The one-year anniversary of Anita Place Tent City in downtown Maple Ridge is being marked by a town hall meeting that will address the “class and colonial roots of poverty and homelessness.”
The meeting takes place Wednesday, May 2, at 6:30 p.m., in the warming tent at the tent city on St. Anne Avenue.
The Alliance Against Displacement is organizing the event where “homeless residents of Anita Place, activists, and experts will critique the idea that poverty exists because of the fault of poor people.”
The group on its website argues that homelessness and poverty is widespread because of “structural, systemic problems with capitalism and colonialism.”
The Alliance says that homeless people are accused of being mentally ill or drug users, “as patients in need of institutionalized care rather than as victims of unjust economic and social systems and structures of power.” People who support the camp are welcome but those against it, aren’t invited, said the website.
BC Housing has bought three lots on Royal Crescent for $4.5 million, where 55 temporary modular homes with support services will be built this summer to house tent city residents. An opening date is planned for the fall.