PEICity workers in Summerside have moved unhoused residents out of the Rotary Friendship Park, after the city temporarily closed the park due to wildfire risks.Summerside shelters busy, though not everyone without housing wants to stay in oneThe cause of the weekend fire at Summerside’s Rotary Friendship Park is still unknown, but in the past, some fires have broken out at encampments there. (Ken Linton/CBC)City workers in Summerside have moved unhoused residents out of the Rotary Friendship Park, after the city temporarily closed the park due to wildfire risks.The temporary closure began on Sunday, Aug. 24, after a runner spotted a small brush fire. Fire crews extinguished it quickly, the city said.The cause of the fire is still unknown, but in the past, some fires have broken out at encampments in the park.Now the city has a full-service shelter to remove some of the need for people without adequate housing to camp out. Tanner Doiron, acting director of communications for the city of Summerside, said they are extending supports, including transportation, to those who had been living in the park.”We’re offering resources through police services, through shelter services as well, to find those folks a home in the shelter,” he said.Tanner Doiron, acting director of communications for the city of Summerside, said resources are being offered to those who were camping out in the park, to get them into a shelter. (Zoom)”We’re trying not to have them living in the park, obviously, especially during the high risk of wildfires at the moment.”City officials have not provided numbers on how many people were removed from the park. Where will those displaced go?Chris Clay, the Reaching Home co-ordinator for the P.E.I. Native Council, said he agrees with the city’s decision to close the park.”I fully understand it, with everything else that’s going on in the Maritimes. You know, you’ve seen a couple fires blow up really bad in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” he said.”We definitely don’t want that on the Island, so as a precautionary measure, I fully understand why the City of Summerside did it.”Chris Clay, the Reaching Home co-ordinator for the Native Council of P.E.I., says he agrees with the City of Summerside’s decision to close the Rotary Friendship Park, though he thinks the Summerside emergency shelter should be expanded to help accommodate those displaced. (Ken Linton/CBC)The Native Council runs a shelter in the city, and Clay said it’s been busy this week.”The shelter in Summerside has been going fantastic. Most nights we’re full, [but] this week we have a couple of open beds. We’re open through the day so our clients don’t have to go out and find places to hang out through the day.”However, if beds aren’t available in that shelter, or others in the city, he said some people without housing will likely end up in another park somewhere.”Hopefully there are beds at the shelters and they are willing to go there, but if not, you’ll probably see them move from one park to another park.”Clay said there can be a range of reasons why someone wouldn’t want to seek a shelter bed.”There’s mental health issues that the clients are going through, or addictions. Trust is a big issue, though. You’re out, you’re protecting yourself,” he said.Housing advocate supports Summerside’s move to close park despite people being known to stay thereThe City of Summerside has shut down its Rotary Friendship Park because dry conditions have boosted the fire risk. Housing advocates say some people without a place to live were camping out in the park. So where has this closure left them? CBC’s Sheehan Desjardins reports. He said some people don’t like the shelters searching their belongings as they come in, for the safety of other clients, or some of the rules they must observe: “It’s personal choice.”Clay said the city’s recently opened emergency shelter is already looking too small for the demand.”The shelters have been so close to capacity all summer, it might be an idea to look at expanding probably the Summerside emergency shelter, putting more beds up there.”ABOUT THE AUTHORRyan McKellop is a graduate of the Holland College Journalism program and a web writer at CBC P.E.I.With files from Sheehan Desjardins
Summerside park closure sparks concerns over where unhoused residents will end up
