It’s been a little over a week since the City of Prince George notified residents of the Millennium Park encampment they would need to leave — a process riddled with confusion and poor communication, one advocate tells Global News.
Since the Aug. 31 order to pack up, accommodations have been found for just six of the 30 or so people living in the park. Around 12 are still at the camp with nowhere to go and the rest have fled, according to Phillip Fredericksson.
“They’re full of stress and anxiety. Some people have fled and left all their things because of the fear of forceful removal,” the volunteer for Uniting Northern Drug Users UNDU’ing Stigma said Friday.
“We’re compounding trauma here, this is becoming such a complex PTSD situation.”
His comments come after a Sept. 6 notice from Prince George Fire Chief Cliff Warner ordering the evacuation of all people and removal of all combustible materials from Millennium Park due to “imminent and serious danger to life and property.”
“This order is effective commencing September 7, 2023 at 4:25 p.m. and will remain in effect until it is withdrawn by me in writing,” it stated.
Fredericksson said that notice — issued with no advance warning to those on the frontlines — sent people into a panic. They believed the deadline to vacate Millennium Park had been moved up two days from the Sept. 9 timeline provided by the city.
Drug use on the site increased as a coping mechanism, he added, although as of Sept. 8, no police or fire department action to evict the residents had been taken.
“It was written as a deadline and threatened, and then was not followed through. So we have paid officials in this city who make empty threats and strike fear and anxiety and stress and pain into unhoused residents,” Fredericksson said.
Global News requested an interview with the mayor or a council member on Thursday, but none was provided.
In an emailed statement, however, Prince George senior communications advisor Claire Thwaites said the fire chief’s order took effect on Thursday, but did not change the city’s Saturday deadline. She further wrote that neither the mayor nor council is “in a position to comment on an independent decision of the fire chief.”
The City of Prince George funds the fire department.
“The City intends to comply with the order of the fire chief in conjunction with its efforts to clear the site pursuant to the Trespass Act,” Thwaites wrote.
“Notice of these efforts was provided to occupants of Millennium Park on August 31, advising that the site must be cleared of all personal possessions or other material by September 8. As a matter of employee safety, the City will not be issuing any comment with respect to operations on the site until it has been cleared and secured.”
Global News has reached out to the fire chief for comment.
Reached by Global News on Friday, Coun. Trudy Klassen said that like others, she had interpreted the fire chief’s order to be a deadline: “That sounds to me like a deadline of Sept. 7, 4:25 p.m.”
Klassen was at Millennium Park on Friday helping residents pack and move, alongside Fredericksson. Asked about her message to those now facing uncertain future, she said, “so much in our society is broken these days, and I would say this is just one example of things that are not working well.”
She will “absolutely” follow up with mayor and council to ensure better communication in the future, she added.
“When you’re sitting in city hall, it’s easy to say this, it’s easy to say that — but for the people on the ground, their requirements for notice is not always understood by those sitting around the chamber circle.”
Klassen said Prince George seems to be “getting a bid of a bad rap” when it comes to challenges with housing, mental health and addictions. In part, the councillor said it’s because the major northern city is a “catch basin” for folks in need of support and services from across northern B.C.
She acknowledged, however, “there is more that we could be doing to encourage the coordination of services and making sure that we manage, as a city, a little bit better place for all of those things.”
The mayor does have a vision for a city that “takes care of its vulnerable, that is thriving, that is a vibrant community where there’s opportunity,” Klassen added.
In an interview with CKPG on Thursday, Mayor Simon Yu said the city is “not in the business of moving people from encampment to encampment.”
“Hopefully, we’ll work together and we can move people from encampment to housing.”
Last year, prior to Yu’s election, the City of Prince George apologized for the harm it caused when it took down structures from the Moccasin Flats encampment, stating it believed at the time it had been abandoned.
The municipality had appealed a court ruling that denied its injunction request to close the encampment. A B.C. Supreme Court judge later determined the city had “inflicted serious harm on vulnerable people” last March, and Prince George withdrew its appeal.
Yu said Thursday the city must prove that sufficient housing exists to accommodate the residents of an encampment before an injunction is granted by the courts.
According to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, as of 2021, 163 people in Prince George were experiencing homelessness, 82 per cent of whom reported experiencing “chronic homelessness.” Eighty-two per cent also identified as Indigenous, while 10 per cent identified as youth 25 or under.
Fredericksson, however, said the number of unhoused people in Prince George is closer to 500, including people who are accessing other services, couch-surfing or the hidden homeless. UNDU is currently setting up a new wraparound social services shelter to accommodate some, he added, but it’s not expected to be open for clients until October.
There were apparent challenges last week with regards to the Millennium Park decampment as well.
Fredericksson said no one knew about the eviction order prior to the public, Aug. 31 announcement from the city, and the Sept. 9 deadline was an extension that was obtained through last-minute advocacy.
The municipality acknowledged an “apparent misalignment” between mayor and council and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon, who expressed his disappointment in the decampment order and urged the city to reconsider, given that accommodations had not yet been secured for everyone.
Both Prince George and the Ministry of Housing had signed a memorandum of understanding about the provision of resources and work to house residents in need.
In an emailed statement last week, mayor and council said it would investigate “the apparent misalignment” and expected to issue a statement this week. As of Friday morning, no such statement had been posted to the municipality’s website.
Kahlon said Friday that BC Housing and provincial outreach workers continue to engage with residents of Millennium Park, to offer housing when available and making sure they’re aware of nearby shelter options.
“BC Housing’s nurse was also on-site this week and completed 10 health assessments and provided health referrals when needed,” he said in an email.
“As of Wednesday, BC Housing staff and outreach workers have helped four individuals move out of the encampment into long term shelter spaces at the Association Advocating for Women and Community … They will continue monitoring closely to ensure every open shelter space is made available for people. To this end, BC Housing has worked with AWAC to add 10 additional beds.”
An additional 52 supportive homes are currently underway in Prince George, Kahlon added. He did not address a question on the communication challenges of the decampment process.
Fredericksson, meanwhile, said work to clear the camp for Saturday continues, interrupted periodically by “toxic” jeers and car honking from some passersby who want the camp dismantled.
It has been the site of a fire and drug use, and a police raid also found weapons there.
Fredericksson said he’s disappointed he hasn’t seen a single municipal outreach worker at the camp in the past two days.
He called the lack of overall communication in the past week “absolutely unacceptable” and said he plans to take on a bigger advocacy role at city council meetings to help ensure the pattern “cannot continue.”
— with files from CKPG