Surrey tent city group stands up for the displaced
Tent cities that have sprung up in Metro Vancouver, Greater Victoria and Nanaimo in recent years have something in common: the guiding hand of Surrey-based Alliance Against Displacement.
The roots of DisconTent City in Nanaimo illustrate the role of the Alliance, an advocacy organization that describes itself as “anticapitalist, anti-colonial.”
In March, a group of people started to live in tents on the lawn of Nanaimo City Hall to call attention to homelessness.
They were ordered to leave and they eventually did.
Listen Chen, an organizer with Alliance Against Displacement, recalled what happened next.
“We saw that from the mainland and got in touch with some of the people on the ground in Nanaimo and we said: ‘These are our experiences organizing tent cities, would you like some help? Are you interested in starting a more long-term tent city that is not just protesting conditions, but also offering a stable, safe place for homeless people to find community?’ They said, ‘Yes, that sounds good.’
“So we went over and shared our experiences organizing tent cities in Vancouver, as well as Victoria and Maple Ridge, and helped articulate a statement that could be used as a political declaration, that could be used when we called the press conference to start up the tent city.”
The alliance has had campaigns in Abbotsford, Burnaby, Maple Ridge, Surrey, Vancouver and Vancouver Island, where it has defended tent cities and fought rental evictions because of demolition plans.
Along with DisconTent City, the Alliance’s work has included Camp Namegans, which began in Saanich’s Regina Park for five months and is now at Goldstream Provincial Park, and Anita Place in Maple Ridge.
It helps to build structures at tent cities and provides supplies such as tarps, tents and water.
For example, it helped to build the kitchen at DisconTent City.
Political work includes assisting in convening a camp council of elected representatives, chairing meetings, helping with news releases and keeping tent-city residents up to date with what is happening elsewhere, Chen said.
The Nanaimo tent city has become the largest in British Columbia, with an estimated 300 residents.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered it closed by Oct. 12 because of fire safety concerns and reports of criminal behaviour.
In a court affidavit, as part of efforts to block the dismantling of the camp, Nanaimo organizer Mercedes Courtoreille acknowledged the influence of other tent cities.
“I was in contact with other tent cities across the province, speaking to them about what it took to develop a tent city and learning from their experience,” she said.
In recent years, tent cities have increasingly become part of our urban landscape.
Some encampments are in highprofile locations, chosen to make a statement and to keep their issues in the public eye.
Others encampments are smaller, hidden in wooded or isolated areas, where campers prefer to keep out of sight.
After the province gave Camp Namegans tent city two weeks to leave Goldstream Provincial Park, dating from their arrival on Sept. 18, which means they must leave by Tuesday, a protest rally held at Goldstream on Saturday was announced through an Alliance Against Displacement news release.
Chen, the alliance organizer, said much of the group’s work is political.
Any time an impromptu, informal encampment arises, “if there is no political organization, then bylaw officers and the police come and it is extremely easy for them to dismantle it.”
The difference between impromptu encampments and the tent cities the alliance works with is that the latter have “some kind of political cohesion,” which helps to defend against efforts to disperse homeless people when they gather, she said.
Some people believe homelessness is a crisis of the individual, but Chen said it is really a systemic problem, caused by lack of government funding for dignified social housing.