People living at Highway 1 rest stop given 2 weeks to leave

The B.C. Ministry of Transportation says it has handed people living at a rest stop along the Trans-Canada Highway in Abbotsford notice that they must leave within two weeks.

In a statement to CBC News, a ministry spokesperson said 15 people living at the Bradner rest area were served notice in person and signs were posted around the site.

The rest area is just one of many spots along the highway through the Fraser Valley where people have been camping — some of them for years — on public land, off-grid. Many of the people living at these sites have full-time jobs or pension income but can't afford the escalating price of rent.

Highway construction, part of the Fraser Valley Highway 1 Corridor Improvement Program, will result in the closure of the Bradner stop on July 26, a spokesperson for the ministry told CBC News in an email.

And while some of the vehicles will be able to drive away on their own, others are derelict and will need to be hauled away.

But the people staying there say they should be given more time to figure out their next move.

"They've set a precedent that they've let people stay here," says Erling. CBC is not using his full name because of the stigma attached to being unhoused.

"COVID changed everything, and so they let some of the rules slide, you know. You're supposed to be here eight hours, max. Well, I've been here three-and-a-half years. So I said that I thought that a fair number was 60 days."

Camped in a yellow school bus, he's collected an array of metal and wood materials he says were used in a workshop he used to have. A camper and other vehicles are also parked nearby.

Erling is one of at least 15 people living at the rest stop, but at least two dozen campers, trailers, motor homes and other vehicles were parked there when CBC News visited the site Wednesday.

If he is forced to move, Erling says he will pack up as much as he can and drive north to his hometown of Quesnel, but he fears he won't be able to collect or sell all his things. The ministry says it will move any vehicles unable to drive on their own by the July 26 deadline.

The latest expression of homelessness

The highway encampments are just the latest expression of homelessness in an ever-increasing housing crisis in B.C., says Pastor Ward Draper of 5 and 2 Ministries, who works with the unhoused in Abbotsford.

"We started with a lot of parking lot dwellers — people living in Walmart and sleeping in their cars," he said. "And now we're starting to see rest stops, park-and-rides or park-and-pools."

Draper spoke to CBC News farther down the highway at the Cole Road rest stop, where he says 30-50 people are living at any given time and have taken over, leaving little room for highway users to stop over.

"We can't keep putting all these Band-Aids on things, all these temporary shelters and the temporary portables," he said. "That's just Band-Aid after Band-Aid, and the problems are not slowing down — they are growing exponentially."

And with the number of people Draper works with living on the streets in Abbotsford, he says they have had little opportunity to reach out to folks living along the highway.

"Most of them feel very independent," he said. "They just want to be left to be."

Preparing to pack up

At the Bradner Road rest stop, the Transportation Ministry says outreach workers are visiting daily in preparation for the closure.

"B.C. Housing and the Housing Ministry outreach partners continue to engage with individuals experiencing homelessness in and around Abbotsford to ensure they're identified for shelter, housing, health, and safety supports," a ministry spokesperson said in an email.

Erling says it isn't for him.

"Put a bullet in my head before I live in a place where I gotta be at home at 11, I gotta leave from 10 a.m. to 1 so they can clean my room, and I'm not allowed to have visitors. Why would I want to live like that?"