Some Chatham-Kent residents continue to express concern about a recently relocated homeless encampment in Chatham.
Within two days, a petition to move the encampment that has formed on municipal land on Grand Avenue East has gained more than 1,200 electronic signatures.
The encampment mostly includes people who were living at the Thames Street encampment in the city's downtown area. That Thames Street encampment had to be dismantled to make way for an infrastructure project that will stabilize the banks of the Thames River in the area.
One of the biggest concerns from people hoping to see change is that the Municipality of Chatham-Kent didn't consult the community before the encampment was set up at a new location.
Other posts on the online petition are expressing concerns about people at the encampment openly consuming drugs.
In response, Chatham-Kent's Communications Manager Eric Labadie is again clarifying that the municipality did not select the current location where tents are set up.
"We must make it clear that residents of the encampment were not directed by Municipal staff or Council to locate on the PUC property. They have chosen this location on their own, with guidance from local outreach groups," Labadie told CK News Today.
His comments echoed those from Chatham-Kent's General Manager of Health and Human Services, Jodi Guilmette.
"It was not administration that directed staff to that site. It was the stayers' choice to move to that site, and I don't want to pretend to understand why they chose that site," she said at Monday night's CK Council meeting.
Some of the guidance, coming from advocacy groups such as Reach Out Chatham-Kent (R.O.C.K.), included a long list of regulations that must be followed when an encampment is formed.
Renee Geniole, executive director of R.O.C.K., shared that the decision to move wasn't easy and likely isn't permanent.
"I think with people that are already struggling, to ask them to give up somewhere that they've been for a long time where they're finally kind of settled, maybe even felt a little bit safe, has to be a stressor," Geniole said, adding that the people living in the encampment do have the option to move back to the old site once the construction work is completed.
She also said that moving people out of a spot that falls within Chatham-Kent's guidelines is complicated.
"The municipality doesn't decide one way or the other unless (anyone) is in violation of the bylaw," she explained.
Labadie explained that there are rules within the Municipal Encampment Protocol "to ensure that unhoused persons who shelter themselves on public lands do so in a way that tries to reduce impacts on other community members."
He described the situation as "incredibly complex" and said that the municipality is committed to working with the residents of the encampment and outreach groups to mitigate any impacts on the neighbourhood.
CK police are also monitoring the situation, adding that there is not a lot that can be done about the location that has been chosen, as it doesn't violate any laws.
-with files from Paul Pedro and Jaryn Vecchio