Discontent City closed to outsiders, cleanup begins
NANAIMO — Anyone staying at downtown Nanaimo’s Discontent City will have to prove they belong there, though it’s unclear who’s manning the gates.
A provincial order came into effect Friday, Oct. 26 at 5 p.m. requiring anyone remaining at the tent city must have applied for the provincially-funded housing planned to come online at the end of November. As of 9 a.m. on Friday, all fire safety hazards were to also be removed.
Many of the residents NanaimoNewsNOW talked to on Friday said they’d applied for the housing and were anxious to leave the sprawling camp which first opened in May.
BC Housing couldn’t confirm how many applied for the housing, but NanaimoNewsNOW heard at the scene roughly 120 applications were accepted.