The trail between Elgin Street and Soper Park has been closed temporarily to allow a contractor with a bulldozer, working with Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) Rail, to clear out what remains of an encampment on land owned by the company near the park.
Contractors hired by the City of Cambridge manually removed garbage left behind by about 50 residents of the encampment who were forced out after they were given a midnight deadline yesterday.
CPCK police officer, Shaz Shah tells CambridgeToday that all of the residents have vacated the premises and extensive clean up of the area is underway.
"We didn't have any incidents today or yesterday, but we needed to make sure that the people living in the park were able to vacate according to the notice given to them," Shah said.
That deadline followed an earlier deadline issued by the city that informed residents of the camp they would face fines or arrest for violating city bylaws including trespassing.
Shah notes the reasoning for the railway company removing the camps is due to safety concerns for the public and those living on the property.
"We were getting some complaints from locals since halfway through August, and we worked with the city, regional police to ensure they were given other options to stay," said the CPCK officer.
The railway is conducting maintenance on the tracks above the camp and said if a train were to derail and land on the camp, it would be a disaster.
"Beyond the trespassing and bylaw infractions, it just wasn't safe to have a camp at this location."
Social workers from across Waterloo region assisted residents with the cleanup yesterday and were able to find alternative space for many. It's unknown where some residents of the encampment ended up.
In a regional council meeting last night, a few delegates including former Cambridge NDP candidate Marjorie Knight, active outreach workers and an advocate for the unhoused population got up to speak about the eviction at Soper Park and how unhoused individuals are treated as numbers and statistics, rather then human beings.
"I am concerned over the homeless and the continued evictions that are happening in Cambridge," Knight said. "I want you to know that there is a face to all these people, they are not an abstract or just the homeless; they are people, people like me."
Knight told her story about coming to Canada and living rough on the streets. Being homeless was the worst time of her life, she said. It was a time when her family was falling apart and when she felt ostracized by society due to her housing situation.
"The absolute hatred that I see extended towards people, only because they are homeless, is wrong. And when you make decisions to what you are going to do for or with homeless people, I want you to see my face."
Laura Pin, a professor from Wilfrid Laurier University and an expert in homelessness and housing policy, spoke of her concern over the Soper Park eviction and how the closure of 150 Main made the park camp grow to nearly 50 individuals.
Pin also served as an expert witness in the case against the Region of Waterloo that prevented the municipality from evicting a large encampment in Kitchener.
"It's painfully clear to me and to many others who have been on the ground there that the closure of the encampment at 150 Main was not due to people securing housing," Pin said.
She explained that she was unable to find anyone from the Soper Park encampment who was given options for shelters or housing and said no options were presented for them to legally set up camp.
The eviction of this camp and the closure of 150 Main St. further scatters the unhoused population throughout the city, making it harder for social workers to offer services and the necessities for day-to-day life, Pin said.
"These types of eviction notices have life or death consequences and the same cycles are repeating," she said. "Seeing a group of people living unsheltered in poverty is an uncomfortable experience, but the people who are made the most uncomfortable by this experience are those living unsheltered."
Pin called on regional council to stop all unconstitutional evictions on municipal land and to direct staff to re-open land at 150 Main St. for tenting or alternately find a space on regional property that would be suitable for tenting in Cambridge.
Cleanup crews remain on site and the path connecting the two halves of Elgin Street North, which will remain closed until work is completed.
