A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled that everyone must leave Nanaimo’s DisconTent City encampment within 21 days.
Justice Ronald Skolrood said key factors that led to his decision are crime and violence within the tent city, criminal activity in the surrounding area, harm to downtown businesses, and a deteriorating leadership structure within the camp.
Fire risks have increased as the tent city has grown and some residents “actively and aggressively” opposed efforts to enforce a May 30 fire safety order, he said in his 38-page decision.
The tent city “can no longer be safely maintained and occupied,” Skolrood said in granting an interim injunction against the camp.
Nanaimo tried and failed to shut down the tent city using a trespass order. When that didn’t work, the city turned to the court. A hearing was held in July.
About 300 campers are at 1 Port Dr., an industrial site owned by Nanaimo and leased to a third party. The camp was set up in mid-May.
Skolrood ordered that campers and their belongings must be gone in three weeks.
“Given the length of time that the tent city has been in place, and the precarious circumstances of many of the residents, it is important that the dismantling occur in an ‘orderly and sensitive’ fashion and in a time frame that permits people to look for suitable alternative accommodation,” he wrote.
RCMP will be allowed to arrest and remove anyone present after three weeks.
Skolrood did not grant Nanaimo’s request to ban all tents and other structures on city land without written permission.
“Any such future encampments can only be assessed in light of the circumstances existing at the time,” he wrote.
Nanaimo Mayor Bill McKay said the city plans to work with tent city residents and with the province to see the camp shut down in an orderly way.
McKay said that a Tuesday conference call with Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Selena Robinson and her staff is scheduled.
“B.C. Housing has proposed to us some innovative shelter structures and we are all ears. We would like to hear further about those.”
“It could be nearly immediate depending upon stock,” McKay said, describing one option as tent-like structures
B.C. Housing has been working with Nanaimo and has been looking at local properties, McKay said.
“We need to get these folks sheltered in some way.”
The province said in a statement that the meeting is aimed at ensuring “campers and the community are provided with the necessary supports during this time.”
B.C. Housing staff will meet with the city and Island Health to look at additional temporary shelter opportunities until a permanent solution is found, the statement said. The housing action response team will continue to work with campers and support the B.C. Mental Health Care Association. Outreach staff will continue their work as well.
“Our ultimate goal is to get people into shelters and longer-term housing and we stand ready to work with the city to build new supportive housing,” the ministry said.
DisconTent City is the largest homeless camp in Nanaimo but not its only one. McKay said there are about 10 others, some with only a few residents while others could have up to 30. Some are in forest in the Regional District of Nanaimo.
Amber McGrath, a DisconTent City spokeswoman, is disappointed the camp is being shut down. “It is horrible and it is not fair and I think it is a death sentence.
“Because at least when the people are together, they can look out for each other.”
Amid today’s opioid crisis, most people die alone in their homes, she said, adding that dryg users could now be on their own in the bush.
Two “heartbreaking” overdose deaths have been linked to the camp, but McGrath said, “I think it would have been a heck of a lot more if the people hadn’t been together.”
Like Saanich and Victoria, homeless people in Nanaimo are allowed to camp overnight in some parks, but must pack up during the day. That kind of situation means that people can not focus on their mental health or addictions “because you are focusing so hard on just surviving and finding somewhere to stay,” McGrath said.
The bottom line is that we should be valuing people, she said. “These are human beings, whether they are addicted or not … and they have nowhere to go.”
The judge’s order is clear — if people stay at the tent city, they will be arrested, she said. “So we are definitely going to vacate 1 Port Dr. Whether or not we choose to take another site, we don’t know. We’ve got to talk to the people and figure out what they want to do.”
Lawyer Troy DeSouza, who represented Nanaimo, welcomed the decision, saying, “We are hoping that tent city occupants will voluntarily comply with that, start to pack up and start to move.”
