I just saw this story in the Globe an Mail about tent cities an I am bit on the amazed side, not that there are folks that have lost their homes and need a place to stay and have formed groups to work and live together, that happens all the time.. its the fact that these tent cities are in the USA an Canada.
“In Victoria, homelessness advocates won the right to camp in public parks through a high-profile court ruling in 2008” I didn’t know that you now had the right to camp in public parks in B.C. I wonder what the rest of the rulings are across Canada.
I have a hard time imagining a tent city in winter up here, you would need to be prepared for the weather that is for sure, I know that in our cold snap, it was on the local radio that the shelters that were to hold 800 had more then double that during our worst cold, and still there were reports of at least two deaths locally of peaple that froze.
Shelter is one of our most basic requirements, and its true that we as a race, have lived in tents alot longer then we have ever lived in houses or apartments or condos, somehow the thought of perment settlements of tent cities bother me.. Should it? and if it does, is it because I don’t think their needs are being meet, or is it because it makes me uncomforable that we live in a nation that is so rich in so many ways, and yet so many have been forgotten along the way.
I have lived in places that were rated to have 3rd world status and seen warmth, strength and honor in those places, and I have walked down the street of a number of capital cities in my own country and been ashamed of the actions I have seen around me.
Enough said..
Just another Day on the Farm 
Tent cities are the jurisdiction of the cities they are in ,in Alberta anyway. There is a huge tent city on the riverbank in Fort McMurray. I also thought this was awful and insisted my son take me to see these poor people.The surprise of my life awaited me. The camp stretches at least a mile along the river, the tents are the type that hunters use,double-walled with insulation in-between, a stovepipe out the top and as we all know the wood supply is endless in the north.There are some joined together to make large areas.There are upwards of three hundred at any given time living there.Many are on welfare,many workday jobs,some simply refuse tp pay the huge prices for rent as they are up there to send money home to their families. They have cable T.V.in the large tents and we were lucky enough as one of the young guys works for my son as a labourer to arrive at suppertime and the food was unbelievable. Some had ordered in pizza, some chicken etc. There were men cooking their meals on the wood cookstoves,radios playing, at one table a chess game.Taxis ran in and out the whole time we were there.Rather than feel sorry for these people I came away with respect for the enthusiasm with which they were living together and obviously living very well. I realize they are not paying rent but they are paying taxes, the ones working and they are not really hurting anything although I understand the smell in summer can be quite strong as they use outside facilities.I ,for one would rather see this type of “help ourselves” than the drain of public funds to provide housing for people who could work if they wanted to.That’s my opinion anyway
Lately, they have popped up in the States, too. Mostly of people that have lost their homes. Reminds me of the Hoovervilles from the Great Depression. It saddens me, especially when children are invloved. They are nothing like the ones from the previous comment. Nicely written
It was pointed out to me by DH that when he worked in summer camps in the North, that he also lived in tents for months at a time, and that given where they were working that it was the only thing that really made an sense to have. I have to admit that I do think there is a difference between folks that for work related issues need to live in tents with wood stoves vs those that are living in tents because they have no were else to go.
Having said that, there are good work camps and then there are rough’in it work camps and the difference even there can be quite large.. A friend was talking to me last night about being up north and they didn’t have enough funding in their work trip for staying in a hotel and so camped in a storage yard in tents etc.. I am hopeful that she will write a bit more about it herself.. hint, hint..
Okay, hint taken, LOL.
First my opinion on tent cities is that as long as they are sanitary and provide enough warmth and protection from the elements and provide a dry place, I have no issues if people are there by choice. Some tent cities I have seen are really quite nice with electricity, hot running water, wood floors, common areas with games/tv, etc. I have issues if people are forced into poor living conditions especially if they have children or are elderly or sick/injured etc.
I have spent a number of years working and living in isolated environments and in tents, most often with no running water or electricity. The conditions varied from tents that could not stand up to the elements and ended up collapsing in storms, to tents that started to have mud soak through the floor after one month of rain every day. In both instances you just had to deal with it and hope that conditions would improve, fix things with duct tape or tarps and rocks until things hopefully dried out. I have living in tents in hail, lightning, rain and sunshine. Through cold weather (-10 to -5 celcius), where the water you used to wash was frozen and needed thawing before being used, to hot weather (+30 celcius outside the tent and closer to +40 inside). I have even had to take some tents down from the inside while they had collapse in the wind and started to get dragged with 2 full grown adults inside. Ah, the fun memories 😉
At the time, I didn’t really have a huge issue with the living conditions, it was just that there was no other choice and it was what could be afforded by the project budget or the personal budget. Would I have liked a hot shower, a warm room to stand in and get dressed, a real bed to rest my aching back on after a 10-14 hour day of working outside? Sure! But, when you are young and crazy, you do things like that and then you looks back and tell stories about your adventures…
For instance, not having enough money and having to move into a storage parking lot and trying to find a place to sleep under a tarp for the first couple of nights using a life jacket as a mattress and the tarp as a blanket and protection from the rain. Followed by sleeping under a table the next night, and finally figuring out on night 3 that it would just be easier to set up the tiny dome tent, tie it down to a pallet and spare tire so it wouldn’t blow away and set up the camp stove in the parking lot, since there wasn’t enough money to eat out. Thankfully there were a number of nice people who joined us (also due to money issues) and a some who gave us access to bathroom with cold running water.