About 25 people still remain as temperatures plunge

Cathy Dobson/The Independent

The 25 or so homeless remaining in the Rainbow Park encampment watched Wednesday as crews of Winmar property restoration workers tossed out tarps, debris and suitcases.

Slowly the encampment is shrinking as the cold weather sets in, says Adam MacDonald, Sarnia’s building and bylaw services manager.  And as it shrinks, the city is hiring Winmar to clean up biohazards, drug paraphernalia, abandoned tents and scattered belongings, he said.

Clean-ups are happening at least weekly at the discretion of city staff members who monitor the encampment daily.

Only the hardiest remain living at Rainbow Park, said MacDonald.

Last summer, as many as 60 -75 were there, creating a rift in the community about how to handle the disturbing numbers of homeless and the escalation of fires, violence and criminal activity in the park.

Just last week, city police announced a formalized strategy to recover stolen goods, including shopping carts, frequently found in Rainbow Park.

As it gets colder, Lambton County workers who are responsible for dealing with the homeless issue have convinced dozens of Rainbow Park inhabitants to move into a shelter or have helped them find alternate living situations.

But there are a couple dozen souls unwilling to move.  They say they prefer to live rough because they have pets that can’t access the shelters or they are afraid the shelters are less safe than the park.  Drugs and drug use are also not permitted in shelters.

Christina Smith is among the group remaining in the park.  She sleeps in a makeshift tent made from numerous tarps and heated by a pizza oven operating on propane.  The oven does a good job heating her space, she said.

Wednesday, she was angry with the Winmar crews.

“I know it looks trashy from the outside but it’s nice inside our tents,” she said.  “Just because our stuff looks trashy doesn’t mean they can just take it.

“These are our things and we have a right to keep them. People assume everything we have is stolen but that’s not true,” said Smith who has lived at Rainbow Park “on and off” for two months.

She called herself a former addict and insisted she is clean now.

She pointed to a large tent beside hers and said the man living in it was very ill. 

“But they are taking his chairs, his tarps, his blankets, his table, his carpet, everything,” she said. “They don’t ask, they grab and start throwing it all away.”

The clean-up started at 9 a.m. and was still ongoing mid-afternoon, said Smith as Winmar employees wearing protective clothing continued to fill a truck about 20 metres away.

MacDonald said the regular clean-ups aren’t limited to Rainbow Park.  They happen wherever homeless people set up tents on public property. 

In the last week, crews have been sent to three other locations within the City of Sarnia to clean up, he said.

“We want to see everyone get shelter space but also we want to ensure the park is clean and safe so it is functional as a park,” said MacDonald. 

He said workers routinely hand out garbage bags and ask Rainbow Park residents to fill them with anything they want to throw out.

“If a tent at the encampment is vacated or if we are informed those people have sought shelter elsewhere, we clean the area up,” said MacDonald.  “Typically, by the time we get there, the vacated tents have been ransacked.”

He said clean-up crews have removed weapons, propane tanks and drug paraphernalia.

Although some communities in Ontario are evicting people living in homeless encampments like Rainbow Park, Sarnia council has not opted to do that.

The city is paying more than $100,000 a month to secure and clean-up the park, provide portable washrooms, fencing and for related policing costs.

In the month of September, for instance, the city reported $11,734 was spent on clean-up alone.

The City of Sarnia formally asked the county’s politicians to share in the costs for health and safety measures at Rainbow Park but Lambton County Council declined in September.