Homelessness at the edge of Waterloo man’s backyard
Vic Rempel has been spat on and threatened with death by the homeless people and drug users who live and shoot up just a few metres from his Waterloo home.
He has waded into Laurel Creek, which runs behind his home on Brighton Street, to drag out old furniture, paint cans and shopping carts that get thrown in the water.
He has cleaned up “piles” of used needles beside the creek, confronted teenagers who were sitting in a tree smoking pot, and removed soiled underwear and pants from the forested area beside a bike trail.
But in 15 years of being the unofficial custodian of his condominium townhouse complex, he has never seen a homeless person pitch a tent and stay.
Until this summer.
A couple of days ago, Rempel came upon a woman who had pitched a blue-and-grey dome tent right behind the grassy backyard of one of his neighbours in the complex. The yards border a strip of forested area, owned by the City of Waterloo. Behind that area is a bike trail and then the creek.
The woman wasn’t there when I stopped by. But her temporary home spoke of someone trying to protect herself.
The tent, zipped shut, was surrounded by “furniture” of sorts: an ottoman, some large plastic containers and a shopping cart. Encircling it all was a bright orange plastic snow fence.
Rempel said the woman is tall with dark hair, maybe in her 40s. She looked a little rough, as people who sleep outside often do.
Their conversation didn’t last long.
He told her she couldn’t sleep there and “she yelled that I’m harassing her,” he said.
The woman said she had permission to be there until Wednesday.
Rempel couldn’t believe that, but it turned out to be true.
When people are discovered camping out on city property, “we give them seven days’ notice, for compassionate reasons,” said Tony Iavarone, director of communications for the city.
Iavarone said the woman told the city she had found a basement apartment and would be gone by Tuesday.
“She’s down on her luck . ... She was very polite, very amicable, very co-operative.”
Iavarone and other officials agree a growing number of homeless people are pitching tents and living outside in the summer.
This woman was the 16th this year who has been asked to move on, he said. Last year there were 27 in total, and he thinks this year will exceed that.
Last week, the Grand River Conservation Authority said there were more people living in tents in its parks.
It’s not that the shelters are full, said Elizabeth Clarke, CEO of the YWCA shelter in Kitchener.
Some people just prefer to be outside and on their own when the weather is warmer, she said. A few people aren’t welcome in the shelters because they habitually break the law or are violent with other residents.
Clarke, who is also a Waterloo Region councillor, thinks that a big part of the problem is also a shortage of cheap housing.
As land prices rise, low-rent apartments are getting renovated to draw higher rents. Or they have been demolished to make room for new buildings.
“We’re losing rental housing. It’s disappearing. And the rental housing that’s available is more and more expensive,” she said.
The Region of Waterloo is creating affordable housing, according to its social services commissioner, Douglas Bartholomew Saunders. But “the pace that we add it is outstripped by the pace people put themselves on the list for affordable housing.”
Rempel appreciates these arguments, but he expects the city to remove a homeless person from the edge of his yard. He fears one will bring others, and drugs and violence will follow.
“I know they’ve got to live somewhere,” he said. “But not my backyard.”
He’s in a battle to keep the area clean.
“You’ve got to be crazier than them, or they’ll just overrun the place,” he said.
He has followed drug-using teenagers home, telling them he’ll call the police. He has cleared away the belongings of people who have put sleeping bags and chairs in the woods.
Rempel feels compelled to protect his little corner of the city.
“I love the creek,” he said. “There’s fish in there, snapping turtles in there. There’s actually bass in there, in spite of the filth.
“I can’t change the world. I can’t change the city, he said.
“But I want to change my neighbourhood. My backyard.”