More than a dozen tents remained at a homeless encampment near downtown Barrie on Monday afternoon, not long after city by-law officers arrived in Berczy Park with a number of police officers.
Last Tuesday, the city issued bylaw infraction notices to individuals living in the park, giving them 72 hours to correct several infractions including placing debris on city property in contravention of the nuisance by-law, fouling the land by urinating and defecating, and camping within a public park, contrary to the parks use by-law.
Today, the city confirmed that 21 notices were issued to encampment residents on Tuesday.
"The city plans to issue notices of trespass to individuals who do not identify any unique needs and continue to be in contravention of the city's by-laws," according to a statement to Barrie360 from the city on Monday afternoon. "The majority of the individuals within the park have accepted the offers of shelter. In addition to shelter, the County of Simcoe has arranged for temporary secure storage for personal belongings."
According to the County of Simcoe, which is responsible for the shelter system in the region and Barrie, all but five individuals living outdoors in the encampment had confirmed housing options.
"The shelter system and our motel voucher program are jointly being utilized," the county said in an email to Barrie 360.
Sara Peddle, executive director of the Busby Centre in Barrie, told Barrie 360 that as of mid-afternoon, she was not aware of any trespassing notices being issued to encampment residents, and outreach workers remained on the ground in the park.
When by-law officers and police arrived in the park, they interacted with residents who were there, but the tents were not removed.
"Everything is running as smoothly as can be expected," said Barrie Police Sgt. Paul Matte. "There is a lot of conversation going on, which is good."
Clean-up crews were also on site picking up debris left behind from a fire at the encampment during the weekend.
Earlier in the day, barriers were placed at the two entrances to the park, indicating Berczy Park was closed and there was no admittance. A few hours later, the barriers were removed.
The city said the barriers were placed as a temporary closure to allow city crews to address the damage from the encampment fire as well as other damage and maintenance work in the park. However, no crews arrived until by-law officers and police entered the park early Monday afternoon.
By Monday evening, the barriers were back in place at both entrances to the park.
Peddle said about 24 people were living in Berczy Park.
She confirmed to Barrie 360 last week that the County of Simcoe wanted to increase capacity in the system by adding 20 additional shelter beds. There has been no confirmation from the city or the county as to how long those beds will be made available.
One resident told Barrie 360 that he was among the first people, along with his girlfriend, to pitch a tent at Berczy, and that the numbers have grown since June. The individual said they left the Busby Centre because of the rules, claiming they were always changing and there was no consistency.
Christine Naylor of Ryan's Hope, a not-for-profit organization that assists those experiencing homelessness and addiction, believes by-law officers had planned to take down the tents but did not act because of advocates that had gathered in the park to support the encampment residents.
"They were telling people that they need to pack and leave, and that they had been given their notice," Naylor said. "They don't want to do this action while they have this many people witnessing and documenting."
The city said in its statement today that camping in a public park is not safe for anyone.
"The city has had many complaints related to encampments," officials stated. "There have also been several fires in encampments this year including two fires this past weekend, one at Berczy Park."
The public is able to track the number of people housed in shelters in Barrie and in the region through a data dashboard managed by the County of Simcoe:
https://gisportal.simcoe.ca/arcgis/apps/sites/#/county-of-simcoe-data-portal
