Expect another tent city in Maple Ridge within 6 months if changes aren’t made: advocate

MAPLE RIDGE (NEWS 1130) — It may not be in the same spot as the camp known as Anita Place, but an advocate says it’s just a matter of time before tents to go up in Maple Ridge again.

Anna Cooper, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society, says the underlying issues that created the now-dismantled tent city haven’t been addressed. She says people who relied on the camp for shelter aren’t any safer or taken care of, and the cycle of homelessness will continue.

“Because homeless people continue to have nowhere to go and they continue to be facing daily harms of weather exposure, violence from anti-homeless community members, and all other kinds of harms that come with being homeless and isolated,” she says.

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The provincial government built two new modular housing projects for people living in the camp, and some former residents have now moved in. Even so, Cooper says there could still be more than 100 people in the area that don’t have permanent homes.

She says Mayor Mike Morden and city council need to fundamentally change their approach to homelessness, or they should expect more tent cities to pop up in the near future.

“Unfortunately, we have a mayor and council who overwhelming are unwilling to come to the table with homeless people here and talk to them about what their needs actually are, and it’s why we’re still here. And it’s why there’s every chance they’re going to have another tent city within the next six months, because homeless people continue to have nowhere to go,” she says.

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“Homeless people are forced by the conditions that they’re living in, to constantly seek out and find places where they can come together and gather and take care of each other. It’s a natural human instinct, when you’re forced to live outside, to try and find other people in your circumstances and protect each other. Naturally, another tent city will form — it’s just the end result of the conditions people are living in.”

She also predicts more money will be spent on court injunctions and security guard patrols now that the encampment is gone.

Ivan Drury with Alliance Against Displacement also says the mayor hasn’t done enough to help the city’s homeless population.

“Playing into the targeting and victimization of homeless people. Not just in Maple Ridge, but in other small towns throughout B.C. where the solution to the visibility of poverty is to pass laws that criminalize homeless people. I think it’s inevitable that another tent city will go up,” he says.

He’s also accusing city council of blaming poor people for the existence of poverty.

Last week, city staff reported all remaining campers are now living in temporary modular homes and Anita Place will soon be a family-friendly park.

The camp was built in 2017 after a nearby shelter was closed. The city began clearing out the camp in February 2019 after a court injunction was issued to remove fire hazards.