Concerns are growing about the number of unhoused people at a private lot in Abbotsford, where several tents, trailers and recreational vehicles seem to be stationed long-term.
Mayor Ross Siemens said the “intended use” of the Bradner rest area off the Trans-Canada Highway is temporary repose for truckers and tourists, and the area is not equipped for longer stays.
“There’s always danger when there is very little access and egress along a freeway,” he explained. “There’s not access to a country road to get there, so any time you have safety concerns those are always issues we’re worried about.”
Surrey resident Ralph Robinson pulled into the Bradner resident area Thursday after a trip from South Dakota and said the once reliable stopover is “starting to feel unsafe.”
“Honestly, I come here all the time to empty the tanks in the motor home after a long trip, and it’s getting worse and worse and worse around here,” he told Global News. “I feel bad for the homeless people but nobody is doing anything about it out here, whereas you drive through the U.S. the rest areas are clean, they’re safe.”
Robinson said he feels empathy for those sheltering at the rest area and it appears that governments are “ignoring” them.
“It’s a sad situation. Everybody’s got a story. You don’t know if it was bad decisions, mental illness, how they ended up here — but somebody’s got to do something about it because it’s getting worse and worse and worse.”
In June, amid heightened concerns from nearby Abbotsford residents, the provincial government cleared out a similar encampment on a plot of empty Crown land that was supposed to become the Lonzo Park and Ride.
It did so, it said, to build a temporary 50-bed modular shelter on the site that would replace the 40-bed Riverside Road shelter. At the time, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said all Lonzo’s residents were offered accommodations or support to rent regular market units, as well as storage options.
Paul Shearer, however, moved from the Lonzo encampment to the Bradner one. It was the only place he could park and live in his trailer “without being harassed by somebody,” he claimed.
Shearer said he used to live in his trailer on the farm where he worked, but after two decades the farm was sold, and he hasn’t been able to find farm work since.
“I’m not comfortable here at all … out in the bush and around there’s drug addicts,” he said of life at Bradner. “Someone told me they had the windshield of their truck hit with a bullet. Like I said, all night long there’s people arguing and fighting and stuff.”
Shearer said he likes many of those living at Bradner, but without water and heat — gravely misses the ability to make his own coffee each morning.
“Poor people don’t have a hope,” he said, in reference to the cost of living in the Lower Mainland.
Siemens said the City of Abbotsford is collaborating with the province to provide accommodations to those in need, as well as mental health and addictions support. He noted that some of those living at the Bradner work full-time, but are unable to find an affordable place to live.
“We’re also working on a number of fronts to try and speed up purpose-built rental, to try and have increased housing supply, and advocating obviously for rent supplements,” Siemens said.
Abbotsford has applied for federal funding under the Housing Accelerator Fund, is weighing in on B.C.’s Housing Supply Act and collaborating with the private sector to boost affordable supply, he added.
“Unfortunately, we are in a situation where we don’t have enough housing options for the needs that are there,” he said.
“I know it sounds trite when a politician says it’s a complex issue, but it is, and it’s going to take all of society working together. It’s not just government … it’s communities, it’s families, it’s investing more in youth so that we can capture some of those challenges before they become embedded.”
The Bradner rest stop has an estimated 40 or 45 residents. At its peak in 2020, the province has said there were more than 100 people living at the Lonzo encampment.
Teresa Dowkes, who visited Bradner on Thursday but lives at a recovery house, said she has no problem with the encampment, provided you “keep yourself clean, keep your site clean and be courteous.”
“I have been in this situation before,” she explained. “It takes one wrong turn one, bad choice and you can end up homeless on the street.”
Dowkes, a residential support worker, said she received just $700 a month while she was on welfare — an “undignified” sum that didn’t allow her to make ends meet.
“A lot of people judge people living on the street but they’re people too and it could happen to you. I never, ever thought I would be homeless.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure reiterated that while overnight rest is permitted on public highway rest areas, longer-term stays are not.
“The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is aware of people using some public highway rest areas for longer-term camping,” it wrote in an emailed statement. It “continues to work with Ministry of Housing through their outreach program and with local enforcement to keep the Bradner Rest Area a safe place to temporarily stop and use the facilities.”
The Bradner rest area is slated for upgrades as part of proposed improvements to the Trans-Canada Highway corridor between 264th Street and Highway 11, it added.