12/09/12 – 21:05 Abbotsford Today Contributor Bas Stevens was on scene today taking photos of the City of Abbotsford dismantling the homeless camp on Gladys Avenue.
The camp was dismantled because it had become a public health risk after the homeless were forced to leave the area up the street at the Honey Tree across from the Salvation Army when they were poisoned with chicken feces by the City of Abbotsford.
The Abbotsford News blamed the incident on city workers but emails obtained by the CBC later implicated senior management in several departments. An email published by Abbotsford Today also revealed that the Sally Ann had been consulted by the City and had been in agreement with the chicken manure dump.
The City has been under fire for not living up to protocols to which it had agreed about the ways it would deal with homeless camps. With large number of media watching all reports today show the City followed those protocols and were successful in having the homeless citizens move back to the scene of the June 4th poisoning.
Photos were taken during the move Thursday and are published by permission of Bas Stevens
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Homeless Move Back To Honey Tree …Your Move Bruce – UPDATE
Mayor Bruce Banman
The irony was not lost on anyone involved as the homeless on Gladys Ave began to move back to the Honey Tree across from the Salvation Army – the exact spot where city crews armed with chicken feces attacked them on June 4th with the prior agreement of the Sally Ann.
This time, with hoards of radio and television media on site to record the dismantling of the camp, all proper procedures appear to be being followed and no chicken feces has yet been reported.
Looking haggard and tired, Mayor Bruce Banman was on CTV news last night and on CBC Radio this morning stating that, “At the end of the day, public health is most important,” – a statement that flies in the face of the City’s treatment of the homeless for the last ten years and doesn’t begin to address the public health issues raised by moving the homeless a thousand yards once they’ve been asked to leave.
Banman did insist that city crews treat the homeless with respect as they forced them out of their makeshift homes.
Advocates keep pointing out that the Mayor has no answer to the question “Where?’ as his staff tells the homeless they must move.
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Countdown To Eviction On Gladys – UPDATE
11/09/13 – 16:24 – This time there will be less room for debate and perhaps less need for Freedom of Information requests in order to find out what happens at the shutting down of a homeless camp in Abbotsford.
Global TV set up shop today with their mobile news van ready to film the eviction of the homeless from their current location on Gladys Avenue.
The notice that was given by the City of Abbotsford requires that all homeless citizens in the camp leave by 8 am Thursday.
So far the City seems to be following the protocols for dismantling homeless camps it agreed to then abandoned in favour of using chicken feces.
Organizations such as The 5 and 2 Ministries have been consulted in advance and, though Pastor Ward Draper says The 5 and 2 Ministries does not condone the action because it merely perpetuates the cycle of moving around the City every six weeks or so, Draper told CBC Radio this morning everyone involved, including the homeless at the camp, agress that it has become a health hazard.
No one has yet addressed the fact that none of these people have anywhere to go.
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As Predicted – Gladys Camp Residents Told To Move … No One Seems To Know Where
11/09/13 01:46 AM
Global TV is reporting that the City of Abbotsford has given homeless residents of a camp on Gladys Avenue 48 hours to vacate or be vacated.
As first reported by James Breckenridge on Abbotsford Today Monday, “The appearance of the radar trailer unit that shows drivers their speed on Gladys Avenue in front of the house adjacent to the Salvation Army on Saturday [September 7, 2013] … foreshadows the intention of the mayor and city council to remove the homeless and their camp from Gladys.”
The homeless citizens, who were chased off of their last camp by city crews armed with chicken feces on June 4th, were told they have until Thursday morning to get out this one.
Pastor Ward Draper of The 5 and 2 Ministries told Global, ““We’re not happy with this because this isn’t a solution, this is heaping more problems on our friends, heaping more problems on service providers, because now we have to start compensating for the losses, we have to start compensating for the emotional and physical difficulties these folks will be facing because of these issues.”
Breckenridge and other advocates for the homeless have decried this latest move by the City, not because the camp has become a health hazard, which even the camp residents know to be true, but because posting an eviction notice doesn’t solve anything.
In ‘No Apology Intended‘, Breckenridge wrote last week, “Saying ‘Sorry’ did nothing but acknowledge the City had harmed the homeless; that a true apology required the mayor and council to change the behaviours and attitudes that led the city to weaponize and deploy chicken feces against the homeless. If Mayor Banman and council had any real intent to apologize, the property Abbotsford Community Services wants to use for first stage housing would already be rezoned and construction begun.”
The homeless crisis in Abbotsford continues without any action or solution in sight and, as Breckenridge and others are pointing out, the City of Abbotsford seems determined to continue the endless cycles of moving homeless people around forever.
Nobody told the Gladys homeless camp residents where to go … just that they must leave.
It was in 2005 ASDAC was formed to address the cities’ most
pressing social needs.
One would take that statement to mean the “homeless.”
When using the term “homeless” one cannot mean it to be
“one and the same.”
While all may be “homeless’ in the sense they do not have a residence
to live in, some homeless are reaching out for housing help, because, they want to get their life back on track, make changes for a better life,
including perhaps employment.
Others, however, do not and cannot live in a structured home
environment and need their space for numerous reasons,
inc. behaviors and ideas fostered due to drug addiction and/or
mental health problems.
One fellow at the site, today, he would like help to find housing, but,
said some of the others at the camp could not function in a housing
complex.
Those are the people in the camp and are being moved from
the camp, but, only to end up further down the street.
So, how do you deal with such a complex issue?
The city has had years to research this problem, but, just
hoped the problem would go away.
This is evident by the condition of the camp.
Why did the city allow the homeless camp collect so much
garbage without following up on a regular basis?
Why didn’t city work with ASDAC to address the Gladys camp, before it began to take root, in terms of helping homeless to find housing and
alternate camp site?