The tent encampment in Sarnia’s Rainbow Park is no more

Police in Sarnia have removed the encampment that took over Rainbow Park. CTV London’s Gerry Dewan with the details.

It had been in place for months, but the tent encampment in Sarnia’s Rainbow Park is no more.

On Thursday, the Sarnia Police Service issued a statement reporting that Rainbow Park had been vacated and provided a drone video showing the park devoid of tents or other debris.

City of Sarnia Communications Manager Steve Henschel said both police and bylaw officers were part of the effort to clear out the park and say everyone left voluntarily, “They engaged one-on-one with each individual. Everybody’s unique, with unique needs. We managed to work with them to connect them with the supports that address those specific needs.”

This process was set in motion a month ago, with a motion made by Coun. Bill Dennis that was based on a Hamilton judge’s ruling. That ruling applied guidelines when it comes to encampments in public spaces.

Dennis told council during the late January meeting that, “The judge ruled that tents cannot be in the park in the daytime at all, and only can be temporary at nighttime if shelter spaces don’t exist.”

At that time there were less than a dozen people living in Rainbow Park, down from more than a hundred in the summer.

The concern was that homeless individuals would simply end up camping in other locations.

Henschel said they worked to ensure that wasn’t going to happen, “In some instances it was connecting those individuals with family. In others it was connecting them with shelter or support services delivered locally through Lambton County and other local agencies.”

On Friday, contracted workers were installing fencing around area’s where the tents were concentrated. The fenced area is about 30 meters deep and spans almost the entire length of the western edge of the park.

Henschel told CTV News, “Going forward, for at least the near future, we’re going to have that park fenced off just to prevent the encampment from coming back. Then we’ll continue to work with our partners at the county and hopefully they can address the issue in the long term so we can open up that recreational space for its intended purpose.”