Maple Ridge protesters erect illegal camp to protest loss of shelter

Advocates for homeless people protested a move to close a 40-bed Maple Ridge shelter by erectingtents Tuesday on an empty city lot they have dubbed Anita's Place, ignoringthe fury of passing pickup truck drivers.

The group of about 25 shelter dwellers and supporters walked a few blocks from the doomed Rain City shelter, broke into the empty treed lot andhung a banner on the fence, ignoring people who yelled obscenities.

"I've had people chase me out of the neighbourhoods and threaten me and throw bottles at me. I need to live too and I can't work and I'm going to lose my home right away," saidTannaCopper, 56, a former hairdresser with health issues who lives at the Rain City shelter.

Maple Ridge has seen a lot ofanger over plans for homeless shelters. Mayor Nicole Read has long been the target of residents angry over plans to try and build a homeless shelter in Maple Ridge.

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Rain City shelter on the Lougheed Highway has housed dozens of people for about 18 months.

It was supposed to be a temporary six-month measure until the city cemented plans for building a proper shelter, but protesters say those plans have now dissolved and no hope remains for homes, despite a doubling of homeless deaths in the Lower Mainland in the past few years.

While the open-concept shelter crammed with people and personal belonging is little more than a "warehouse for human bodies," according to Ivan Drurywiththe Alliance Against Displacement, it was at least a roof for people.

A seven-person citizen's committee appointed by Liberal MLAs Doug Bing and Marc Daltonwere told to find the best location for a new $15-million shelter and supportive housing complex that B.C. Housing plans to build in Maple Ridge.

In a March report, they determined any new shelter should not be located downtownor be low barrier.

They certainly did not approve a new tent city.

"It's not helping anybody," said Riekie Armstrong, protesting the newly erected tents in her city.

She believes a treatment facility is needed off Maple Ridge's"main drag."

"I am not against homeless people.I'm not against the poor. I grew up poor, but this isn't right," said Armstrong who said the shelter and any tent city draws drug dealers.

The Alliance Against Displacement's Drury says this is an example of those wishing to push the vulnerable out of town further from services, drug treatment and help.

"The hatred in the streets of Maple Ridge is part of the factor that reduces the life expectancy of homeless people," he said.

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The protest groupwalked to 223rd Streettoa grassy, treedlot referred to locally as the St. Anne property where they opened a gate and started setting up brand new tentsdonated by supporters.

They named the site,Anita's Place Tent City, in honour of Anita Hauck, a homeless woman found upside down in a clothing donation bin in 2015 whodied laterof complications.

The protest drew police and city bylaw department manager Robin MacNair who confronted the group.

She refused requests for garbage pick up and porta-potties at the illegal campsite.

"You are trespassing," said MacNair, who faced off with protesters who say they feel forced to fight for a roof, now that a reportrecently submitted to the city appears to have ended anyhope for a low-barrier shelter in Maple Ridge.

In the past few years, Maple Ridge residents rallied hard against all shelter proposals killing three plans so far.

A Cliff Avenue encampment was shut down in 2015 but not before tents were slashed.

Homeless advocates say, on the streets, even disabled people face attacks, from bear spray bursts to frozen paint balls lobbed from pickup trucks.

"People have to defend themselves. People have to create their own shelter," said Drury.