Inside Chatham's encampment, confused people ask where they can go before Monday eviction
Some say that people who have left have been displaced from their new site and returned to the park
Christina Ratte has spent hours of her days this week trying to figure out where a relative living in a Chatham encampment can move to before Monday's eviction deadline.
She says the dozens of people living in tents at an encampment in a park downtown on the edge of the Thames River are frustrated with conflicting information from different authorities.
"Are you wanting them to go out and to buy measuring tapes and like, actually check, just wander around and just check, 'OK, am I 100 metres from the closest school playground?,'" said Ratte.
Chatham-Kent's encampment protocol prevents people from setting up shelter near schools, playgrounds or along private property lines.
Ratte has been scrambling between online maps and calls to area officials to find a space where her relative could live.
"The rules are technically complicated,' she said. "A few are even confusing to me and I'm a bookkeeper with a college education."
People living in tents say searching for housing, jobs difficult task
The municipality wants people out of the park by Monday because a construction project requires the site for equipment storage into next year.
But people living at the site say they're unable to pay for housing and are on wait lists for affordable units that could take years to become vacant.
Ron Cowell, standing in front of a water-logged tarp covering the collapsed tent he's lived in for nearly a year, said being homeless makes it nearly impossible to find stable housing or a job.
"The major deal is to get up in the morning in one piece, the same piece you went to bed in, and survive through the course of the day," said Cowell.
He doesn't have a phone or a laptop but when he does have access to rental listings he sees prices that are beyond his budget.
"I mean, I'm looking at one bedrooms that are between $1,800 and $2,600 a month. For a one bedroom."
Police kick people off of property municipality said is OK
He's watched people pack up all their possessions at the encampment to head for a new place after last week's eviction notice, only to see them return a while later to move back into the park.
"There's been some who have gone but have been sent back," said Cowell.
Ratte has heard the same thing and wants clarity on where people can go.
"People have tried and they keep on being sent back, so I'm at square one again," she said.
People at the site tell CBC News that one of the residents packed up their stuff and moved to another site that was suggested to them, when they were told to leave the park.
But once they arrived, a police officer told them they couldn't stay there and sent them back downtown.
'May be some confusion,' says police
That was a misunderstanding by police, according to Reach Out Chatham-Kent (R.O.C.K), an outreach group that has visited the site daily to help.
On Thursday, the municipality confirmed the site does fit within the encampment protocol and people can set up shelters there, which has been communicated to police.
A spokesperson for the Chatham-Kent police service said they're looking into the incident.
"We recognize that there may be some confusion around this matter but please note that our officers are acting in good faith based on the information and guidance available to them," said spokesperson Shelomi Legall.
Deadline to leave is Monday morning
The confusion has made for a stressful time at the park, said Danny Zimmerman, who visits often to help friends living in the encampment.
"I think they should talk to us more," said Zimmerman.
"Get together with us and talk to us instead of just jumping in our faces and saying, 'this is what's happening, this is what we're doing.'"
The municipality and R.O.C.K. have offered to help connect people to housing supports and move items ahead of the Monday deadline.
But the director of housing services in Chatham-Kent says they know not everyone will be able to find a bed.
"We are in desperate need of supportive housing in our community in Chatham-Kent," said Kim Crew.
"We don't have any. Our council has been pretty vocal about the need for it."
Until the municipality gets that housing, "there's going to be no solution for some folks," Crew said.
Ratte said her relative is living in the park after a house they lived in burned down, destroying all of their possessions.
With no space to take her relative in her own home, Ratte has been supporting them while they live in the park.
She's frustrated with the confusion about where people should go and what could happen if they don't leave.
"If the cops show up and they haven't moved, the cops will take everything they own and throw it out," said Ratte.
After her relative's house fire, Ratte says she worries losing what's left could be unbearable for her family member.
"You can only push a human so much. At some point they're going to just quit."
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