Abbotsford homeless camp Saturday deadline passes

People living in a sheltered homeless camp on a parking lot near Abbotsford's Jubilee Park were told they wouldhave until Saturday afternoon to strike camp, and move back into the unsheltered park.

But the court-ordered 4:30 p.m. PT deadline came and went, with no immediate enforcement from the city.

Thecampers moved from the park on Wednesday after supporters builta plywood-covered fence structure around the parking lot. The plywood walls wereintended to provide shelter from the wind chill.

A city order to vacate the lot, remove their belongings and stop construction on the plywoodlean-to was upheld in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster Friday.

Pivot Legal Society lawyerDJ Larkin, who is representing the group,saidthe campers had nowhere else to go, and that if theymove back into the adjacent park, they will have to look back at the wooden fencethat helped keep them warm these past few days.

"I'm sure you can understand that this is such a difficult thing for them to come to terms with... 'I was warm and dry
yesterday and they told me I had to leave,'but that is essentially the order," she said.

Larkin also said the homeless campers wouldn't be able togoback to the exact same park sitethey occupied before.

"I am informed the City did construct a fencearound a lot of Jubilee Park after the individualsmoved into the structure," she said. "I have nowfound out a good chunk of the park where people were livingis now fenced-in and theydon'thave accessto it."

OnTuesday, Larkin will beback in court asking for an interim injunction that will allow the protesters to stay in Jubilee Park until the matter can get a full hearing in a trial. The City of Abbotsfordwill beseeking to havethe wood structure removed from the lot, and to have the homeless camp removed from the park.

Between 25 and 40homeless people and protestershave been living in Jubilee Park since October. In September, the city ordered homeless campers to vacate a makeshift camp on Gladys Avenue.

Earlier this year, advocates andcampers complained after police allegedly slashed tents and bear-sprayed an encampmentin Abbotsford, and after the cityhad chicken manure spread around a site that was beingused as a homeless camp.