Encampments cited in reason for rollback on $60M Cambridge development
Posted Sep 25, 2025 07:27:49 AM.
Last Updated Sep 26, 2025 08:04:31 AM.
A local investment corporation has said it’s pulled back on a potential $60 million development slated for Cambridge due to ongoing safety, theft, and vandalism concerns around nearby homeless encampments.
It all stems from a recent Cambridge council meeting, where a motion was being discussed that would potentially look into adding eviction protections for encampments during extreme weather events.
At the meeting, Vice President of Crillion Investment Corporation, Matthew Hilson, spoke on how he wanted councillors to reject the motion, saying it would only add further support to an issue that is a problem all on its own.
“Encampments are fundamentally unsustainable because they’re unhealthy, unsafe, and uneconomic for those in these circumstances and for those in the surrounding community,” Hilson stated.
He said the corporation owns over one million square feet of commercial property across the city, but mentioned that it has been an uphill battle having to deal with the associated costs and disruptions of being in proximity to homeless encampments.
“We have found temporary encampments on our property down in ravines, with stolen goods from our tenants. We’ve had theft and vandalism costs that have now exceeded $400,000.”
Hilson added that additional security measures and costly insurance deductibles due to break-ins and thefts have inflated those costs to upwards of $1 million over the past 15 to 18 months alone.
“These instances have actually caused us to pull away from a project where we were going to invest $60 million in this city to build 300,000 square feet of brand new carbon-neutral industrial buildings out here,” Hilson stated. “We’ve had to pull away from that as a product of this.”
He added that, if companies and corporations in the area are feeling the sting from those increased issues, the local community has to be in a similar position.
“Encampments are uneconomic because they’re a major source of vandalism and theft to both homeowners and businesses throughout the community, which largely takes place with impunity and a lack of consequences or prosecution of the perpetrators, resulting in an unending cycle of crime.”
He cited other larger impacted areas coming from the presence of homeless encampments, stretching to “illegal drug use, unsanitary living conditions and nutrition, a multitude of health-related problems from living outdoors year-round, unsustainable accommodations, and rampant pollution throughout the community’s public green areas.”
While Hilson said he understood the sentiment of those who would have supported the motion to council on encampment eviction protections during severe weather events, he said voting in favour of it would only risk making them more desirable options for the homeless population.
Clip from Matthew Hilson speaking to Cambridge council on how homeless encampments are “unhealthy, unsafe, and uneconomic.”
“For those who argue this is compassion, it is selective compassion that victimizes the citizens of Cambridge,” Hilson said. “It is a warped sense of human dignity and community vision. They are not the ones that will lead the city forward in a positive direction.”
Council ultimately voted against moving forward with the motion.
Hilson asked Cambridge council to instead look at options that could aid in limiting the overall number and presence of homeless encampments across the city moving forward.
“This is a crisis and needs a major rethink and massive changes to resolve it by forward-thinking, action-oriented individuals, not by naïve ideology.”
