'It makes you feel worthless,' says woman living in Gage Park as Hamilton moves to clear tents

As she stared out into the rain Tuesday afternoon, a woman living in an encampment at Gage Park in Hamilton's east end said she just needed a few more days for the ice trapping her tent to thaw and to figure out where to go next.

The woman told CBC she has been staying in one of two tents huddled near the Lawrence Road entrance since mid-January after being removed from several other parks in recent months.

The city has given notice that she and others living in tents in Gage Park have until Thursday to leave.

CBC has agreed to withhold the woman's name because she is concerned about the impact on her ability to find future work and housing. 

"I am treated like a completely worthless [person]. A problem," she said. "Literally as a piece of garbage that if you dispose of it somewhere far away, that is a solution."

She's not alone. Stephanie Cox, a lawyer at Hamilton Community Legal Clinic and co-counsel on a charter challenge in the works against park evictions, said people living in parks are now constantly in fear of confrontations with police and the potential for their possessions to be taken.

"Many are finding themselves running further to the margins and encamping in forests," Cox said during a panel on encampment evictions held by the Hamilton chapter of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) on Wednesday. 

The charter challenge is coming sometime in the fall, according to Wade Poziomka, a lawyer at Ross & McBride LLP, who is working with Cox.

An update to councillors following a public works department budget meeting on Jan. 26 showed 262 "encampment cleanups" were completed last year — 176 of which were done by the city and another 86 completed by a contractor.

A review of work orders showed those operations happened at 60 unique sites, the update states. It adds that there were multiple visits made to the same sites, but those were typically spread out over weeks and months.

The city said that 35 people showed up at more than one encampment that was cleaned up, including 20 individuals who were at three or more sites.

On Wednesday's panel, which focused on the impact of encampment evictions on women in particular, Cox said evictions result in increased risk of violence and weather-related harm like frostbite and hypothermia. It is especially dangerous for women at risk of sexual violence, who often can't get into women's shelters that are at capacity, Cox added. 

"Their preference is, in light of the circumstances, to get a tent, to find a secure location and to do that with others because there is safety in numbers."

The upcoming charter claim will argue that encampment evictions violate rights enshrined in Canada's constitution, including the right to "security of the person," Cox said.