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By Sheena Roszell

Rotary House ENCAMPMENTs

City to address Rotary House encampments with day shelter

Aug 20, 2019 | 12:37 PM

More than 60 people are living in tents near Rotary House and the city is faced with what to do about the situation.

Director of Protective and Social Services Chris Manuel says he’s heard some concerned residents avoid that area of town as often people are under the influence of drugs.

He says the city is trying to identify small actions they can take that will provide some relief to the situation now.

“We don’t have a magic solution to this that is just going to make everything disappear overnight, but what we do acknowledge is that we can certainly do things to mitigate the impacts that it’s having on surrounding businesses and residents and the street-engaged themselves – they can have better conditions as well,” he said.

A recent count done by the city shows 66 people are living there. There were 37 tents pitched in that spot as of Friday, August 16. Manuel thought the head count was going to be higher but says it still does represent a challenge within the community.

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He says the city is currently working on a day shelter project. They’re aiming to have it in place this fall. It would be a safe and secure place for the homeless community to go during the day that would provide centralized services, intakes, assessments and services.

A delegation of two people who live in the encampment showed up to city council last week and voiced concerns about the city coming in and cleaning up their stuff. They said they want to do it themselves.

“Every little item they have, whether it be considered junk to one of us or not, is very important to them. So, it can be a trigger point for confrontation, so we are cautious. It’s great that people want to help and clean up, but if that helping to clean up leads to assaults and bullying and those sorts of things, we have to watch that as well.”

Some efforts are being made by members of the homeless community to clean up that area and Manuel says the city will be checking to see if that continues. He says when the city has cleaned up those spots in the past it hasn’t been successful. They have cleaned up and taken down tents only to have new tents and more ‘stuff’ in its place within just hours.