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 The tent city at Concord Pacific-owned land was wrapping up its business Wednesday. (MATT KIELTYKA, 24 HOURS) |
Look out Vancouver; more tent cities are heading your way.
About 30 people were left at 58 W. Hastings Wednesday to gather the last of their possessions before vacating the Concord Pacific-owned land which has served as a demonstration of the city’s homeless issues during the Olympics.
The protest spurred BC Housing into action and discussions are underway to find all the homeless at the site a place to live.
The lesson?
“Tent villages work,” said social advocate Wendy Pedersen, of the Carnegie Community Action Project. “That’s the wave of the future, when [cold weather] shelters close April 30, there will be more tent cities. When people put themselves in front of the media and public with their friends, they get housing.”
Richard S. Buttery recently arrived from Toronto and bounced around between shelters and hospital stays before landing at the tent city.
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Now he’s looking forward to the clean, warm bed that awaits at the end.
“There was no place to put me but I had a good experience here,” he said. “I do agree what the people here are saying, it did something for the people here.”
But while a few dozen people can look forward to a fresh start, Buttery said the struggle isn’t over.
“Go outside this fence and go up a block or two,” he said, pointing towards Main and Hastings streets. “Those are the people the government gets to get off the street any way they can.”