Millennium Park residents begin exodus – “There will be different camps set up in the city”

Today is the last day that a homeless encampment will be on the corner of 1st Avenue and George Street.

At the end of August, the city announced they would be tearing down the encampment on September 9th – tomorrow – due to “serious safety concerns for both responders and occupants of the park as the result of increased density.”

The decision was controversial and met with immediate disapproval from the provincial government. You can read more about that here and here.

According to crews helping residents move, many of those sheltering at Millennium Park are headed down the street to Moccasin Flats – but not all.

“I have dropped people off in different locations – I am not at liberty to say where – but there will be different camps that will be set up at different places in the city for sure,” Phillip Fredriksson, an UNDU (Uniting Northern Drug Users) volunteer said.

This is something Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon was concerned about when he spoke to My PG Now last week, saying “If people wanted to be at the other site they would have just gone there. What likely will happen is that those individuals won’t go to the other site and they will find another place within the city.”

The one place Fredriksson said he isn’t seeing people going is indoors, which was the city’s hope.

In a previous interview, City Councillor Kyle Sampson said “It is my hope that these folks turn to BC Housing, there is housing available. BC Housing continues to tell us they have housing, they have shelter space, they have options available and they continue to bring more options. What those are is not always clear to us, that is a separate entity, but BC Housing stresses that they have resources available.”

As of this morning, four 30-foot trailers and two 15-foot U-Hauls worth of items had been taken out of the encampment, which was well under half of what is still there.

Fredriksson does not think they will be able to clear all of people’s belongings in time, but  said the necessities are all being taken.

“They are feeling comfortable telling us what to load and what to do just to make sure this happens in time,” he said.

“They are stressed. A lot of our residents here are in addiction or substance use disorder. During periods of anxiety or stress they use more, so we found we were dealing with a more difficult population which is unfortunate and could have been avoided.”

Fredriksson had put in eight hours organizing the move with a small team of people yesterday, and planned to have another eight hours at the encampment today.

One person that has been with him for most of that time was City Councillor Trudy Klassen.

“Yesterday morning I was here at 8:00am, she arrived an hour or so after that with the mayor. I was the only person down here, she put on gloves, jumped in, and started working as hard as I was,” he recalled. “Again today, first thing this morning, she was one of the first people here.”

“I am really impressed to see a council member getting their hands dirty. But, we have 9 council members, the fact that only 1 is involved in this cleanup disappoints me,” he said.

While some people have turned up at the encampment to help pack up, others have shown up to be less than helpful.

“Today, we have seen people parking across the street to be spectators, we are having people drive by and scream things out their windows… just a lot of unfortunately uncompassionate people stating their opinions,” he said.

While My PG Now was on the site, there were multiple people parked across from 1st Avenue watching the move.

“These are human beings,” Fredriksson said. “Each person has a story. If you sat down and talked to these individuals, you would understand how they arrived at the situation they are in and the system has continuously failed them, and now are being herded around like cattle.”

“If you were one of those people that was driving by screaming and yelling, I understand you have your own opinion but I would ask you to be more compassionate towards human beings,” he said.

Fredriksson also mentioned a wellness centre has been set up behind Moccasin Flats by UNDU, which contains washrooms, showers, nurses, and potentially safe supply in the future.

He hopes the current residents, and new residents moving in, will put it to good use, and that it can help cut down on fires and frostbite in the harsh winter months.