A series of encampments that have appeared in Castlegar in the wake of the closure of the city’s homeless shelter have been removed.
The city’s corporate services director, Tracey Butler, told city council Monday that volunteer outreach workers have cleaned up abandoned camps behind Kootenay Industrial, on Connors Road, behind the recreation complex, behind A&W, behind Canadian Tire, and in the Woodland Park area.
A city contractor also completed clean up down the ravine behind Safeway and Century 21. City council heard recently from a Woodland Park resident concerned about the fire risk that some of the camps posed.
Butler said some of the people who were living in those camps have moved behind the Chevron station.
“The outreach program is keeping a tight eye on that location and hoping they keep it clean and trying to coax those residents to make sure they’re looking after the area so they can stay there until they find a better solution,” she said.
The Way Out homeless shelter closed at the end of March after the provider, Castlegar and District Community Services, told BC Housing they could no longer continue to operate it.
Meanwhile, demolition on a burned home at 2025 Columbia Avenue is proceeding more slowly than first expected. Butler said they are waiting for a leachate report, which is expected Friday, and then the house can be taken down.
It was severely damaged by fire over a year ago.
