Keeping it clean: City steps up for clean-up of Government Road site
By Timothy Schafer Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A community-organized clean-up of the Government Road campsite later this week has been averted.
Instead, a clean up by the City of Nelson has been scheduled for the site on Wednesday, noted Mayor Janice Morrison in an email thread on the issue.
“Thank you for starting to organize a group of volunteers, however, it requires people trained in hazmat/waste removal,” she wrote. “We need to ensure that people are safe and not putting themselves at risk.”
In a group email, environmentalist Tom Prior had organized a group of volunteers for later this week (Thursday or Friday) to help clean up the homeless camp on one side of Government Road.
In the initial email, Prior asked if the City or Regional District of Central Kootenay could provide some waste bins and haul it to the Grohman Narrows transfer station.
“I know many of the councillors do not live in Nelson, perhaps they are unaware of this toxic mess that local bears are spreading around. Hopefully no bears are poisoned by this garbage,” Prior wrote in his email.
Homeless people Nelson have set up tent encampments on public lands over the past few years. Although this has created challenges for some Nelsonites the root of the problem is a lack of affordable housing and supportive services, areas where the City claims it has engaged the Province.
“Still, the City expects that it will still have an unhoused population for some time and thus it is appropriate to regulate where such individuals may set up temporary shelters going forward,” City manager of regulatory services, Sarah Winton, said in July on the matter.
It is a constitutional right for people to be able to take shelter at night, meaning B.C. Courts do not allow municipalities to ban camping and sheltering in all public spaces. Instead, municipalities can prohibit camping in certain areas and limit the period of time of any such camping to overnight hours.
A new Parks Bylaw amendment designates specific areas that do not allow for camping — the same spaces where the City does not allow illicit drug use (already defined in the Parks Bylaw).
The spaces were previously identified based on their frequency of use by children and proximity to schools.
In addition, the bylaw amendment added the lawn around City Hall to the list of prohibited areas for both illicit drug use and camping.
With regard to time of day, the bylaw only allows temporary shelters to be in place from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m.
