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Tent Cities Unsafe for Whom? Report from the Langley Homeless Camp in Nicomekl Park: By Scott Neufeld

volc8no August 16, 2016     Housing crisis & struggles, Newsletter posts

IMG_7921

About three months ago, Darcy and his friend Kathy set up a tent at the edge of a floodplain in the City of Langley’s Nicomekl park. They had been displaced from their previous campsite and thought the park offered a visible location and some distance from the nearest neighbors. Soon, more tents went up in the nearby trees and bushes of the floodplain. On Friday there were nine tents in the main floodplain area and Darcy estimated about twelve people living in the camp consistently. According to Darcy, this is unprecedented in Langley, “They have never allowed us to congregate anywhere”. In his ten years of being homeless in Langley this is the longest he has ever been able to stay in one place. Perhaps this is due in part to last year’s BC supreme court decision that cities can no longer prohibit overnight camping in public parks when shelters are full (Langley had at least 92 homeless people as of 2014, and one shelter with 32 beds). Whatever the reason, some stability of place is a welcome relief for homeless folks in Langley who are accustomed to a cycle of near constant displacement.

Though the camp hasn’t yet made contact with the several other homeless camps in nearby cities, Darcy pointed out that the rising number of camps in the Lower Mainland is a “sign of the times”, indicative of the increasing unaffordability and inaccessibility of housing to people with barriers to housing. “None of us here want to be homeless”, said Darcy, but many camp residents became homeless after being discriminated against in a viciously competitive rental housing market or evicted without cause while in a vulnerable situation.

IMG_7989The camp is highly visible to motorists on busy 208 Street adjacent to the park. Darcy said the camp’s visibility has meant supporters have come to drop off supplies for the campers, including tarps, water and food. A few local contractors have also stopped in to offer day labor jobs to campers. Darcy hoped that the visibility would help passersby understand that homelessness does exist in Langley, and that someone driving by might be able to connect residents to accessible rental housing. However, the visibility has also meant the camp has begun to attract negative attention, including honking and yelling from passing cars. Darcy wishes outsiders who have an issue with the camp would come talk to the campers directly and see if they could be addressed in a way that works for all.

However, most of the criticism of the camp has evolved in local news media, rather than face to face conversations with campers. An angry editorial in the Langley Times in July decried the camp as unsafe, crime-ridden and an affront to the rights of “taxpayers” to enjoy public parks. Several articles since then have focused on the camp’s “alarming” growth, and rising concerns with the camp’s “safety”. Langley City Mayor Ted Schaffer has been somewhat supportive of the camp, saying in a Times article that, “they deserve housing” but then abdicating all responsibility for this to the province. In another interview Schaffer added to the narrative of the camp as an unsafe place by suggesting that anything other than “supervised” supportive housing for camp residents would be “inviting chaos”. He went on to suggest that part of the solution is provincial funding for an ACT team in Langley who would be able to “understand” the residents of the camp, as if the real problem of the housing crisis is the incomprehensibility of homeless folks.

In the meantime, the city continues to send bylaw officers to the camp each morning to “check up on things” and advise residents that they must take their tents down by 9am each day. Darcy told me there have also been visits to the camp by RCMP, including one particularly unsettling encounter with a lone, plainclothes RCMP officer. Chillingly, the officer told Darcy, “You had better leave before you get burned out…” Darcy asked him to clarify and he said “I mean like, gasoline poured all over the camp and burnt”. Darcy said he didn’t want to “fearmonger” but he took this as a threat.

When asked what the city could do to help the camp Darcy said it would be nice if they could take an active role in facilitating conversation between the camp and nearby homeowners to address complaints with certain aspects of the camp and defuse tensions created by the perception that the camp endangers the safety of the public. Decreasing harassment by police and bylaw officers would probably also be nice, and could contribute to a safer environment for all where homeless folks can find some temporary solace, and safety, in camping together rather than remaining isolated, and constantly displaced.

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3 Comments

  1. August 14 – August 20, 2016 Volcano Newsletter
    ― August 16, 2016 - 7:06 pm  Reply

    […] Tent Cities Unsafe for Whom? Report from the Langley Homeless Camp in Nicomekl Park […]

  2. Scott D Neufeld
    ― August 17, 2016 - 10:34 pm  Reply

    if you’re in langley, folks at the camp appreciate support of all kinds, and are thankful to people from Stepping Stones (a local organization) for the help and support they’ve offered so far. Drop in and say hello, Darcy and co’s camp is the closest to the 208 st. entrance.

  3. Being the thinking point between experience and action – Social movement journalism in 2016, a Volcano year in review: By Ivan Drury
    ― December 21, 2016 - 8:27 am  Reply

    […] 58 tent cities in the Downtown Eastside, Cliff Avenue tent city in Maple Ridge, the tent city in Langley, Super InTent City in Victoria, and the 135A Strip in Surrey all demonstrate what The Volcano […]

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Sad Siren Song: By Tracey Morrison

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Community Spotlight: Jean Swanson

For our issue on the BC Liberal legacy, Volcano editors turned to our Community Spotlight on a legacy of our own to highlight her over 40 years of anti-poverty work. Jean Swanson is an editor with The Volcano alongside her work with the Carnegie Community Action Project. She previously worked with the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association (DERA) and is the author of a book titled Poorbashing: The Politics of Exclusion.

You’ve been active in anti-poverty work for a long time. What has been the biggest realization that you have had with regards to poverty in this province? Has your understanding or approach to government changed over time and through experience?

My approach to government has definitely changed. Back in 1979, I actually ran as an NDP MLA candidate because I thought being involved in electoral politics was a way of implementing the things you’ve been fighting for in the community. I ran with COPE for city council too, along with my co-workers Bruce Eriksen and Libby Davies, who were elected. In those days it seemed possible to get city council to do some good things for the Downtown Eastside if we worked hard at it: fund the Carnegie Centre, pass a Standards of Maintenance bylaw, put sprinklers in the hotels.

In the early 90s, after the NDP cut welfare and brought in a whole poorbashing framework to justify it, I couldn’t bring myself to vote at all, let alone run for office.

Read more about Jean Swanson's commitment to anti-poverty organizing here.

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Alliance Against Displacement: The Volcano is affiliated with the Alliance Against Displacement, a pan-regional anti-displacement network of local communities, organizations, and activists fighting displacement on the ground.

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