Tent city under scrutiny by committee

Published Saturday May 30th, 2009

Behind the brush: A tent and sleeping bag can be seen behind the Victoria Health Centre on Friday afternoon.

Human excrement, broken glass, feminine hygiene products, evidence of cooking fires and discarded, contaminated drug needles pose a safety risk to the public and that has politicians and non-profit agencies concerned.

The Daily Gleaner has learned that a committee of concerned officials, including the Fredericton Police Force, has been meeting twice a week for more than a month to discuss solutions.

"There's a number of property owners that are touched by this - the province, the federal government - and the Delta is leasing some property as well," said police Chief Barry MacKnight.

"There are discarded needles down there and there are environmental concerns."

He said there's a mixed group of residents - homeless, addicts and people with mental health issues - and they're known to start parties late at night.

"We're working on different solutions in moving people out of there," he said.

Drug dealers are also preying on that population, not only selling drugs but stealing from the tenters, MacKnight said.

"The police presence down there is highly visible and very frequent and it will continue to be,"

Officers are taking an enforcement approach and attempting to nab hardened criminals.

"We're working at dealing with this directly, but it's not an easy one ... How to get these people out and into a more sustainable situation and how to keep the wolves away from them, those people that are taking advantage of them. It's a difficult situation," MacKnight said.

The tent city population fluctuates from two to four to a dozen depending on the weather, the day and the time.

MacKnight said there are legal issues about when and how to try to evict the campers and there are court rulings in British Columbia that give the city pause before contemplating a sweeping eviction or cleanup of the site.

Cleaning up brush and tree cover to expose the tent sites, which are often tucked back into the undergrowth along the riverbank, raises another set of legislative complications.

"There's environmental regulations about what you do with trees and growth around a watercourse," MacKnight said. "This issue is not going to be resolved in the next few days, but our primary focus has been, and always is, public safety."

Coun. Stephen Kelly is keeping a close eye on the situation in his southside ward.

"It's a very volatile situation. It's very dangerous," said Coun. Stephen Kelly, "in terms of the biohazards and some of the people down there and what they're doing.

"The tent city is growing, it's back and it's cultivating some serious issues."

Delta general manager Sarah Holyoke is on the city's tent city committee and said she's participating in hopes of finding a solution.

"I'm definitely very concerned about the situation," Holyoke said.

Paul McCarthy, president of BioRecovery Canada Inc., which does crime-scene cleanup, scanned the area to try to give the committee a sense of the extent of cleanup required.

McCarthy said the river has washed up a lot of bramble and there's concern that glass and needles can be buried beneath deposits from the spring freshet.

"There is a lot of broken glass, personal clothing items, personal hygiene applicators, a lot of plastic bags," said McCarthy, who visited the site with police two weeks ago.

McCarthy said cleaning up the site is a big job, although he said he would be happy to install sharps containers to collect used needles and service the collection sites periodically.

That opens up a debate about whether that condones illegal drug activity or protects the public, and McCarthy is mindful of those issues and said they'll be discussed

Fredericton's riverbank behind the Delta Fredericton Hotel and Government House has once again become home to drug addicts, the homeless and tenters.

Behind the brush: A tent and sleeping bag can be seen behind the Victoria Health Centre on Friday afternoon.
Human excrement, broken glass, feminine hygiene products, evidence of cooking fires and discarded, contaminated drug needles pose a safety risk to the public and that has politicians and non-profit agencies concerned.

The Daily Gleaner has learned that a committee of concerned officials, including the Fredericton Police Force, has been meeting twice a week for more than a month to discuss solutions.

"There's a number of property owners that are touched by this - the province, the federal government - and the Delta is leasing some property as well," said police Chief Barry MacKnight.

"There are discarded needles down there and there are environmental concerns."

He said there's a mixed group of residents - homeless, addicts and people with mental health issues - and they're known to start parties late at night.

"We're working on different solutions in moving people out of there," he said.

Drug dealers are also preying on that population, not only selling drugs but stealing from the tenters, MacKnight said.

"The police presence down there is highly visible and very frequent and it will continue to be,"

Officers are taking an enforcement approach and attempting to nab hardened criminals.

"We're working at dealing with this directly, but it's not an easy one ... How to get these people out and into a more sustainable situation and how to keep the wolves away from them, those people that are taking advantage of them. It's a difficult situation," MacKnight said.

The tent city population fluctuates from two to four to a dozen depending on the weather, the day and the time.

MacKnight said there are legal issues about when and how to try to evict the campers and there are court rulings in British Columbia that give the city pause before contemplating a sweeping eviction or cleanup of the site.

Cleaning up brush and tree cover to expose the tent sites, which are often tucked back into the undergrowth along the riverbank, raises another set of legislative complications.

"There's environmental regulations about what you do with trees and growth around a watercourse," MacKnight said. "This issue is not going to be resolved in the next few days, but our primary focus has been, and always is, public safety."

Coun. Stephen Kelly is keeping a close eye on the situation in his southside ward.

"It's a very volatile situation. It's very dangerous," said Coun. Stephen Kelly, "in terms of the biohazards and some of the people down there and what they're doing.

"The tent city is growing, it's back and it's cultivating some serious issues."

Delta general manager Sarah Holyoke is on the city's tent city committee and said she's participating in hopes of finding a solution.

"I'm definitely very concerned about the situation," Holyoke said.

Paul McCarthy, president of BioRecovery Canada Inc., which does crime-scene cleanup, scanned the area to try to give the committee a sense of the extent of cleanup required.

McCarthy said the river has washed up a lot of bramble and there's concern that glass and needles can be buried beneath deposits from the spring freshet.

"There is a lot of broken glass, personal clothing items, personal hygiene applicators, a lot of plastic bags," said McCarthy, who visited the site with police two weeks ago.

McCarthy said cleaning up the site is a big job, although he said he would be happy to install sharps containers to collect used needles and service the collection sites periodically.

That opens up a debate about whether that condones illegal drug activity or protects the public, and McCarthy is mindful of those issues and said they'll be discussed