, or else some homeless will choose to remain on the streets.
“I think we need more for youth, we need more for women, we need more for couples to be able to live together in the shelters,” Wright said. “Some transitional housing shelters aren’t the answer. It’s just temporary. We need more permanent housing for people of all kinds.”
Salvador echoed that, saying some people just don’t feel comfortable going to shelters.
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 a washing machine inside one of the huts.
The encampment caused significant environmental damage to the trees and root systems of the forest it was built in, police said.
The nearby Fulton Creek was dammed in multiple places to provide running water to one of the structures.
Police said they located 15 weapons, including three guns, a crossbow, knives, swords and a machete, and about $8,000 worth of stolen goods.
Police have so far returned two backpack blowers and a mountain bike to their rightful owners, the post stated.
Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon said the incident shows why the province is committed to providing safe places to go.
“I really believe what the EPS found in that encampment proves that the province and EPS have been saying: there’s dangerous activity taking place in encampments and we will not allow it to continue in our province.”
However, Jim Gurnett with the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness said that isn’t something they’ve seen a lot of so far — they say there is a lack of shelter space and housing available, which is why some are choosing to live rough.
“People moving from one park to another or from one back alley to another street two blocks away is not solving homelessness,” Gurnett said.
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 were executed.