By Justine Kelsie

How officers deal with homeless camps in Grande Prairie: explained

Nov 6, 2018 | 11:41 AM

The Enforcement Services Program Manager is sharing how they deal with makeshift camps that pop up around the city.

Following a concern presented to council in early October about how homeless people’s belongings were being treated by officers when taking down camps, Kelly Kokesch* shared the process they follow with a committee meeting Tuesday morning.

Officers come across the camps by patrolling or by complaint, according to Kokesch. He says the person inhabiting the tent or shelter is given 24-hours to leave the area with their belongings and take down the shelter. If there is no one “home” or nearby, officers then post a notice on the shelter.

“We advise them they can’t have an unlawful camp and have to move on,” says Kokesch.

When the time passes, officers go back to the site and clean up the area if things are left behind.

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“Normally, the person has removed the articles they want to keep or the entire camp,” he says.

Things that officers deem as valuable will be brought to the RCMP Found Property Program. People then can go to the detachment to claim their things. Kokesch says they usually find wet blankets, copper wire and tents which are all taken to the landfill. Purses, wallets and things like identification cards are brought to the program.

“It is usually quite a process to clean up these encampments.”

If someone is still at the location of the tent, warnings are issued. Kokesch says they try to help the people when possible by directing them to services such as HIV North.

To date, officers have dealt with 165 encampment calls this year which is down by about 20 from last year. For the Rotary House area, encampments pop up often and services to take down the shelters are contracted out, said Kokesch in the Tuesday meeting.

“It is a little more labour intensive there. The group of people there are usually the same. We have ongoing contact with the same people there,” says Kokesch.

He added that the contractors clear the area on a bi-weekly basis and officers go with them.

The cost of taking down the camps was not known during the meeting. 

*correction