Roughly 100 people called Wesley St. home at the height of the encampment. (Spencer Sterritt/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

2020 in review

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Dec 17, 2020 | 2:30 PM

NANAIMO — A large tent encampment in Nanaimo captured headlines for the second time in two years.

Up to 100 people lived at the Wesley St. encampment, directly behind the City of Nanaimo’s Services and Resources Centre and on the same block as Nanaimo’s overdose prevention site, throughout much of the summer.

The encampment grew at a much slower pace than Discontent City did in the summer of 2018 and evolved with little fanfare in the first months of 2020.

It was initially a few tents set up on the street overnight during the winter. City staff would come in each morning and to move along the upwards of 20 people who’d camped overnight and would also remove accumulated debris.

The encampment then grew quickly in it’s tucked-away location once the COVID-19 pandemic began and a shelter in place order was put into effect.

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Jessy Knight, an outreach worker and educator with the Open Heart Collaborative, told NanaimoNewsNOW she saw a community swell on Wesley St.

“A lot of them are people with no other support systems, no families and no one outside of that. They realized they were holding each other’s lives in their hands during this time.”

No fatal overdoses were recorded at Wesley St., despite the ongoing overdose crisis resurging in 2020.

The pandemic hit the area hard, not necessarily in cases but in a sudden lack of services. Many programs Wesley St. residents relied on were forced to reduce hours or close altogether due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

“The organizations that were able to interact and support were able to do that by going down into their space, respecting that it was their home and supporting them with consent and collaboration,” Knight said.

Though considerably smaller than Discontent City, the issues at the core of the encampment are the same.

Advocates protested a lack of supportive housing, a dearth of shelter beds for those actively using substances and not enough mental health supports for those living rough.

In the two years between Discontent City and the Wesley St. encampment, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Nanaimo rose by roughly 25 per cent.

Upwards of 425 people were found to be living unsheltered but the real number of people considered absolutely homeless was estimated to be closer to 600.

The camp continued to grow, along with frustrations from City of Nanaimo staff who worked right behind it and businesses downtown and in the Old City Quarter.

Dave LaBerge, the City’s community safety manager, told NanaimoNewsNOW the situation on the street hit a “tipping point” when rainy fall weather moved in.

A fire safety order was issued in mid-October. Several tents were removed the next week.

A recently released report by LaBerge claimed Wesley St. had devolved significantly as it grew.

“It became a familiar scene to observe residents from adjacent neighbourhoods wandering up the row of shelters…commenting they were looking for their patio furniture, their tools or their children’s bicycles. As often as not, they would find what they were looking for.”

The Wesley St. encampment ended on Thursday, Dec. 3 after a fire in a tent ignited propane canisters and other flammables not allowed due to the fire safety order.

The camp, which had whittled down to around 60 people due to cold weather, was quickly displaced off the street as Nanaimo Fire Rescue moved in.

Tents were removed and the street was cleared with a backhoe by the end of the next day.

Advocates, such as the Open Heart Collaborative, charge the City with displacing a large number of people into Nanaimo’s bush and other parks.

Based on recent numbers from the point-in-time count earlier in 2020, one-tenth of Nanaimo’s homeless population was living on Wesley St. at the time.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @SpencerSterritt