‘I don’t even know who took it and it’s gone’
Government removes tents from ‘tent city’ over safety concerns
Residents of “tent city” are worried about their future. One man, who wished to give only his first name, Jeff, said he doesn’t know where to go if the tent encampment is taken down.
“I don’t know where I’ll go. Sleep at an ATM, I suppose. I got nowhere else to go. Shelters don’t take me in because I’m not from here,” says Jeff.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure recently put up a sign outside the Colonial Building stating tents are illegal in the area. This comes days after the department’s contractors removed the tents of some residents of the encampment.
GREAT LOSS
Jeff knew one of the people who lost their tent.
“He’s a tattoo artist. And he came here, and his tent fell over. I put something over his tent to protect his stuff and all of a sudden his tent’s gone with all his belongings, everything. Tattoo guns aren’t cheap, and all his ink and all of his clothes and all of his nice boots,” Jeff said.
“The guy came back crushed, like, ‘Where the f--do I start now?’ You’re living in a tent, it falls over, he’s going to fix it. He went away for a couple, like, six hours. Came back to put it back up. I don’t even know who took it and it’s gone. And another tent is gone and another one’s gone.”
EVERYTHING GONE
He says four people lost their tents. He’s concerned about what happens now.
“Four tents with people’s s--- in it. So now you come back and you have one pair of shoes, jogging pants, no underwear, no nothing, no toothbrush. Any food that you collected or whatever. All your stuff’s gone. Imagine that,” Jeff said.
“Had you come home to your house and everything that you owned is gone, there’s no difference in the tent. We don’t have much, but your personal belongings are important to you. IDS and wallets or whatever.”
IRREPLACEABLE LOSS
Jeff said that among the items taken were medication and family heirlooms such as pictures.
This was backed up by another person in the encampment. She goes by Katie and prefers to withhold her last name.
“The folks that were in balaclavas with their faces covered were employees under the ministry of Transportation, Minister Abbott’s portfolio. I haven’t had that confirmed directly. And then the police were also here assisting. I’m not totally sure what their role was,” she said.
“The unfortunate thing is folks were told that they could retrieve their belongings. We’ve since learned that all of that went to the dump, with the exception potentially of some propane tanks. And unfortunately, in those supplies were someone’s belongings, including his medication, and photographs of his dead brother, that are not replaceable.”
SEVEN TENTS GONE
Jeff said he is concerned about the loss of the tents. He says encampment members can fix them, instead of sending them to the landfill.
Four tents with people’s belongings in them, and three more waiting to be fixed, were taken, he said.
“Tents are like 300 to 400 bucks. Seven tents gone, just like that. We could fix them, too, right. But give us a chance to fix them up and take them apart. Somebody else can use them. I’ve done that before. I’ve taken them down and I store them so somebody else can use them.”
UNCALLED FOR
Michelle Gushue, executive director of the nonprofit organization Open Hands NL, has been helping out at the tent encampment and says the removal was unexpected, and uncalled for.
“There was no indication from the provincial government, from the City of St. John’s, from anybody that this was happening on Saturday,” Gushue said. “It just happened. I’m really disappointed in the government’s approach to how they did this.”
UNSAFE
Transportation and Infrastructure Minister John Abbott says the department takes responsibility for the removal of the tents.
“We’ve had some conversations within my department as to how we manage those sites for safety purposes on a go-forward basis,” Abbott says.
“We’ve determined that it’s not appropriate to have tents on the site, and that we have now posted signs to that fact. And we will then monitor the site. We move tents that folks are not staying in, and then we’ll see how things develop over the days and weeks ahead.”
ANGRY
NDP Leader Jim Dinn says he’s angry about what the government has done with tent city.
“It’s about safety and the safety of the individual, and it’s about finding adequate housing,” Dinn said.
The tent encampment is the result of the lack of housing and the lack of government action to address the housing shortage, he said.
“You can see in the last week (the government) calling it protesters, (who) are not really homeless, blaming them. It’s just within a week we’ve gone to putting signs up. You can sort of see the narrative that’s being created here. I’m angry. I’m angry when the minister keeps talking about options that aren’t really there.”
UNLAWFUL TENTS
Abbott says the existing tents at tent city are unlawful. He said enforcement hasn’t begun yet, but may in the future, depending on the circumstances.
“Right now, there should be nobody there on that site. The only instruction we’ve provided to our staff and any of our contractors is if there are tents that nobody’s living in at the present time, they will be removed immediately,” Abbott said.
“The signs are saying that people should not be there now for permanent residence in terms of tents or the like. We’re monitoring that, obviously. The alternative is better housing, better accommodation, and that’s what we have been talking about to the folks down there on a consistent basis.”
OPTIONS GIVEN?
Abbott says people at the tent encampment were offered options, and that the removal of tents from the area is a safety issue.
Gushue says those options are rarely good enough. She says most people end up returning to tent city.
“One guy went to a forprofit shelter. Three people were offered shelter at the Riverwalk. Jeff was one of them,” Gushue says. “When he accepted that offer, he was then taken to an alternate location. They came here. They offered these, alternate solutions. But two of the four that left are now back here.”
Jeff says emergency shelters like the Gathering Place don’t take him in. He moved to Newfoundland from Ontario a few years ago for work. Jeff’s work opportunity fell apart and, with little money, he turned to the streets for a place to live.
Eventually he ended up at tent city, and then at a privately run shelter.
“The person that’s running this shelter is upstairs living like a king. Giving people rooms that aren’t rooms. Some people have their own rooms, but they’re putting people together in a common area with one common washroom, and you cook your own food,” he says.
“For supper, you got 10 french fries and Saran wrap with three Chicken Mcnuggets, and you’re waiting to cook with eight to 10 people that you don’t even know.”
He says the worst was being offered Cheerios with a slice of bread — with no butter or milk — for supper.
LITTLE OPTIONS
With the Comfort Inn still not fully open, and shelters not good enough, people have few to no options, Gushue says.
Jeff says he just wants a fresh start on everything. He gave up his tent to another resident, and now shares a tent with his girlfriend.
“Have a good night’s sleep. Wake up and then try and work on getting a job,” he says. “I can’t get a job here. Like I don’t know what date it is half the time. I don’t have a phone. A weekend’s a weekend, you work all week and then you get a Saturday and Sunday, and you know that. But if you don’t, every day is the same.”