The Forest Lawn camp has been cleared, but major problems suggest only a temporary fix

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A large homeless encampment of concern to Forest Lawn residents and business owners has been demolished.

After months of neighborhood complaints and a report by CTV News Wednesday, officials and city workers cleared an alley along 17 Ave. and 39 St. SE.

“I assume two dozen workers were here to load everything into trucks,” Alicia Mayers said. “It was nice to finally see it.”

Mayers captured the clean-up work on camera. Just hours later, in a place she hadn’t been since July, she was speaking out about a new issue.

“(Those in the camp) will likely go elsewhere and it will be another issue for security and bylaws,” she said. “It’s a never-ending story.”

For many who have been there, there is no place to go. And with affordability issues only worsening in recent months, the county council believes more camps are only a matter of time.

“It’s definitely being driven by the mental health and addiction crisis and is getting worse as we recover from the downturn caused by the affordability crisis,” said Gian-Carlo Carra. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better, so we need to address it at the big system level and at the local level.”

Those providing support resources in the city agree.

The Salvation Army’s Cliff Wiebe says there are reasons some people don’t want to go to shelters – and there’s no point in judging the choices of others.

“When we think about it from that perspective, we get a compassionate response: ‘If I were in this situation, how would I want to be treated?'”

Wiebe also says that no Canadian should be a stranger to homelessness.

“I think we’re all just a few degrees from that place ourselves,” he said. “I always say I could drive through Deerfoot, have an accident and end up in the hospital with a morphine shot. I don’t know how my body will react to opioids.”