Victoria bylaw staff and police officers closed a block of Princess Avenue on Tuesday morning to clear out an encampment and clean the street.
Access to Princess between Douglas Street and Government Street was blocked with caution tape and road blocks while bylaw staff impounded property from the street.
After bylaw trucks left with a full load of bikes, shopping carts, garbage bags and large totes, street-cleaning vehicles moved in to hose the street.
Dennis Davies, who said he has been sheltering on Princess Avenue for several years, said he was given just 15 minutes to pack up his tent and all his belongings Tuesday morning.
“People in homes can’t get out of bed in 15 minutes, but we’re supposed to have our stuff packed, moved, ready and rolling off the street in 15 minutes. That’s ridiculous,” he said.
Standing outside the security tape on Douglas Street with the belongings he had managed to pack up in a cart, Davies said he lost about $200 in metal he was planning to take to the scrap yard and about $100 in empty cans when they were taken away.
The city said impounded items are kept for 30 days and can be retrieved through the bylaw office.
Davies said bylaw and police officers are on the street most mornings telling people to take down their tents, but before Tuesday, they hadn’t come to the area in about a week.
Davies said he planned to set up his tent on the street again Tuesday night, because he doesn’t know where else to go.
“Why can’t we come up with a better way to deal with this?” he said.
Billy Sanderson, showroom supervisor at Russell Hendrix Food Services Equipment at the corner of Princess Avenue and Douglas Street, said he has seen police and bylaw officers clear the street many times, but Tuesday’s action was the most thorough. Over four and a half hours, he saw about a dozen city workers, upwards of 15 police officers and a full street-sweeping crew.
Sanderson said there are generally half a dozen large shelters set up on the street housing about 30 people. He said he has found a lounge chair on fire in front of the store’s loading bay and a shopping cart thrown through the store’s front door.
Some customers say they’re uneasy coming to the area and don’t want to get out of the car, instead asking staff to bring products directly to their vehicles in the parking lot, he said.
“Everybody understands there’s a problem, but there’s no solution. So they just keep clearing them out, and then they set up again,” Sanderson said.
City of Victoria spokeswoman Colleen Mycroft said staff were removing items that were unlawfully on boulevards, sidewalks and streets, as well as providing sanitation services such as street-sweeping and washing.
Extra staff and police were required because staff had not cleared property from the area in several days and items had built up, Mycroft said in a statement.
Seven people were sheltering on the street Tuesday morning, she said. They were told they had “a period of time” to gather their essential items for shelter and day-to-day care, and everything else would be impounded.
Niki Ottosen, who runs a local initiative called the Backpack Project that collects tents, blankets and other donated items to provide to people on the street, said it’s “heartbreaking” to see people being moved out and their belongings impounded.
She believes some of the donated items she collected will end up in the landfill after being impounded.
“People are trying to survive with very little, and they’re trying to stay close to support services. However, if they’re constantly being displaced, they have to move farther out to the bush, which means less opportunity for support, and less opportunity for community,” Ottosen said.
Victoria police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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