Worlds collide: Why encampments may be setting up closer to residential neighbourhoods
CTV
A new staff report calls for homeless encampments to be allowed even closer to residential neighbourhoods, reducing the buffer zone from 100 metres to 25 metres.
Worlds may be about to collide in the city of London’s efforts to fight homelessness.
A new staff report calls for homeless encampments to be allowed even closer to residential neighbourhoods, reducing the buffer zone from 100 metres to 25 metres.
For couple Antonio and Maria Alas, this is disheartening news. They’ve lived in their Watson Street home for 23 years, but in just the last three years encampments have started popping up at the nearby Watson Street Park, just off of Wellington Road in Soho.
“It’s scary,” said Maria. “Because before it was peaceful until after they settled in the park on Watson. One time they [broke into] in our backyard, they stole stuff, and my neighbour too… they [entered their] garage and they stole mostly everything… it was really bad,” she explained.
The elderly couple has even had to deal directly with violence, said Maria.
“One of the guys living in the park attacked him (Antonio) with a knife. Because he has problem with hearing, and they were demanding money, and he didn’t hear that. And when you got closer, he pulled a knife and start attacking him,” she said.
