Tent camp at church dismantled
Unknown where some homeless will go after being asked to move on
The dismantling of the tent encampment on the property at Emmanuel United Church began Tuesday morning, although it wasn’t clear even as tents were being removed where people would go. Homeless camper Tammy Brennan said she’ll be staying in a recreational vehicle parked on a friend’s property.
But she thought she had until the end of the day Tuesday to pack: she was unhappy when clergy informed her around 9:30 a.m. she was expected to move in half an hour.
She tried to pack up her tent quickly but didn’t think she could do it in 30 minutes.
“There’s no way in God’s creation,” she said as she rolled up her tarp.
Turns out she had time: municipal trucks that were expected by 10 a.m. to pick up garbage never showed.
No more than three or four people came to help the campers pack and police were not in attendance.
There were 15 tents on the property Tuesday morning, down from 20 a month ago.
About a dozen people were living in those tents.
Some of the tents were sitting empty on Tuesday because people are couch-surfing and leave their belongings in tents at night.
By 5 p.m. – nearly eight hours after the dismantling began – there were still eight tents standing and loads of debris on church property.
Dan Hennessey, a homeless camper, said he’d be couchsurfing with friends starting on Tuesday night.
He said some campers would also couch surf and others would seek secluded parks to go camp out of sight.
Many won’t disclose their plans, he said, because they’re worried about being found.
“You camp – you want to stay hidden,” he said.
Yet homeless campers have pitched tents in public this summer and early fall.
They moved to Emmanuel church property on Aug. 27 after they were evicted from county-owned Victoria Park, where a 45-tent encampment
sprung up after the Warming Room shelter closed for repairs July 1.
Campers were given clergy permission to stay on church property until Tuesday; Rev. Don Uhryniw asked them to leave then because nighttime temperatures have been bonechilling and it’s unsafe to camp.
Hennessey said the church was gracious to have allowed the campers and that churchgoers
and citizens were generous with donations: one man showed up with all the leftover food from his wife’s funeral, for instance.
“He said it would have made his wife happy, feeding people,” Hennessey said.
“He cried.”
Other times donated food wasn’t such a gift: on Tuesday, Brennan said people had been sickened the night before after eating expired sandwiches donated from a local restaurant.
She heard homeless people being sick all night: “It was
Vomit: the Musical.”
Although the city is offering 30 emergency cots in the auditorium of the Peterborough Public Library, many of those cots are sitting empty, night after night.
Hennessey said he doesn’t expect many will be filled, even after the tent encampment at the church closes, because people may have had bad experiences in shelters or don’t want their bags searched before they go in.