Running water is now available at Nanaimo’s DisconTent City after city workers installed it this morning.
A hose has been passed through the fence from outside the encampment. A splitter on the hose allows two people to access water at a time, says resident Jason Cormier, 24.
“I am so thankful.”
He’s heard that a sprinkler attachment will be coming, too.
The water was demanded by Dr. Paul Hasselback, chief medical officer for Central Vancouver Island. An order was issued to the city last week to install potable water, more toilets, and hand sanitizing devices.
Nanaimo had originally balked at the order but has now complied.
Cormier said that he was recently confronted by staff at a nearby shopping centre who did not want him to get drinking water from that location.
The city also brought in three more portable toilets to the tent city, at 1 Port Drive. Two toilets were set up after campers set up tents in mid-May on the city owned, industrial zoned property.
Additional toilets are welcome, Cormier said.
“We only had two for 200 people and there were quite the lineups. We’ve got five now, which is a saviour.”
Another tent city resident, Wendy, who did not want to give her last name, is also pleased to have accessible water.
She has been walking downtown to a spot near the library to fill a five-litre jug to carry back to tent city. That water was used for washing dishes. “It’s necessary. You know water is essential.”
“It has been difficult to provide water for everybody.”
Some local businesses have discouraged campers from accessing water to fill drinking bottles but a couple of nearby fast-food outlets have been accommodating, Wendy said.
DisconTent City is among tent cities established on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.
It has an estimated 152 tents and structures on open land, with some scrubby bushes.
Hasselback’s order came as hot weather and clear skies are forecast. Temperatures are expected to hit 28 degrees Celsius by Sunday.
Nanaimo Fire Chief Karen Fry, who also serves as director of public safety, said today that it is difficult to get a total count of people at the site. It is a busy place, with people coming and going. Along with tents there is a recreational vehicle trailer, two cars and two trucks, she said.
Concerns about tent city include drug use one woman died this month from an overdose. Fry has heard that drug dealers have moved onto the property and said the dynamic of the tent city is changing.
New people have set up tents. They are people that Fry said she doesn’t recognize from Nanaimo’s homeless population.
RCMP check out the property several times a day and the Fire Department visits daily, she said.
Nanaimo is among Vancouver Island communities with a critical shortage of affordable rental housing.
Cormier said he has been at the tent city for two weeks after losing rental housing near Cedar. He said he spent five months looking for another place to live but competition was stiff.
By the time a rental unit had been advertised for a couple of days, there are already about 60 people ready to take it, making it impossible to find a place, Cormier said.
