'Heartbreaking': City and police close first of 8 'high-risk' encampments in Edmonton
CTV
Cleanup of the first of eight high-risk encampments began Friday morning.
Cleanup of the first of eight high-risk encampments in Edmonton began Friday morning.
Police and city crews converged on the camp at 95 Street and 105 Avenue around 8 a.m. and started dismantling the structures.
The Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness had filed an injunction earlier this month to stop the closures.
On Dec. 18, a judge ruled the encampments could be closed provided a number of conditions were followed, including notifying the residents about the closures.
"It's heartbreaking," ECHH spokesperson Jim Gurnett said on Friday as workers dismantled the camp.
"It's a source of immense anger to me to be a person living in a city that believes we can treat some of our weakest and most vulnerable community members the way we're treating them when we move in and just rip down their shelters and, and send them out to wander the streets."
Gurnett says officials have allowed the problem of homelessness to get worse for decades.
