Tent city demonstration forms in Victoria Park (update)

As many residents of the Victoria Street encampment look for a new place to stay, a temporary tent city at Victoria Park has recently been created. 

Members of the 100 Victoria Street community were served an eviction notice on June 6. Despite the June 30 deadline passing, it has not yet been enforced, but Julian Ichim believes it will be soon. 

He is one of the organizers of the tent city demonstration at Victoria Park and had a big hand in creating it. 

“The basic ideology is that we want the police to spread their forces out and we want to take away some of the heat from that encampment,” said Ichim. “The purpose of opening this up is to have our demands met and also to make it a city issue. Right now, that's regional property.”

He added that as the housing market becomes more difficult to maneuver, homelessness is affecting a wider variety of people.

“There's a two per cent vacancy rate in Kitchener right now,” said Ichim.”It's not just affecting poor people anymore. People are getting screwed over and we believe that people have basic rights by virtue of being human and one of those rights is to housing.”

There are only about 10 tents present at the temporary encampment, but anyone is welcome to stop by and use them.

“Sometimes they're filled, sometimes they're not. People come at different times to sleep and some people don't like to sleep. We have an average of 40 to 50 people that come through here at different times of the day,” he added. 

Pamphlets are also being handed out by residents with a list of demands for the City of Kitchener. A list of needed items such as tents, water and sleeping bags are also featured on the pamphlets. 

In closing, Ichim said he encourages everyone to reach out to local political figures demanding something be done about the housing crisis. 

The City of Kitchener provided a statement to CityNews 570 on Wednesday morning, confirming it's aware of the affordable housing demonstration.

“The city has been talking with the Housing Now demonstrators who are temporarily occupying Roos Island in Victoria Park to bring more awareness to the housing and homelessness crisis in our community,” read the statement. “Demonstrators have expressed that they intend to leave Roos Island once their demonstration is complete. This annual demonstration is not meant to be an encampment.”

The city noted it continues to have open dialogue with the organizers to ensure the park is kept clean and safe for other users throughout the demonstration.

The statement added, “The city continues to advance its housing strategy, Housing for All, and work collaboratively with all levels of government including the Region of Waterloo and area municipalities to ensure we move closer to a community where everyone has a place to call home.”

As for the encampment at 100 Victoria Street, the Region of Waterloo confirmed to CityNews 570 that it's still seeking direction on next steps from the courts.      

A regional spokesperson said offers for temporary shelter have been ongoing as well. 

“In addition, contracted service providers and Region of Waterloo staff have been adding and updating individuals' information on both the region's Prioritized Access to Housing Support (PATHS) and the Community Housing Access Centre (CHAC) waitlists for affordable housing and housing support programs,” said a statement. “The region continues to coordinate temporary storage of belongings and site clean-up efforts.”