Residents dumping garbage where it doesn't belong is nothing new for City of Cambridge bylaw.
City staff will clean it up when found on public property. If it's on private property and a notice about property standards gets ignored, staff will clean it up and send the owner the bill.
The homeless encampment near Samuelson Street and the Dundas Street North overpass is different.
What has affectionately been dubbed "Shantytown" by the residents, consists of makeshift structures, camper vans and tents. Some residents have complained the city isn't doing its job to take care of the surrounding property and say not all the garbage is from the camp.
"People come here and they just dump their garbage on the side of the road and blame us," said Russell, a camp resident who would only provide his first name.
"Why hasn't the city come and picked all of this up?"
Russell lives in a complete structure with a working smoke stack and a little front gate. He claims that residents from the surrounding community will come and toss loads of trash and other household items in front of the camp, sometimes even blocking off the entrance to the property.
Manager of bylaw for the City of Cambridge John Mattocks hasn't had many reports of locals illegally dumping in the area, but admits officers have responded to complaints in the past.
"I think in the past two years we've had one or two calls for illegal dumping at the site and it was for something like a hot tub," said Mattocks.
The city previously cleaned the entire site at the cost of $40,000.
Typically, these clean-up bills are sent to the property owner, but as of late the city has been unsuccessful at reaching the owner.
The camp sits at 415 Dundas St. N. and is registered to a numbered company, 1205438 Ontario Inc. The company does not come up in any searches, but the city tax roll states its mailing address is located at 311 Montrose St. N.
Attempts to contact the property owner were unsuccessful.
Mattocks added that any further clean-up of the property will be halted until the owner can be contacted and they have the chance to remedy the situation on their own.
A nearby neighbour wants to see the camp taken down and the property fenced off to prevent any more camps from cropping up.
Susan Lloyd has lived on Samuelson Street on the other side of the Dundas Street North overpass for the past 15 years and said the camp has become more dangerous over the past few months.
"There was a fire there just last week, people are always stealing stuff from our yards and you can't walk by it and not smell garbage," said Lloyd. "Before you might get the odd teenager from the high school messing around in the area, but I'm sure everyone here will tell you there is a problem."
In her time living near the camp, she has never seen anyone dumping garbage near the camp and believes it is most likely the residents who already live there doing it.
"You go down there and see what the camp is like. There's bikes everywhere, garbage everywhere, why wouldn't it be them," she said.
Brian Kitchen has been living at Shantytown for over a year. He built a structure with a living room, tv, electricity and internet.
He claims that the city is trying to push out the camp residents by leaving garbage to rot and waiting for people to leave so can can go in and demolish the structures.
"The building department has come and given us notices that our homes are unsafe. These are all standalone structures with no floors or foundations," said Kitchen.
The city previously removed a washroom Kitchen built, claiming it was blocking the path for fire trucks to enter the camp.
"They don't want us using the bathroom, they want us living in garbage and I mean they would be happy to kick us all out," he said.
Both Russell and Kitchen received notices for inspections from the building department, but Mattocks noted this process becomes a lot more difficult when the property owner isn't cooperating.
"There are ways we can address issues from residents through property standards complaints and building inspections, but there is no quick fix. This is a multi-layered issue," said Mattocks.
He also acknowledged that garbage left by the side of the road, including food waste, could attract vermin but maintains the city needs to get in contact with the property owner before anything can be done.
Last year, the city in coordination with CN Rail, evicted another large encampment from Soper Park with many of the residents finding refuge at the new Shantytown.
The city is unable to start tearing down structures on private property unless they have a police order and are working at the request of the property owner.
"This land isn't being used for anything. We should be able to stay and the city should do its job and clean up the streets," said Kitchen.
