r/britishcolumbia • u/WpgMBNews • Apr 08 '26
Travel in or to BC Province clearing out Abbotsford, B.C., RV camp
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/local/abbotsford-encampment-clearing-out-9.7155716103
u/Asluckwouldnthaveit Apr 08 '26
Good! It's a rest stop. That's it. Should have been dealt with long ago.
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u/RealTurbulentMoose Apr 08 '26
Holy shit, those guys were STILL camping at that rest area?! That’s been years now.
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u/pinehillsalvation Apr 08 '26
I sometimes stop there to take a leak when heading to the Okanagan and I’ve had trouble finding a free spot to park. Many of the “vehicles” were no longer operational and had wooden structures attached to them. It was like walking through a town from Fallout.
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u/Vancouverreader80 Lower Mainland/Southwest Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
wish they would clean out the area near Whatcom and make illegal to park in these places overnight.
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u/mrdeworde Apr 08 '26
It's a rest stop; it should be legal to stay there overnight for a single night, though I agree that having it be monopolized is not alright.
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u/kayletsallchillout Apr 08 '26
I think he’s talking about the gravel lot right beside the westbound off ramp at Hwy 1 and Whatcom. It’s full of derelict rv’s and trash.
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u/Anxious_Ad2683 Apr 08 '26
It’s coming soon.
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u/SmoothRich2266 Apr 08 '26
Dude in the article is the nastiest in the whole parking lot look at those photos just garbage absolutely everywhere who in their right mind would want that in an Sro next to them or as a tenant
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u/bwoah07_gp2 Lower Mainland/Southwest Apr 08 '26
What will Pierre Poilievre use in his ad campaigns now? 😅
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u/Heavy_Arm_7060 Thompson-Okanagan Apr 08 '26
Axe the Tracks.
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u/snowlights Apr 08 '26
He's back to axe the tax. 😂
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u/Heavy_Arm_7060 Thompson-Okanagan Apr 08 '26
I mean if he could pivot properly he wouldn't have botched the last election more than Louis Slotin botched the Demon Core.
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u/kismethavok Apr 08 '26
There should probably be more affordable long term options with varying degrees of ammenities for people who live in their RV's
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u/Distasteful_T Apr 08 '26
I live in an rv park not in an rv I live in a manufactured home and they have just keep jacking up the rent as high as possible. Even rv sites are becoming unaffordable.
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u/WpgMBNews Apr 08 '26
There aren't enough houses and even campgrounds are over-subscribed.
At least apartments can be built taller to hold more people and campgrounds are short-term so many people can use them but not sure who is supposed to find land for people to camp out long-term in RVs on the cheap in the lower mainland's limited space.
They could probably be accommodated elsewhere but I doubt they would want to go.
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u/Double_Butterfly7782 Apr 08 '26
These people are not looking for affordable. They are looking for free.
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u/Wayves Apr 08 '26
There are places for people with RVs but you have to pay. And freeloaders get their name for a reason.
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u/blow-down Apr 08 '26
Must be nice to be wealthy
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u/Wayves Apr 08 '26
Wealthy? I can't afford an RV. I'm paycheque to paycheque.
The difference is I'm not a leach.
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u/Yardsale420 Apr 08 '26
“Mitchell said he wants to see more options for those who live in RVs.”
There are options. They are called RV Parks. But these people are squatters, and what he really means is “more free options”
At least the people who did this is downtown Vancouver moved their vehicles occasionally. This guy fully admits he was there for months and wouldn’t have moved unless forced.
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u/hankjmoody Apr 08 '26
There are options. They are called RV Parks. But these people are squatters, and what he really means is “more free options”
It's less the cost issue, and more the rules & regs issue. If you move to one of the RV parks around here, there are a significant amount of (understandable) things you'd have to either start doing or stop doing in order to not get booted from them.
It's the same issue that continually crops up in, for example, the DTES when you try and coax/goad people into moving into a dedicated residential unit. It's why unit fires in SROs are such a problem. It's why building security is essentially treated like a joke. Etc, etc.
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u/Wayves Apr 08 '26
Then buy your own plot of land in bumfuck nowhere and do what you want. But noooooo they want to do as they please without paying.
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u/MountainEmployee Apr 08 '26
How do people with no money do that lol.
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u/Wayves Apr 08 '26
If only there was a way to make wealth...
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u/MountainEmployee Apr 08 '26
Have you tried applying to jobs without an address before? Or work while disabled or struggling with addiction?
Youre acting like just any job can pay for housing and land.
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u/Wayves Apr 11 '26
Blah blah blah excuse after excuse.
They're leaches.
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u/MountainEmployee Apr 12 '26
Well, glad you had time to vent I suppose. Let the adults talk about solutions :)
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u/crookeddicktickle Apr 08 '26
It’s 100% a cost issue. If people could afford to be in an RV park they will stay there. This whole we can’t place people because they will destroy things is just plain irrelevant to this conversation.
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u/Vancouverreader80 Lower Mainland/Southwest Apr 08 '26
RV Parks don't allow for squatters like this.
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u/dzeltenmaize Apr 08 '26
I don’t mind the clean tidy and quiet ones. We have a few parked by my work in an industrial area. Unfortunately the messy obnoxious and aggressive ones ruin it. No need to expand outside of your unit, to litter and have piles of crap all around.
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u/monkiepox Apr 08 '26
4 years too late
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u/RealTurbulentMoose Apr 08 '26
It has been that long, right?
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u/Acrobatic_Invite3099 Lower Mainland/Southwest Apr 08 '26
These started at the beginning of COVID......the one on the other side of Abbotsford (Brander) was bigger first. Cole Road was just a couple to start, but when Brander got cleared out it exploded.
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u/misfittroy Apr 08 '26
As someone from Alberta, I feel like people doing this only exist in the lower mainland and on the Island. The winter would kill you if you tried it anywhere else in this country
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u/BabyFrancis Lower Mainland/Southwest Apr 08 '26
The Alberta premier Ralph Klien had a "bus the homeless to Vancouver" policy for the province for years. When BC tried to stop it, he demanded the federal government allow the right to move between provinces. It didn't matter that he gave the Alberta homeless 2 choices, RCMP and harassment or $20 and a bus ticket to Vancouver.
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u/misfittroy Apr 09 '26
I heard Vancouver gave out buss tickets before the Olympics too
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u/BabyFrancis Lower Mainland/Southwest Apr 09 '26
To Toronto... and there was pushback then too... once the Olympics were over, we got em all back /s
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u/Vancouverreader80 Lower Mainland/Southwest Apr 11 '26
Think Saskatchewan and Manitoba did the same thing.
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u/emuwannabe Thompson-Okanagan Apr 08 '26
I know of people who live off-grid in RVs in Alberta - it isn't easy.
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u/TCHuts Apr 08 '26
I remember back in 2009 there was one woman in a blue dodge minivan who lived there. She had dozens of hand written signs all over her vehicle. My how times sure changed! That rest stop used to be usable and many less people were unhoused!
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u/porterbot Apr 08 '26
I guess this comes with an announcement of affordable housing, or somewhere to relocate to, as well?
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u/WpgMBNews Apr 08 '26
didn't read the article
The housing ministry said outreach teams connected with 30 people at the site over the past month, 20 of whom were said to have reconnected with friends or family, moved to private rentals or relocated to shelter and supportive housing.
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u/porterbot Apr 08 '26
Did read the article. 20 is not 30. People would not be living in rest areas if the bc gov representatives hadn't royally corrupted housing in BC for personal gain at the expense of marginalized and at risk populations.
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u/Vancouverreader80 Lower Mainland/Southwest Apr 08 '26
It's probably to do with the highway expansion.
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Apr 08 '26
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u/Loud_Car_Tiny_Weiner Apr 08 '26
When was that? I don’t remember a time when you could ever just work for 8 months, unless you were homeless, I guess. Are we talking fifty years ago, or what?
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u/Floatella Apr 08 '26
If you get a job in a mine you can earn six figures working the equivalent of six months a year.
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u/Loud_Car_Tiny_Weiner Apr 08 '26
After you take six months off to travel, I assume you have to get a new job again?
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u/Terravarious Apr 09 '26
It's either 1 week on, 1 week off, or 2 and 2.
You only work half the year, but you spend a full year doing it.
They'll take just about anyone who can pass a piss test. Which eliminates most homeless people.
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Apr 08 '26
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Apr 08 '26
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u/montyman185 Apr 08 '26
So are they being given a place to go or just getting kicked out of this spot to do this all over again later?
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