The City of Maple Ridge isn’t rushing to dismantle the new homeless camp on St. Anne Avenue and the Haney Bypass.
Coun. Craig Speirs doesn’t know whether the camp, erected Tuesday, should be disbanded immediately or not.
“I think we’ll just see what happens.”
Speirs didn’t know the camp was being set up, adding people have wanted a piece of property to camp on for awhile.
But this particular spot is intended as a city park, for families in the area who also need to be supported, he said.
Speirs isn’t surprised there’s another camp, following the one on Cliff Avenue two years ago, because of the approach by the two Liberal incumbents, Doug Bing and Marc Dalton, towards the issue of homelessness.
As MLAs, they rejected the two previous locations in 2016 for a $15 million shelter and housing complex proposed by B.C. Housing.
“It was almost inevitable. So the city ends up picking up the mess for these do-nothing MLAs,” Speirs said.
If NDP MLAs are elected May 9 in the ridings of Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge-Mission, there can be a “re-set” of the issue, said Speirs, a former federal NDP candidate and provincial party supporter.
Bing, though, said the responsibility lies with the city and Maple Ridge council for handing over the whole process of finding a shelter location to the MLAs.
“For Coun. Speirs to be pointing his fingers at us, I think he should also be looking in the mirror, and ask himself what part he had in doing this and the failure of his council.”
B.C. Housing required the city to buy the land 21375 Lougheed Hwy., near the Maple Ridge cemetery, so that the former could build a low-barrier shelter and supportive housing complex.
The city was in the process of rezoning the property when it turned the process over to the MLAs. According to a Sept. 14, 2016 release from the city, council had also started work on creating a citizen’s advisory committee that would allow public input during rezoning.
But a day later, when Premier Christy Clark visited Maple Ridge, she said that Bing and Doug would have the final say.
The city then said in a Sept. 23 letter to Clark that it was giving the province the lot at 21375 Lougheed Hwy., and passing the whole process on to the MLAs.
Bing, though, said council didn’t have to do that.
“They basically left it to the MLAs to deal with. Council shares the responsibility for where where we are today. For them to say it’s all our fault, I don’t think is fair,” Bing said.
Bing added that the camp is politically motivated, scheduled to make the government look bad just before Tuesday’s provincial election.
The Alliance Against Displacement, out of Vancouver, provided the first half-dozen tents and helped local organizers Tracy Scott and Linda Whitford open the camp. The latter two helped start the tent camp on Cliff Avenue in 2015.
Coun. Tyler Shymkiw said it’s no surprise that another camp has been established.
“We see homeless camps across the region. This one is obviously a well-organized, media-focused event.”
He didn’t want to comment on the city’s possible response.
“We’re working through the legal issues. We’re looking at all of our options.”
He also didn’t want to react to Bing’s blaming council for the lack of progress towards building a homeless shelter and supportive housing complex.
“Personally, I’m not looking backwards, I’m looking forwards,” he added.
“I’m less interested in pointing fingers anywhere and more interested in solving the problem.”
The camp was formed one day after the MLAs citizens’ advisory committee recommended that a shelter not go in the downtown and not be low-barrier, contrary to proposals by B.C. Housing.
The city last year passed a bylaw allowing camping in city parks, between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. to comply with an October 2015 Supreme Court ruling that allowed homeless people to camp in Abbotsford.
However, the bylaw bans camping near playgrounds, skateboard parks, tennis courts or sports fields, or picnic fields or in the city’s major parks.
Abbotsford has recently opened a shelter or supportive housing site, while Mission is in the process of looking for a location for one.
Sean Spear with RainCity Housing, operator of the temporary homeless shelter in Maple Ridge, said about 33 people remain. No one has left the shelter to go to the new camp.
“They’re not leaving the shelter to go check in at the camp.”
The shelter is still to close May 31. The remaining residents will be offered sleeping space at the Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministries.
However, the intensive case management team, announced by the MLAs earlier this year, is helping shelter residents find permanent housing in suites and apartments in and around Maple Ridge, and receive continued support.