A dozen west Vancouver residents pleaded with town council on Monday to clear a homeless encampment alongside West Mill Plain Boulevard.
The camp alongside the highway’s sound wall has grown from just a few tents to about 50 throughout the previous yr. Some dad and mom mentioned their youngsters are afraid to go outdoors their properties within the Hough neighborhood.
“I have an 8-year-old child who has nightmares … about strangers breaking into our home while she sleeps,” mentioned Rachel Trevino, a single mom of three youngsters.
Trevino mentioned her daughter is experiencing signs akin to post-traumatic stress dysfunction from the camp. She hears folks screaming and sees folks below the affect of medication, “walking around like zombies, neither dead or alive,” Trevino mentioned.
“If that doesn’t scare you, it scares my children. Men walking around with axes, shovels, pipes for no reason. Suddenly, they’re there. And then suddenly, they’re gone,” Trevino mentioned. “My children … wonder where they went and when they’re coming back.”
Lila Harlan, 15, mentioned she’s been struggling to sleep at evening due to the screaming. She missed her first-period math class lately when she and her mom found a girl who had seemingly overdosed and handed out, blocking their automotive.
“When the paramedics arrived, she continued to vomit in our front yard. I’ll never forget the image of when I walked outside and saw a woman shriveled up, laying on the wet cement road,” Lila mentioned.
Her favourite exercise was working across the neighborhood, however she stopped out of worry, she mentioned.
Different neighbors described folks sleeping on their porches, participating in oral intercourse in entrance of their homes, defecating of their yards and smoking fentanyl from foil subsequent to them.
Mary Cray, 73, mentioned she and her husband, who each survived a home fireplace previously, are terrified their home is perhaps burned down by a hearth within the camp. She’s reported fires in tents 3 times, she mentioned.
“We’re now begging you for help. We’re frightened on so many levels. Fire dangers. The homeless men beating girlfriends. Wondering if this violence will be directed at us,” Cray mentioned. “I could go on and on.”
The Columbian beforehand reported on issues on the camp. In September, town council mentioned closing the camp.
Vancouver’s Homeless Response Supervisor Jamie Spinelli mentioned town has a plan for clearing the encampment and prohibiting tenting alongside Mill Plain however gave no agency timeline.
