Tent removal notices spark concern on Roos Island

Encampment controversy at Victoria Park The City of Kitchener issues notices to remove abandoned tents as residents worry about eviction. Jeff Pickel reports.

People living in an encampment on Roos Island in Kitchener’s Victoria Park are fearful their tents could be removed this week, despite reassurances from the city that won’t happen.

City staff posted notices on three tents on the island last week, saying they appeared to be abandoned and were scheduled to be removed.

There are currently around 10 tents at the Victoria Park encampment. Although it’s difficult to say how many people are living there, it’s far fewer during the summer months.

“The weather is going to get worse, especially in February,” said Roos Island encampment organizer Julian Icham. “We need housing.”

He’s fearful an eviction is coming.

“If it’s just us, or just the minority of poor people, I think we are going to get bulldozed,” said Icham.

The city’s director of bylaw says the removal notices were only posted on tents that were abandoned and no one living on the island is being told to leave.

“These tents were, for over a week, had been either open to the elements, torn, no activity at all, so we had left notices that the following week they would be removed if someone was not using them,” Gloria MacNeil said.

According to the city, this is not an eviction notice.

“There were absolutely no notices to anyone who is actively living at the Victoria Park encampment,” MacNeil said.

“Anyone who is currently living on Roos Island has not been given a notice to vacate.”

The city says the removal of a tent is an effort to keep the island clean and safe.

“We monitor the island daily for garbage, and we would consider an abandoned or unused tent to be debris, we have had a number of tents that have caught fire,” MacNeil said.

Roos Island residents and their supporters are planning a rally on the island Wednesday morning – when the city indicated staff may be removing some tents.

NEED FOR HOUSING

Both people living at Roos Island and the city agree on one thing, tent encampments are not the answer.

They say the long-term goal is housing. But the short-term solution is shelters, and the Region of Waterloo is working to create more space to bring people in from the cold.

An overnight emergency shelter at the former Schwaben club in Kitchener opened this fall.

Later this month, the new House of Friendship shelter on Weber Street in Waterloo is expected to open.

In February, a hybrid tiny home shelter is expected to be up in running on Erb Road.

In total, the region says it has opened 119 new emergency shelter spaces since the fall and anticipates another 125 in the next two months.