You generally build a fence for one of two reasons. You either want to keep something out, or you want to keep something in.
The former would appear to be the methodology behind an abundance of pre-fab metal fence sections installed in the past 24 hours at one of the province's most notorious homeless encampments.
Late last week, residents of the site, nicknamed "Fairview encampment" for its location at the intersection of Hwy 97 and Fairview Road just blocks from the geographic centre of Penticton, were officially handed an eviction notice.
They had to June 25 to leave the site for good.
At this point, there weren’t a lot of other solutions.
In January of this year, a variety of groups and individuals, many under the banner of locally-based collaborative "100 More Homes Penticton," descended on the already infamous camp for a much needed deep clean.
It was clearly a necessary effort, especially given the encampment's location on the banks of environmentally sensitive Ellis Creek.
The site, on land with a convoluted history and owned by the Province, looked far better by the end of the day. But it's been a downhill slide ever since.
By June, the camp was bigger than ever. More people, more ramshackle shelters, more garbage and undoubtedly more human waste and paraphernalia in and around the waterway.
Something had to give. Hence the eviction notice.
But a piece of paper is one thing. An industrial strength divider is another.
By Friday morning, sections of fence had been erected on the entire western and northern flanks of the camp, essentially alongside the highway and Fairview Road.
In addition, multiple security guards were on duty. And though the place still looked chaotic, the number of residents looked to have dropped substantially.
But the site was not completely sealed. The eastern perimeter remained mostly open.
Whether more chunks of fence will arrive to fully surround the area is unclear. But it certainly wasn’t hard to surmise that the eventual goal is to stop any residents who've left the site from re-entering.
PentictonNow spent some time Friday trying to track down official comments on the fencing and details of the plan going forward. We were only moderately successful.
The City of Penticton, which certainly doesn’t own the land but is obviously a keenly interested party, provided no statement but did confirm the fencing was placed as "part of the decampment process that the Province is leading."
The City suggested contacting BC Housing, and that's what we did. Unfortunately, the statement we were told was forthcoming had not arrived several hours later.
The Ministry of Transportation and Transit was a bit more accommodating. Late Friday afternoon, they sent us a statement and attributed it to BC Transportation and Transit Minister Mike Farnworth.
It didn’t address all our questions and it was rather general. But at least it was something.
"Provincial outreach workers have been in regular contact with people sheltering at the encampment and have offered person-specific supports," said the statement, "including helping people find shelter and providing referrals to health services and community resources for food, water, clothing and crisis support. This work will continue in the coming days as the encampment winds down.
"To support clean-up activity at the site, fencing and security have been put in place. Security personnel are on site only to monitor activity and equipment on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation and Transit.
"More equipment will arrive next week to continue clean-up as people voluntarily leave.
"The Province is making good progress with the City of Penticton on long-term solutions for people to shelter indoors and there will be more to say about that very soon."
We'll strive to keep you posted with further future developments.
