Yellowknife's tent city moved for the second time last week after complaints about its location on private land. It's now on GNWT property.
It is back on a new site again on federal land while some tents are close to shelters. These occupants are squatters trying to find a safe place to sleep, probably after experiencing the chaos and violence at the overcrowded shelters.
They want to be safe, just like us.
The North is full of squatters, though these differ in that the tenters have makeshift walls not weighed down by two-by-fours or anchors, or hidden in the bushes on the outskirts of town.
Another difference is that those in the encampments are fighting for their survival even though they are already dealing with trauma, mental and physical illness and addiction. They donSA国际影视传媒檛 consider squatting a right, nor evade the rules. They are desperate people taking desperate measures. Tent communities are a call for help and a sign of our failure to provide for those most in need. Instead of the situation being a condemnation of the life they are living, it is a test of our humanity. It's not just them being tested SA国际影视传媒� it's us, too.
The encampments are merely symptomatic of the problem SA国际影视传媒� no affordable housing, no treatment and a lack of support and resources.
With winter just around the corner, the housing shortfall could again threaten lives. And as we learned at the recent public roundtable meeting on homelessness, the shortage of beds in Yellowknife reached a critical point a long time ago.
We used to have institutions for people with mental health and physical disabilities where they had safe places to sleep and food to eat. But those were shut down in many provinces as a cost-saving measure, which drove those with high needs onto the streets where many still sleep. We know many have and continue to die there and suffer horrendous indignities.
There was also a time when we considered taking care of the vulnerable to be our job. Those of us who could work provided healthcare services to others who could not.
Now, as inflation and the cost of living spirals out of control, more and more people are forced onto the streets, including seniors who cannot afford to live on meagre pensions.
Thus, people in makeshift encampments are forced to care for themselves in ways that are not sustainable. We know that tent-dwellers across the country have died in fires started by heaters inside tents as they struggled to keep warm in frigid Canadian winters.
Tent encampments are a challenge, but they are a challenge for us to show our humanitarian nature. It is an opportunity for us to pull together and come up with solutions to a growing and difficult problem.
During the last legislative assembly, they GNWT was forced to implement an emergency measure to find shelter for the homeless while winter was knocking at the door because no one wanted a shelter in their backyard.
A construction company came to the rescue at the last minute. We all breathed a sigh of relief. We are putting out a call out again.
More housing units are expected to come on line downtown soon, but this will only slightly ease the overflow at the citySA国际影视传媒檚 shelters, if at all. In the meantime, we need to allow the encampments to be close to existing services where occupants can access food and essential services until more permanent housing can be provided.
Do we need more trailers at the existing site of the old visitors centre? Do we need a new institution where we can not only house people but provide a range of mental health, addiction and education services SA国际影视传媒� somewhere we can work to reintroduce people into society?
Our job is to provide second chances for everyone because those second chances help us all in the end. People living in tents is a reflection on us, not them.
The encampments are sending us a message; letSA国际影视传媒檚 hope we are listening.
-Nancy Vail is a longtime Yellowknifer concerned with social justice.
