Less than a week after sweeping a McDonnel Street encampment, the City of Peterborough has evicted the residents of a local homeless encampment on Wolfe Street.

Arthur received a tip at 9:55 AM September 3rd when a local resident sighted City vehicles on the Wolfe Street site. Arthur initially arrived on scene just after 10 AM, where Public Works employees were seen cleaning up belongings of those evicted. 

The encampment is located next to the City’s modular transitional housing development, which offers short-term housing to those experiencing homelessness in the downtown area.

This wave of encampment evictions is happening in the wake of the City of Peterborough’s opening of a new temporary homeless shelter at 161 Carnegie Avenue. The Carnegie shelter, which Google Maps estimates to be more than an hour walking distance away from both the McDonnel and Wolfe street encampments, has seen no use in the five days since it first opened.

Every evictee Arthur spoke to denied being directed to any homeless shelter or support service in town at any point during any evictions they were a part of.

Local resident Heather Morse happened to drive by the encampment that morning when she saw enforcement officers evicting residents. She later came back with another person on foot.

“I did not feel comfortable entering the situation without another person,” Morse said.

When questioned by Morse, enforcement officers claimed to have given the residents of the encampment 24-hour notice prior to the evictions. 

“I asked ‘Are you sure? Because you’ve been known to not actually give 24-hours notice before—we’ve heard accounts that you say this and it’s not true,’” Morse recounted. 

What followed was a verbal altercation between herself and officers which culminated in her being asked to leave.

“They definitely told us ‘This street is closed. You’re not supposed to be there,’ and we were like, ‘Well, we didn't see any signs saying there was a street closure,’” Morse told Arthur. “They were like, ‘Even without the signs, we’re telling you now to leave the area.’”

When Arthur journalists arrived on-site around 10:30 AM, one police officer told them they were “pretty sure” that “press people” were not allowed on Wolfe Street due to the eviction and directed them to speak to by-law officers. No by-law officers could confirm that journalists were not permitted on-site.

Ashburnham Ward Councillor and Housing and Homelessness Co-Chair Keith Riel later told Arthur he was never informed of the impending sweep.

“I went by the site today, and it was cleaned out. I knew nothing about it. I have no idea where the people have gone,” he said.

“Both myself and Councillor Bierk are the Chairs of Housing and Homelessness, and certainly we would like to be included in all this,” he added. “We have not been privy to any evictions or suggestions that we have raised.”

“We were given very short notice very late last night,” said encampment resident Joel Armstrong. “They told us that they’d be here in the morning and we’d have to have all this stuff ready to leave, or we’d face arrest.”

Like those evicted from the McDonnel Street encampment, Joel said he was given “very, very little time” to gather his belongings.

Another resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told Arthur she received notice the previous morning.

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Brooke Knott, another resident who has been homeless on and off since 2020, told Arthur that this wasn’t her first time losing valuable belongings in an encampment sweep.

“I’ve lost everything I own about ten times,” she said.

“Before, they used to give us time, you know, they’d come in the morning and they’d be like, ‘Okay, we’ll give you a half an hour long,’ ‘We’ll give you 45 minutes’ and help us pack up our belongings, get them together and move them and whatnot. This time, there wasn’t any of that.” 

“They said ‘You have five minutes to get your belongings together. What you guys can’t take. You guys can leave. If you guys aren’t gone, you guys’ll be arrested and incarcerated,” she told Arthur.

“I think it’s symptomatic of how big the problem is getting,” Joel interjected.

“They're getting so much faster at it,” he said. “There’s so many, so many more homeless people, so much more income disparity, they’re getting very experienced at this, right?”

Brad was a resident of the Wolfe street encampment, and told Arthur this was his third eviction.

“Every time it happens, there’s less compassion,” he said of the enforcement officers who evicted him.

“It’s the same ones each time,” Brad continued. “You can see them almost getting more desensitized to what they’re doing.”

An anonymous resident of the encampment said police officers mocked her and fellow campers before beginning to clear the area.

“Cops just started piling up mopping and making fun of everything that’s been going on…laughing and saying, ‘Oh, here comes the teepee police,’” she told Arthur.

Multiple residents Arthur spoke to independently reported hearing by-law enforcement officers make similar comments about the “teepee police.”

“How ignorant can one be and how careless could someone be towards another human being that’s just trying to get by?” The anonymous resident asked. 

“We’re not doing anything. We’re not hurting anyone. We’re not disrupting people. We’re just here to freaking lay our head at night,” she added.

Peterborough Police Services (PPS) provided Arthur with comment on their participation in the Wolfe Street evictions, stating that “The Peterborough Police Service is not the lead (agency in charge) in these situations. Our officers attend at the request of the City to ensure that everyone is safe and to keep the peace.”

For many residents, the new Carnegie Avenue shelter isn’t a real alternative to their now-razed home.

“It’s way too far,” Brooke explained. “Think of the location. We’re homeless; we need to be downtown. That’s why we camp down here—that’s where the resources are. We’ve got Ontario Works, we’ve got disability here, we’ve got the library, we’ve got Trinity; all of our resources are within—What would you say?—like, an eight-block radius? From there, that’s like almost five kilometers.”

Joel was similarly critical of the Carnegie Avenue shelter.

“It’s just making it look like they’re doing something,” he said.

“What they really want is for us to just disappear forever.”

Housing and Homelessness Co-Chair Alex Bierk and the City of Peterborough have not responded to Arthur’s requests for comment at time of publication. 

With files from David King and Ian Vansegbrook.