By Spencer Sterritt

Homeless camps springing up all across Nanaimo

Jul 7, 2018 | 2:49 PM

NANAIMO — Despite the presence of a tremendous homeless camp in downtown Nanaimo, smaller camps are still popping up all across the city.

Social planner John Horn estimated there’s roughly 50 smaller camps peppered throughout Nanaimo and they’re no longer just in bushes and small forests.

“There’s now encampments in public parks,” he told NanaimoNewsNOW. “Typically they wouldn’t be attractive places for the homeless to set up camp, because…they’re well-travelled these parks. But nonetheless, people are setting up in them now, which tells you they’re running out of places which are less high-profile.”

Horn said neighbourhoods, such as around Dover Bay, are now dealing with more entrenched, long-term camps.

One such camp behind the Michaels on Mary Ellen Dr. is quickly dismantling as development on new apartment buildings begin in the area.

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While walking along the Parkway Trail, numerous tents and settlements can be seen in the bushes and ravines along the trail.

So far in 2018, acting public safety manager Karen Fry confirmed there are 116 files on encampments across the city, with 11 currently open and being handled.

She said Discontent City, downtown on waterfront land across from the Port Place Shopping Centre, has dwarfed any other camps in terms of complaints and emails to city administration and leadership.

The growing presence of tent city will hopefully be an asset for the City, however.

Horn said it shows the value of providing a place for Nanaimo’s homeless during the day, which is a project the City is currently working on.

“It decreases the amount of stress being experienced by downtown merchants and residents,” Horn said about Discontent City. “No longer are there people just moving around through the commercial and residential areas all day long looking for a place to land.”

The City of Nanaimo provided $100,000 in seed money for a daytime drop-in centre. Horn said they’re currently talking with service providers to make sure the centre could provide much-needed help.

A site has not yet been identified and a timeline is unclear.

Meanwhile, the City and Discontent City organizers will be in court on July 16 and 17 making their case for why the tent city should or shouldn’t be removed from 1 Port Dr.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit