Petition developed to ban downtown homeless encampment and give a lot more option housing

A group of anxious Prince George people have begun a petition advocating for the closure of Tent Metropolis downtown on Fifth Avenue close to Patricia Boulevard.

The petition titled “Safety for all: take away the tent metropolis on Fifth Avenue and offer option housing” was commenced by a group by the identify of “Millar Addition Connaught Worried Citizens Committee”, and garnered 350 signatures from on the net and from canvassing the neighborhood.

According to the group’s spokesperson, who would like to keep on being nameless for safety fears, the selection to get started up this petition was the consequence of an boost in legal exercise in their community, which is situated ideal beside the encampment.

“The petition was established in July of this year, basically a team of involved citizens from the Millar Addition satisfied jointly to examine the issues in the community and made a decision to make a petition since of the security concerns that we ended up observing,” she stated.

She claimed they’ve seen expanding quantities of theft, sexual assaults, dwelling invasions, and open up drug abuse because the tent city was put up, and it is gotten to the position where many gals in the location have simply just stopped likely for walks alone.

“I would say in the past 2-3 months considering that the tent metropolis arrived to be it’s been a large raise, naturally there is always been stuff like this happening but not to this extent, and instantly it just started off ramping up,” she pointed out.

According to the group’s spokesperson, they’ve witnessed trespassing and theft in the middle of the day and a short while ago had to simply call the law enforcement because a male, who was later on decided to be a Tent Town resident, was chasing a neighbor with his trousers down.

Having said that, they say that a lot of the time when they contact the RCMP for arising issues, there is not a entire whole lot they can do.

“So when the incident the place the male who was chasing my neighbor with his trousers down, and I experienced described him earlier in the working day for observing females with his fingers in his pants, when I termed police to stick to up soon after he experienced chased my neighbor, I was instructed that he was possibly going to be launched in the upcoming day and we understood that he lived down in the tent metropolis,” she explained.

Prince George RCMP Constable Jennifer Cooper verified that this incident did manifest, and the guy was arrested for being intoxicated in public and was released once he was equipped to get treatment of himself.

But the team is not putting blame on the police, in accordance to the group spokesperson, police are executing all they can really do at this level, and bylaw and RCMP patrols have been escalating.

Instead, they are using the petition to advocate for more accessible housing options for homeless Prince George inhabitants.

The group spokesperson states making it possible for human beings to stay like this is absolutely unacceptable, and it is time for the metropolis to appear up with more sources for them.

“I know they were being heading to the washroom guiding a cardboard monitor now they’ve set Port-a-potties in there, they place dumpsters there, and that to me is not fixing the difficulty, it is not a harmless ecosystem for any human being to stay on, this is not superior for anyone so why is it all right for them to have to go to that severe of dwelling in tent city. It is not one particular of those people not-in-my-backyard sort situations, it is the total detail, in today’s modern culture why do we have that there? There is a child dwelling there, there are youngsters there,” she defined.

She provides that she is conscious of a mother elevating a newborn infant in the encampment, which the group believes is heartbreaking.

She states that even though the town is doing work toward a court injunction to take out tent town, their choice to set off the Secure Streets bylaw showed a reluctance to genuinely handle the challenge.

The group is now hoping that the authorities organizations will use their authority, funding, knowledge, and means to find a alternative, somewhat than enabling Prince George inhabitants to stay like this.

“It’s not for a group of men and women dwelling in an unsafe condition to appear up with a option, we do not have that skills but they do and we’re inquiring them to commence acting on it,” she additional.

The team claims citizens in the neighborhood are becoming progressively worried, particularly simply because college is commencing shortly and numerous of their children wander to and from colleges and bus stops in the region.

Additionally, due to the fact the weather is cooling off, customers of the homeless populace have commenced relying on fires to retain heat in the tent city constructions and in the Patricia boul bank.

“We were being knowledgeable that there was no fire management strategy from the fireplace main. Now that the temperature is cooling off this is an amplified concern,” she spelled out.

She desires people to know that the team does realize that this is a multifaceted concern that stems from underlying troubles of psychological health, addiction, profits inequality, and systemic oppression, and acquiring a resolution is not going to be easy.