Residents of homeless camp in city parking lot vow to stay despite court order

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – Some residents of a homeless camp in Abbotsford, B.C., are vowing to remain in a city parking lot despite a court injunction ordering them to vacate the area.

About 20 campers were ordered out of a wooden structure they’d erected in the lot of a park by 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The City of Abbotsford served the campers with B.C. Supreme Court documents on Saturday morning.

Wooden planks have fenced in the encampment in the park since Thursday.

Barry Shantz, a community organizer who leads the group of homeless residents and activists, says the campers moved into the park on Oct. 20 but don’t want to return there because the outhouses started leaking feces and urine, creating unsanitary and muddy conditions.

The injunction is the latest in a series of disputes between homeless residents and the city, which earlier this year apologized for dumping chicken manure on the grounds of a homeless camp in effort to get them out.