Food Not Bombs Tri-Cities is raising urgent concerns about a planned sweep of a homeless encampment on the 3000 block of Gordon Avenue. It will begin at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 26, with the assistance of Coquitlam Bylaw Enforcement and the RCMP, according to notices posted at the site last week.
According to the notice, the tents and personal belongings must be removed between 8 am and 9 pm daily, citing changes to the City’s “enforcement approach.”
In a press release, Food Not Bombs said the displacement of unhoused residents will put them at increased risk of harm, including overdose, violence, and health crises.
“The only way to end homelessness is to provide homes,” said Benjamin Perry of Food Not Bombs Tri-Cities. “Unhoused residents told us this sweep will endanger their safety by isolating them in the margins and make them vulnerable to crime and continued evictions. They can’t just pack up their home every morning at 8 am. ”
Food Not Bombs Tri-Cities is a grassroots group of neighbours who have been delivering biweekly lunches at the site since last November. The press release notes that unhoused residents were given less notice than tenants typically receive for eviction, despite having far fewer options or supports. “It was ‘lucky’ that this notice didn’t arrive a week earlier or a week later, or it might not have come to our attention at all,” said Arthur Klassen “We started this small gesture of solidarity last fall, and it would have been a real shock to arrive with food and drinks only to find that everyone had been swept out.”
“Despite an ongoing housing crisis in the Tri-Cities, the City of Coquitlam has not taken any real steps to increase shelter space. Unhoused residents cite bureaucratic barriers, restrictive rules, and lack of long-term housing as major barriers to staying housed,” the press release says.
Food Not Bombs Tri-Cities is calling on the City of Coquitlam and the RCMP to halt the planned sweep and engage with unhoused residents and community groups to find real, rights-based solutions.
