A homeless encampment protest, which originally began at Babich Park, has now moved to Abbotsford City Hall.
Last week, Abbotsford Drug War Survivors representatives distributed a letter to residents around Babich Park to urge them to sign their petition to the City of Abbotsford to designate undeveloped municipal land for their use.
UPDATE: The camp has been relocated to just behind @City_Abbotsford city hall. About 10 tents and 12 people on-site https://t.co/HHd0ULwTZW pic.twitter.com/1qfDDFDqO4
— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka) July 2, 2024
Approximately seven tents and a trailer arrived from Gladys Road to Babich Road on June 25.
However, plans changed and Babich Park residents assisted the protesters in their move to city hall on Saturday (June 29). The camp was relocated that morning.
"The Terry Fox community lent our trucks and our muscles to help move the homeless encampment protest to city hall," a posting in a local Facebook group stated. "We worked hard and the homeless community worked hard as well to get it all moved peacefully and respectfully to city hall."
The camp currently consists of about 10 tents and anywhere from 12 to 15 protesters. Abbotsford mayor Ross Siemens said that the City of Abbotsford was not involved in the moving of the camp, but that he feels this is a better spot for a protest.
This letter was sent out to residents near Babich Park in #Abbotsford. The protest began on Tuesday (June 25). Article coming to the Abbotsford News. pic.twitter.com/vAqnQwAMH4
— Ryleigh Mulvihill (@RyleighKMulvy) June 27, 2024
"We knew about the Babich encampment and we were monitoring that very closely," he said. "And it's not an ideal spot. So the residents there and the organizers got into some discussions and they felt it was more appropriate to have it at city hall."
Siemens said housing is a provincial issue and said a provincial government site would be a better place for a protest, but admitted that local provincial offices lack the green space that city hall has.
He said that staff is meeting with the protesters once or twice a day and are in constant communication. Siemens said that they are protesting under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
"They have the right to protest," he said. "So we will just be monitoring it closely as this unfolds. We're constantly working to provide communication with service providers – primarily B.C. Housing – and making sure that we're just keeping those lines of communication open."
He added that he sympathizes with the challenges of affordability in B.C.
"Nobody is happy when you see people that are not housed," he said. "The city is doing everything within its power to build bridges and keep communication lines open. If there was an easy answer, we wouldn't be having this conversation. This is right across the western world right now, and it is heartbreaking that there are people that are struggling.