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- The city issues stop work notices on homeless camp shelters but won't stop the work, or the shelters
The city issues stop work notices on homeless camp shelters but won't stop the work, or the shelters
What happens when a group of citizens starts doing what the mayor promised to himself?
You could be forgiven for thinking the city plans to stop people from building, and living in, the shelters being built in the Moccasin Flats encampment. After all, on Friday, these signs went up on said shelters pretty clearly stating it is prohibited to build and live in them:
And btw, just in case you weren’t aware of what has been going on here — a fundraiser to build these shelters has raised thousands of dollars and these are the sorts of structures that have been going up:
Given the attention on these shelters, the idea that the city was now declaring them illegal to both build and live in sent out some ripples given that 1. the city recently adopted a policy of forcing all encampments to relocate to Moccasin Flats, 2. Moccassin Flats is protected by court order and 3. It’s cold and it’s clear that people are still planning to sleep outdoors.
However, when members of the media enquired about this, there was a FAQ prepared to share in anticipation of the questions this would inevitably raise
Here is the statement in full, with sections I think are highly relevant in bold, though the whole thing is worth a read.
On November 10, 2023 City staff posted Stop Work and Do Not Occupy Notices on a number of structures which appear to be permanent or semi-permanent in nature and are under construction in the sheltering area located off Lower Patricia Boulevard.
The construction of permanent or semi-permanent structures is not permitted in the sheltering area.
These notices identify that construction of the structures is illegal and that they should not be occupied, in part, because they are believed to be unsafe.
The City, as the owner of the Lower Patricia property, wishes to ensure that individuals sheltering in that area are made aware of the legal prohibition and the risks associated with these structures.
The City does not presently intend to take steps to actively enforce the Stop Work and Do Not Occupy Notices.
The City urges those seeking shelter to contact BC Housing. The City has been informed by the Ministry of Housing that there are 140 shelter spaces in Prince George.
The tl;dr (too long, didn’t read) version of this is that — for now — the city is covering itself legally if something goes wrong by indicating that they have not approved nor inspected these shelters and, legally speaking, no one should be building or living in them because they aren’t safe. At the same time, the city isn’t going to do anything to stop anyone from building or living in them. Basically, it’s saying — “that looks really unsafe, you shouldn’t do that, but we’re not going to stop you.”
I really am not sure what to make of this. I do think it’s interesting that at the same time the city is indicating it does not endore the construction of these shelters that have roofs, insulation, etc because of their potential dangerous it is indicating that people should instead be sleeping in nylon, plastic or cardboard shelters (basically, tents) — structures which city officials, including bylaw and fire inspection officers, have repeatedly warned pose a high fire risk as a way to try to get camps shut down, but are now preferred.
It’s also interesting that a group of people who are now engaged in what the city has declared to be illegal are essentially doing what mayor Simon Yu repeatedlysaid he would do while campaigning for mayor, which is build emergency shelters — a strategy he backed away from pretty quickly after being elected.
As for his take on all of this, here’s what he told My Prince George Now (the whole story is worth a read for more details than I’m sharing in this newsletter, if you’re interested):
“We are not saying what they are trying to do is wrong. All we are saying is they need to come to city hall to discuss with planning staff to make sure whatever they are doing there is safe for occupants.”
“We applaud their effort to try and help homeless people, but at the same time we would like to coordinate some activity together to make sure the safety of the people living in those tiny homes is protected.”
Yu added while it’s the City’s responsibility to enforce and implement bylaws, he applauds the efforts of the volunteers and agrees that our homeless population needs somewhere warm to stay. He is in favour of the tiny home idea, but says the safety of our community has to be a priority. Given that he would like to see tiny homes built, he hopes to work with the volunteer group, rather than against them.
“Definitely I would like to collaborate with him (Frederickson) in the effort, being a structural engineer myself, I can certainly contribute my technical know-how to help him. In the days ahead I’m looking forward to a conversation with him, see if we can do something together with B.C. housing to address this particular issue,” Yu said.
Which, idk. At a certain point hearing him say he’s an engineer with experience in building tiny homes and he’d like to get it done starts to be something that needs to be backed up by actions if it’s to be taken seriously. There are undoubtedly many, many hoops that would have to be jumped through in order to have these tiny homes built in a way that didn’t require some legal-butt-covering but at the same time, I don’t think we’ve seen any indication of Yu even identifying those hoops, let alone starting to jump through them. Also, to be clear — I’m not saying Yu should start getting more active on getting emergency shelters built. I bring him up in all of this because he repeatedly campaigned on the construction of emergency shelters as a solution to the issue of homelessness, one he said he was uniquely qualified to pursue as an engineer with experience in this area. He explicitly laid it out as a policy goal, but year one of his tenure as mayor went by without action on this front and now that another group of people are doing what the mayor said he would, the city’s response is to tell them to stop it and the mayor saying he’d like to collaborate. So who knows what comes next.
Thousands turn out for Remembrance Day ceremony but were enough wearing poppies?
I attended the ceremonies at the Cenotaph on November 11 and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen as many people turn out for a Remembrance Day ceremony as that. Certainly, not since the pandemic started. The number of people there was in the thousands, easily eclipsing any other demonstration or gathering for other causes that have been held at city hall over the past half-decade. But I guess not many people attended the morning breakfast (I didn’t) and MP Todd Doherty spoke about his disappointment at the lack of people wearing poppies on his trip home:
“There was just a lack of people wearing poppies and a lack of mention and significance of the day and it was just really frustrating for me,” told the crowd Saturday morning gathered for Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre.
“It saddened me. It angers me.”
I don’t know how one measures the number of people wearing poppies — I certainly didn’t notice a decline from previous years, though I did notice it was a bit harder than usual to obtain a poppy — or, at least, I didn’t have any chance encounters with donation spots and instead had to seek one out. I would also just hazard a guess that Remembrance Day kind of snuck up on people — we were having such an unusually warm fall that it really did not feel like November until two days ago, basically. Anyways, at the end of the day a lot of people turned out and the community stepped up with donations to make sure the ceremony went forward when word got out it was facing a funding shortfall.
More Remembrance Day coverage:
Fast food news:
Apparently there is a limit to how many McDonald’s this city can sustain.
Meanwhile the fact that a Popeye’s has opened in Fort St. John makes me think there could be truth to the rumours one is coming to Prince George.
And in the Hart:
Snow posts:
Quick news:
Prince George teen wins two national horse jumping championships.
Prince George product scores golden goal at World U17 Hockey Challenge. He’s also on the Vancouver Giants roster as they play in Prince George tonight and tomorrow.
Retired resident devotes her days to help feed Prince George's hungry.
Why Bernie Goold keeps helping Prince George's most vulnerable residents.
Exploration Place showcasing science of brewing at BC Ale Trail event.
New integrated primary, community care facility to be built in Vanderhoof.
About 120 people turned out to a ceasefire rally held along Ospika on Sunday.
Today’s song…
The Beatles compliations known as the Red and Blue albums have been remastered and it is mind-blowing just how much better the early stuff sounds. I am not much of a listener, in the sense that I rarely notice audio quality and still have a hard time distinguishing mono vs stereo. But: I highly recommend checking this one out, if you have any interest in the band. It’s like hearing them for the first time.
Also, skateboard season seems to be officially over:
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