COQUITLAM

 

 

 

Coquitlam Country Homes for the Homeless

By Brady Ehler, Coquitlam Rep.

It’s not a common occurrence to
see people panhandling in the
streets of Coquitlam, nor is it an
every day sight to see someone
pushing a shopping cart around
without groceries in it.

However, in my three years of
living in Coquitlam, I have seen a
few homeless people, here and
there, diving for aluminum cans, or
carrying them in large plastic bags
to the recycling centre. The fre-
quency of them is minute, but they

are here, not so much in the winter,

but in the summer, many of them
seem to migrate east from the city
to spend time in the “urban coun-
try” of Coquitlam.

I first became aware of this in
my first summer here, while wan-
dering about aimlessly, as I some-
times do. Central Coquitlam is an
urban area that is littered with
patches of undeveloped land;
square blocks, and larger expanses
covered with vegetation, sometimes
forested, sometimes thick with
blackberry bushes and often inac-
cessible. However, some people
decide to take advantage of these
secluded areas and camp out, in
camouflaged and otherwise aug-
mented tents.

The first transient-tent I hap-
pened upon was near Henderson
Mall, deep within the underbrush
of a nearby vacant lot. You can
imagine my surprise. It wouldn’t be
the last I’d see. In the three years
since then I have seen a few more,
including one right next to the
Highway! It was camouflaged quite
well, and I’m sure I must have
passed by it several times, but it
was right there next to the

Lougheed, near the bridge to PoCo,

where thousands of cars undoubt-
edly passed by every day.
Although it is still winter and

the venture may have been doomed

to failure from the beginning, I
decided to enlist the services of
OP photographer, Jen Aird and
hunt for one of these elusive
Coquitlam bum-homes and prove
to the world that they indeed do
exist. The first place we chose to
look was a spot near the path to
my house, a little spot where the
neighborhood’s teenagers like to
hide out and smoke pot.
Unfortunately, all we found was a

rusty shopping cart and some soggy bundles
of auto-traders. Undeterred, we continued on
next checking underneath the nearby creek-
bridge, which yielded a make-shift bed of
cardboard and an ingenious pillow, which con-
sisted of a shallow cardboard box and a heavy
green sweater.

Energized by our findings, we pressed on
to the railroad tracks near Orchid Drive. We
knew we were on the right track when we
happened upon a congregation of three shop-
ping carts, and a Safeway bag full of clothes.
We crossed a small bridge, and found another
shopping cart, a mattress, and a rolled up
length of carpet...but no transient tent. We
decided to grab the other shopping carts, to
set up a shot, when I spied a bit of white
among the vegetation on the other side of the
creek. We hurriedly went over to investigate.
We followed a path of clothes, shopping carts,
and miscellaneous items to...some wood

planks and an empty wine jug. However, we
decided to press on a little further and found,
after no more than a half hour of searching,
our first Coquitlam bum-home. It was a three-
man tent covered by a large tarp; there were
also all sorts of modifications, including a
closed-off entrance made from a large section
of Styrofoam.

So, without much effort, we found proof
that country dwelling for the homeless in
Coquitlam does, indeed, exist. Unfortunately,
it was the only one we found all day. We spent
the next three hours scouring the hot-spots
for country-homes, but to no avail. We found
hoards of shopping-carts, clothing, and even
an old oil-drum, which appeared to have been
used for fires, but no more country-homes.

Perhaps our lack of success is due to the
unfavorable winter weather; it is certainly not
a result of a decrease in homeless population.
According to Michael Goldberg, research

   

director for SPARC BC (Social Planning and
Research Council of British Columbia) and
coordinator of the 2005 homeless count,
Coquitlam had a homeless population of 30, a
big jump from the 13 the city was believed to
have contained in 2002. Some people may be
surprised that Coquitlam is home to any tran-
sients at all, however, 30 people is still relative-
ly small potatoes compared to the 1,310 who
resided in Vancouver in 2005.

Perhaps it is inevitable though, that the
more urban the suburbs become, the more
homeless they will contain. In the past three
years, the only cities in the Lower Mainland
area not to experience raises in levels of
homelessness were Pitt Meadows and Maple
Ridge.

The total number of Greater Vancouver
homeless people has doubled from 1,049 in
2002 to 2,112 in 2005.