After a two-week stay in Goldstream Park’s campground, the tent city campers are moving into the backyard of a Saanich mayoral candidate.
Chrissy Brett, the leader of the homeless camp known as Camp Namegans, said David Shebib is letting approximately 20 to 25 campers move into space behind his home.
READ MORE: Tent city campers pack up and leave Goldstream Park
Chrissy Brett says the remaining group of campers from Goldstream has been invited to stay at Mayoral candidate David Shebib’s West Saanich property throughout the election. pic.twitter.com/i0BikBHLfa
— Saanich News (@saanichnews) October 2, 2018
“He has listened to the rhetoric of if people are such bleeding hearts, take them home to your own backyard,” Brett said several hours after the campers left the Goldstream campground.
“He’s opened up his backyard, his front yard and all around his house for us to take a bit of a break,” she said. “It’s not huge, but we’ll make it work.”
Lindsay Byers of Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing confirmed that all of the homeless campers have left Goldstream campground. In an email, she said the ministry is continuing to work with campers to offer shelter. Since the Regina Park tent city, only 10 people have accepted the offer.
Four shelters in Greater Victoria, Byers said, are prepared to take some new people, including Rock Bay Landing, Sandy Merriman Shelter, Victoria Native Friendship Centre and Arbutus Shelter.
As for the recently vacated Goldstream Park campground, BC Parks has to assess the area before it can be opened to the public. David Karn, the communications officer with the Ministry of Environment, said, “We anticipate that some remediation will be required, however, we won’t know the scale and timing until we have assessed the impacts.”
Victoria News has reached out to the District of Saanich for comment and will update.
About 20-25 homeless campers from Goldstream and Regina Park before that have relocated to mayoral candidate David Shebib’s property at 5000-block West Saanich Rd. pic.twitter.com/3SFGT2AGsC
— Saanich News (@saanichnews) October 2, 2018
READ MORE: Costs of homelessness far outweighs cost of housing says advocate
With files from Travis Paterson.