Cambridge a hot spot for unauthorized tenting, GRCA says
CAMBRIDGE — Cambridge is a hot spot for unauthorized tenting and drug use on Grand River Conservation Authority properties.
Such incidents are up slightly across the watershed in 2018. But in Cambridge, they’ve increased tenfold in the last year, according to a GRCA report.
“When we look at how we’re seeing numbers increase in Cambridge, there’s certainly an increased awareness of unauthorized tenting going on in the city of Cambridge,” authority spokesperson Cam Linwood said on Friday. “I suspect that’s got a lot to do with it. So there obviously is an increase in the number of reports. People are seeing it more. It’s more prevalent in this area from that perspective.”
As of Sept. 19, authority staff dealt with 72 cases of illegal tenting, garbage or sharp objects, like needles, on GRCA land in Cambridge.
In Kitchener, there were seven incidents. Waterloo had three. Other areas totalled 11.
“We’re seeing challenges both on our own property and on city property,” Linwood said of the Cambridge issue.
The City of Cambridge has set up an ambassador team to respond to citizen reports of unauthorized tenting in the city, including those on GRCA land. Staff from the GRCA property department and Pinehurst and Shade’s Mills conservation areas also assist with cleanups and evictions.
In Cambridge, the GRCA owns land along the Grand River, Speed River and Shade’s Mills and Dumfries conservation areas. Trouble spots for tents and drugs in Cambridge include the Dumfries area, which is 75 hectares located in the middle of the city off Hespeler Road.
“Some of those flood plain lands — those valley lands along the river, along some of the trails which are both GRCA and city trials — we are certainly seeing higher incidence in those areas,” Linwood said.
Some of the 72 incidents in Cambridge likely include tenters who have already been asked to move along from a different location by police or city and GRCA staff.
“When the ambassador team or our own staff or city staff go out and engage with these encampments, what you’re unfortunately seeing is encampments being cleaned up and moved on,” Linwood said. “But they’re just moving on to a different area.”
On Tuesday Cambridge city council will look at a set of staff-suggested guidelines for a potential bylaw that would ban permanent encampments from city-owned land. Camping for more than one night on city property would also be prohibited.
Overnight sheltering, with a tent erected at dusk and removed at dawn, would not be allowed in a long list of city locations — including city parks “except where permitted in unmaintained parkland.” A code of conduct is also suggested for overnight sheltering. Use of illegal drugs, alcohol and marijuana would be considered a “nuisance” and not be allowed.
Cambridge currently has no bylaw that governs overnight sheltering.
A larger report addressing the complex issue of chronic homelessness is to be presented to council next spring. Linwood said GRCA property staff have been at a number of meetings with city staff over the past month.
“Obviously, we’re dealing with a national issue,” he said.
Other than Laurel Creek and Pinehurst Lake, camping is not permitted on GRCA property in Waterloo Region.