Thursday, March 28, 2024

Homeless camp moves to Saanich mayoral candidate’s residence

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Many of the homeless campers at Goldstream Provincial Park tent city have relocated to a residence in the 5000-block of West Saanich Road and the owner of the property is “very frustrated”.

After residing in the provincial campground for the past two weeks, the tent city campers have moved to a private property made available by Saanich mayoral candidate David Shebib.

It turns out, he doesn’t own the property and it is being leased by his son.

The owner of the property, Sam Seera, found out people were setting up tents on his property after the district of Saanich called him.

Seera told Victoria Buzz he is upset and frustrated and plans on doing everything he can to get them off the property. He stopped by the home this afternoon with police officers but was told there was nothing they could do and that he should contact the Residential Tenancy Branch.

Seera said there were at least 20 campers on the property and more were being dropped off as he made calls to local authorities for help. He described the group as confrontational when attempting to stop them from accessing the property.

Camp founder Chrissy Brett said there are about 20 to 25 campers moving to the new location. The group are not allowed inside the home and there are no outside bathrooms available which has Seera very concerned for his 1.4-acre property. 

B.C.’s Premier John Horgan set a deadline for tent city residents at Goldstream Park to vacate the are by 11 a.m. today. A bus arrived to transport them to shelter spaces the province lined up for them, including 25 spaces at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre and other facilities in the Victoria area. Majority declined the offer.

Seera says he has no idea how he’s going to get the people off his property and who will be responsible for any of the costs incurred from damage.

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Victoria Buzz Staffhttps://www.victoriabuzz.com
Your inside source for Greater Victoria happenings. Established in 2012.

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