There are reports of tents blowing away, flooding, and tarps being ripped apart as more than 250 homeless people sleeping in tents experience the first major storm of the season.
“Some people are sitting there literally in six inches of rain type thing, with their tents just soaked. There’s really not much of a difference between being inside and outside at that point,” said Beacon Hill camper Shea Smith.
During Tuesday’s windstorm, Environment Canada advised the public to avoid wooded areas to prevent injury from falling trees or branches. Campers were advised by the weather agency to move to sturdy shelters.
Some of those camping at Central Park got a close up look at the dangers of the windstorm after a tree came crashing down across the street. No one was hurt but Jason Chadwick wasn’t far away.
“I’m under a tree with my tent and there’s a lot of others. We had an arborist in last week from the city but it’s probably not that safe. We’re supposed to get more wind, so I don’t know I just hope we get housing soon so we’re out of this park and away from the danger,” Chadwick said.
READ MORE: Campers to slowly start moving out of Victoria’s Central Park
And just a few days ago Chadwick says he was woken up to a flood inside his tent.
“With all the rain my tent caved in right on top of me, with bathtubs full of water all over me around four in the morning so that wasn’t fun,” he said. He managed to secure another tent from SOLID Outreach.
With COVID-19 there are fewer shelter mats available than ever. For example, Our Place Society’s First Met shelter has gone from 64 mats to 37.
“We’ve been looking for space for extra shelter for the mat program, and we cannot find space,” Young said.
With zero shelter space available, outreach workers like Reverend Allen Tysick are doing what they can to help.
“We were delivering tarps this morning, I delivered 20 of them, ran out of all of the tarps, some of the tents had blown over, I had six tents on me, we gave away those tents and sleeping bags that I had,” said Tysick, Executive Director of the Dandelion Society.
While work is underway to find indoor space as the weather takes a turn, for now, campers say they are simply in survival mode.
“Just try to understand that people are going through a lot out here and they’re not going to be themselves so try to be patient with people and try to give them a little bit of compassion,” Tysick said.
The Greater Victoria Extreme Weather Protocol, which is still working on securing indoor shelter space for the winter, has issued a plea for tarps, ropes, and pallets to at least try to keep people off the ground and dry while they wait.
April Lawrence
