The eviction notices have been handed out and James Munro knows he will be forced out of his temporary home at Millennium Park encampment in downtown Prince George.
Known as J-Rock, Munro has been living with his fiancée under a tarp in close proximity to about 30 other residents of the camp at First Avenue and George Street.
The Millennium Park campers have been loading their belongings into transport trailers donated by a private citizen for relocation to Moccasin Flats, a 52-site encampment along Lower Patricia Boulevard that’s been used by the city’s homeless population for the past two years.
The park is across the street from a gas station/convenience store and a shelter where they can get food, water and showers, while Moccasin Flats has few amenities. The city has yet to announce any infrastructural improvements to deal with more campers.
“There’s no water, there’s no electricity, there’s no anything, now we’ll have to go a mile-and a-half to get water,” Munro said. ”They brought in port-a-potties for us located at strategic places for them but that isn’t strategic for us at all.
“It’s a mile-and-half walk to get to the store and that will take half an hour to walk there and back. Now if we want power we’ll have to buy generators at $3,000 apiece. How do a lot of people afford that?”
The campers have been told they must take their belongings with them or risk losing them. He said none of the authorities have come up with any alternative housing solutions.
“They haven’t done anything,” Munro said. “Let’s face it, where are they building new homes in P.G. that are going to be affordable for homeless people? That’s why we’re here.”
Millennium Park is highly visible to highway travellers coming into the city on Highway 16 East and Munro says some motorists have shown their contempt for camp residents by throwing things at them as they pass by.
“They throw eggs and they bounce golf balls in here,” he said “Do you know what a golf ball does at 60 kilometres an hour? One girl was hit with a frozen slush (drink) that smashed into her face and broke her nose.”
Munro, 46, has terminal cancer and has been addicted to heroin for 15 years. He came to Millennium Park five months ago from Quesnel and says the campers have formed a tight-knit community. They look out for each other and police themselves and try to weed out the bad characters. They also clamp down on people for lighting large campfires or using drugs in plain sight of the public and he said they evicted some residents when they set up a chop shop for stolen bikes in one of the tents.
A fire in November 2022 got out of hand and spread to three tents before fire crews arrived to douse the flames. Munro says he’s seen the fire department attend the camp at least 30 times to douse small campfires in the time he’s lived there.
Citing the fire danger of flammable material and liquid/compressed gas storage present at the site, fire chief Cliff Warner issued an order that took effect Wednesday afternoon for the Millennium camp to be taken down due to the fire hazard and risk of an explosion. An order issued earlier this week by the city requires the camp to be evacuated by Saturday. Munro says the eviction is not justified and blames the fire chief and Mayor Simon Yu for overstating the danger to residents.
Munro worries that campers bound for Moccasin Flats will be no longer be in close proximity to an experienced first aid attendant stocked with Narcan to prevent drug overdose deaths when they move. He said there have been two overdose deaths at Moccasin Flats since April and a woman suffered a gunshot wound there last winter. Munro predicts more violence is likely when the Millennium Park residents move in.
“There’s a lot of little underground societies that don’t get along with each other and once you put them in one area it’s going to be more of problem for these individuals to get along, that’s why people live here and people live out there, because they don’t get along with each other,” he said.
“They think cleaning this park up is going to help, but another will spring up somewhere else.”
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