A B.C. Supreme Courtroom choose has reserved his determination following a three-day listening to that concluded Friday through which the town is searching for an order permitting it to shut a downtown homeless encampment and remediate the positioning.
Town’s lawyer, Jeffrey Locke, argued that supportive housing in Prince George now exceeds the necessities set out in a earlier courtroom determination that noticed the encampment acquire authorized safety.
The encampment on Decrease Patricia Boulevard, generally known as Moccasin Flats, was first established in the spring of 2021 on city-owned land, on an empty dust lot between an industrial yard and a steep hill resulting in a residential neighbourhood.
In August of that yr, the town requested for an injunction to take away over 50 campers there, citing public security danger and the necessity to implement metropolis bylaws on in a single day tenting. However in October 2021, the B.C. Supreme Courtroom issued an order stating that residents may keep “absent different appropriate housing and daytime amenities.”
That ruling was upheld in a 2022 determination, after the encampment survived a partial demolition in November 2021, which the town subsequently apologized for.
Locke says, in 2023, the town modified its plan of action and commenced working with the province and B.C. Housing to arrange a 42-unit momentary transitional housing facility in Atco trailers on Third Avenue close to the encampment.
“Town, province, and B.C. Housing actually doubled down on creating new supportive housing in Prince George,” he mentioned .
Locke says the Third Avenue website serves as a secure, snug place to supply unhoused individuals with 24-hour entry to safe personal rooms and supportive providers whereas they await long-term housing options.
Fluctuating variety of occupants
Town says the remaining long-term occupant of the encampment is Belvery Edward Johnny, who was recognized within the metropolis’s discover of civil declare, and has been dwelling at Moccasin Flats because it was established.
“The encampment, because the dismantling of Nov. 2021, has continued to be occupied by a transient inhabitants except Mr. Johnny, who has been there the entire time,” mentioned Locke.
He says the town is aware of of 11 individuals nonetheless sheltering at Moccasin Flats and mentioned eight rooms are being held on the Third Avenue Website for encampment residents in “varied states of readiness”.
Locke mentioned that because the variety of encampment occupants and rooms accessible is continually in flux, the town wouldn’t require the residents of the encampment to decamp till seven days after that they had a proposal of housing.
“Now we’ve a seamless transition from homelessness till they’ve a house.”
Appropriate housing for susceptible individuals
Legal professionals representing the residents of Moccasin Flats, nonetheless, argued that the town is untimely in coming to the courtroom searching for an order to shut the encampment with out housing available for everybody.
Lawyer Claire Kanigan and co-counsel Casey St. Germain mentioned they discovered there to be a minimum of 18 residents remaining on the encampment and mentioned there are solely three rooms at the moment able to be occupied on the Third Avenue website.
Kanigan mentioned there isn’t any timeline as to when extra beds will likely be made accessible and that the town ought to be capable of show they’ve sufficient beds earlier than they’re given permission to shut the positioning.
“The essential calculation of variety of beds to variety of individuals is foundational,” she mentioned. “It isn’t a very onerous burden to fulfill.”
Kanigan mentioned that as a result of the town can also be searching for the suitable to refuse anybody the power to encamp on city-owned property in the event that they refuse to use to B.C. Housing or decline a proposal from B.C. Housing, it could go away susceptible individuals with complicated wants with nowhere to go.
The matter is additional sophisticated by the town’s Parks and Open House bylaw, which was amended in 2023 to designate an space of Moccasin Flats as the one allowable place for momentary in a single day shelter between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m.
“This could be extremely problematic,” she mentioned. “My final submission is that the extent of proof the town has dropped at this courtroom has constantly narrowed.”
St. Germain additionally argued that the housing supplied could also be appropriate for some however shouldn’t be appropriate for all, particularly people who’re affected by complicated psychological well being points and will not be capable of observe the principles of the Third Avenue website.
Locke mentioned the Third Avenue website is meant to be broadly accessible however “can’t be all the things, to everybody, abruptly.”
On the conclusion of the listening to, B.C. Supreme Courtroom Justice Bruce Elwood mentioned he had loads to think about and that he hopes to finish his written determination earlier than mid-August.
