For people living at the Fairview homeless encampment in Penticton, a court-ordered eviction has raised questions about where they will go next.
“I have no idea where I’m going to go,” said Casper, a Fairview encampment resident who did not want to use her last name. “I don’t have anywhere to go.”
The B.C. government secured an injunction Monday to dismantle the encampment, located on Ministry of Transportation land between Highway 97 and Ellis Creek.
In granting the injunction, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Breanna Hardwick ruled the site represents a significant and ongoing public safety risk and is unsuitable for outdoor sheltering.
Casper says the uncertainty is compounded by the repeated need to move their belongings and find somewhere else to stay.
“I’ve been through the daily grind of having to move everything that I have at a moment’s notice until I can find another place that I can park a tent and camp until 6 a.m. and do it all over again,” Casper said. “That’s really hard on somebody. ”
Concerns over safety have grown over the past two years, including the risk from repeated fires at the site.
There have been multiple fires at the encampment in recent months, including a large one in May that had black smoke billowing into the sky.
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While no one has been seriously hurt, a fire last year spread to the nearby Leisureland RV Centre, destroying two recreational vehicles.
Other businesses, including Inland Truck and Equipment, have also experienced fire damage.
Luke Bradley, who operates Inland Truck and Equipment, says he hopes dismantling the site will help ease concerns about property crime and fires.
“There’ll be less fear of you know break-ins, which we’ve had, fires, which we’ve had,” Bradley said. “It will be refreshing for the businesses around here to not have to be as worried.”
While Bradley welcomes the prospect of the site being cleaned up, he says more support is needed for people experiencing homelessness.
“They need help, and I feel like we’ve kind of let them down in a way that we are not providing what they need to actually get out of here,” he said.
Penticton’s outgoing mayor, Julius Bloomfield, says the injunction may provide some relief for businesses that have struggled with the encampment, but he is concerned about the lack of available shelter space.
“We have no shelter space that I know of. The one shelter is completely full, and I suspect the other one doesn’t have that kind of room,” Bloomfield said.
Bloomfield argues that dismantling the encampment does not address the underlying issue of homelessness.
“This doesn’t solve the problem, it just moves the problem,” he said.
The roughly one dozen people living at the Fairview encampment have until noon Friday to leave the site.
Casper says they plan to resist the eviction.
“I’m not leaving without being handcuffed and arrested. So that’s how I’m leaving,” Casper said. “If that’s what it takes to get some kind of attention for this, I think then it will happen.”
This is what happens when there are not even spots for people inregular society. Most of these people receive disability for mental/physical problems but that check doesnt cover a basic dignified life. They have been left out of society financially. I dont blame them for getting high all day, what are they supposed to do with themselves?
Doz it.
If you send out invitations, roll out the red carpet and welcome wagon they will come. I am sorry but you have to make it hard.
New housing without security enforcement is a recipe for disaster.
Look up Royal Cresent SRO in Maple Ridge. New in 2018, It took only 6 years to destroy a brand new 53 room facility and it’s now shut and closed . These workers ratted out the advocacy group running it because it was a gong show. ODd every day, every room regularly broken into, assaults, robberies, all the bathrooms and rooms damaged .
That’s what new age thinking gets you.
@ Kimberly Goodall – Why, so they can trash them like everything else?
We have a problem we need to get low income homes for the people that are living like this
@ Ben’s Friend, well said. I couldn’t agree with you more. Out of sight, out of mind.
Back in the 70s, housing was a right and social housing was provided by the government. We have a moral duty to ensure citizens have homes.
Bulldoze it. Sick and tired of junkies making a mess of our towns and streets. It’s high time we take back our streets from the homeless dirty junkies that are destroying it. I used to feel bad for them but as the situation just keeps getting worse I have come to resent them. Get rid of them. Time to straighten out or get out.
Activate bill s 206 for a basic income in Canada paid for in part by Georgist land value tax and carbon tax rebates to end extreme inequality
Homelessness is not an excuse
These encampments would be a lot less contentious if they didn’t devolve into garbage dumps.
Saves the citizens from taking matters into their own hands.
Good. Go be a hobo out of sight and no one will bother you.
Welcome to liberal Canada!