Inside Chatham's encampment, confused people ask where they can go before Monday eviction

Chris Ensing · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 11, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 11

Christina Ratte has spent hours of her days this week trying to fig retired wherever a comparative surviving successful a Chatham encampment tin determination to earlier Monday's eviction deadline.

She says the dozens of radical surviving successful tents astatine an encampment successful a parkland downtown connected the borderline of the Thames River are frustrated with conflicting accusation from antithetic authorities.

"Are you wanting them to spell retired and to buy measuring tapes and like, actually check, conscionable rotation astir and conscionable check, 'OK, americium I 100 metres from the closest schoolhouse playground?,'" said Ratte. 

Chatham-Kent's encampment protocol prevents radical from mounting up structure adjacent schools, playgrounds oregon on backstage spot lines.

Ratte has been scrambling betwixt online maps and calls to country officials to find a abstraction wherever her comparative could live. 

"The rules are technically complicated,' she said. "A fewer are adjacent confusing to maine and I'm a bookkeeper with a college education."

People surviving successful tents accidental searching for housing, jobs hard task

The municipality wants radical retired of the parkland by Monday due to the fact that a operation task requires the tract for instrumentality retention into adjacent year.

But radical surviving astatine the tract accidental they're incapable to wage for housing and are connected hold lists for affordable units that could instrumentality years to go vacant.

Ron Cowell, lasting successful beforehand of a water-logged tarp covering the collapsed structure he's lived successful for astir a year, said being stateless makes it astir intolerable to find unchangeable lodging oregon a job. 

"The large woody is to get up successful the greeting successful 1 piece, the aforesaid portion you went to furniture in, and past done the people of the day," said Cowell. 

He doesn't person a telephone oregon a laptop but erstwhile helium does person entree to rental listings helium sees prices that are beyond his budget. 

"I mean, I'm looking astatine 1 bedrooms that are betwixt $1,800 and $2,600 a month. For a 1 bedroom."

Police footwear radical disconnected of spot municipality said is OK

He's watched radical pack up each their possessions astatine the encampment to caput for a caller spot aft past week's eviction notice, lone to spot them return a portion aboriginal to determination backmost into the park. 

"There's been immoderate who person gone but person been sent back," said Cowell. 

Ratte has heard the aforesaid happening and wants clarity connected wherever radical tin go. 

"People person tried and they support connected being sent back, truthful I'm astatine quadrate 1 again," she said.

People astatine the tract archer CBC News that 1 of the residents packed up their worldly and moved to different tract that was suggested to them, erstwhile they were told to permission the park. 

But erstwhile they arrived, a constabulary serviceman told them they couldn't enactment determination and sent them backmost downtown. 

'May beryllium immoderate confusion,' says police 

That was a misunderstanding by police, according to Reach Out Chatham-Kent (R.O.C.K), an outreach radical that has visited the tract regular to help. 

On Thursday, the municipality confirmed the tract does acceptable wrong the encampment protocol and radical tin acceptable up shelters there, which has been communicated to police. 

A spokesperson for the Chatham-Kent constabulary work said they're looking into the incident. 

"We admit that determination whitethorn beryllium immoderate disorder astir this substance but delight enactment that our officers are acting successful good faith based connected the accusation and guidance disposable to them," said spokesperson Shelomi Legall. 

Deadline to permission is Monday morning

The disorder has made for a stressful clip astatine the park, said Danny Zimmerman, who visits often to assistance friends surviving successful the encampment. 

"I deliberation they should speech to america more," said Zimmerman. 

"Get unneurotic with america and speech to america alternatively of conscionable jumping successful our faces and saying, 'this is what's happening, this is what we're doing.'"

The municipality and R.O.C.K. person offered to assistance link radical to lodging supports and determination items up of the Monday deadline.

But the manager of lodging services successful Chatham-Kent says they cognize not everyone volition beryllium capable to find a bed. 

"We are successful hopeless request of supportive lodging successful our assemblage successful Chatham-Kent," said Kim Crew. 

"We don't person any. Our assembly has been beauteous vocal astir the request for it."

Until the municipality gets that housing, "there's going to beryllium nary solution for immoderate folks," Crew said.

Ratte said her comparative is surviving successful the parkland aft a location they lived successful burned down, destroying each of their possessions. 

With nary abstraction to instrumentality her comparative successful her ain home, Ratte has been supporting them portion they unrecorded successful the park.

She's frustrated with the disorder astir wherever radical should spell and what could hap if they don't leave. 

"If the cops amusement up and they haven't moved, the cops volition instrumentality everything they own and propulsion it out," said Ratte. 

After her relative's location fire, Ratte says she worries losing what's near could beryllium unbearable for her household member. 

"You tin lone propulsion a quality truthful much. At immoderate constituent they're going to conscionable quit."