Moccasin Flats court date set for first week of July

The City of Prince George will have its day in BC Supreme Court in Prince George during the first week of July.

That’s when a judge is expected to rule on whether the city has lived up to its court-ordered obligations to demonstrate the city has enough capacity to serve the unhoused population of the Lower Patricia Boulevard (Moccasin Flats) encampment with sufficient overnight shelters space and daytime facilities.

Vancouver criminal defence lawyer Casey St. Germain has been in the city since Monday conducting interviews with unhoused individuals, community advocates and stakeholders and will represent Moccasin Flats residents at that court hearing, scheduled for between July 2 and 4 at the Prince George Courthouse.

The City of Prince George initiated a claim in February in BC Supreme Court seeking an order to permanently close Moccasin Flats as a permanent campsite with the provision it continue to offer overnight camping  from 7 p.m.-9 a.m. in a smaller designated area of trhe camp.

Mayor Simon Yu looks forward to a positive court ruling and said the city has done everything it can to live up to its obligations to find housing alternatives for Moccasin Flats residents and appease public concerns about the violence, drug overdoses, noxious campfire smoke and suspicious shelter fires that have plagued the area. But the problems of the opioid crisis, poverty and a shortage of affordable housing remain as provincewide issues that all BC cities will continue to have to face.

“This is more or less a provincial file, and we’re just living with the consequences of what’s happening on the street,” said Yu. “Our city bylaws at the time basically did not coincide with the some of the provincial ministry stuff and through bad communication and multiple things this thing ended up going to the court.

“What we see on the street is not something that was intended by the old city bylaws, when the provincial HEART and HEARTH programs were not there. Now every city has to have overnight shelter space available and those things were not there (as bylaws) a couple years ago, so we ended up with this case in front of us.”

On Feb. 27 the city issued a notice of civil claim to Bel (Johnny Edward Belvery), the last of the original inhabitants of the camp living there on May 13, 2024 when the province’s Homeless Encampment Axction Response Team (HEART) conducted a count of residents. His receipt of the notice initiated a 21-day timeline for response,.the start of the legal process to close the encampment as an entrenched site.

The civil claim noted that Bel had been offered shelter and housing numerous times from BC Housing and its partner organizations and he indicated he wasn’t interested in accepting options presented to him for indoor shelter, supportive housing or rent supplements. Bel owns a dog and the prohibition on pets in transitional housing facility offered by BC Housing and other social agencies is one of the reasons he doesn’t want to live in a housing facility.

Until a ruling has been obtained, Bel and other Moccasin Flats residents have court protection to continue to stay at Moccasin Flats indefinitely.

In the court response sent to the city May 6, St. Germain cited other restrictions of the shelters, such as: prohibitions or significant restrictions on visitors, mandatory sing-in, sign-out protocols, lack of space for personal possessions, reports of staff mistreatment and unfriendly conduct, absence of comprehensive support and wrap-around services, lack of culturally appropriate supports for Indigenous residents, inedible food coupled with the inability of individuals to cook their own food, inadequate accommodation for individuals with mental health needs, limited availability of harm reduction supplies, numerous security cameras, no security of tenure, and fenced or brick wall perimeters.

The response document states some Moccasin Flats residents struggle with completing administrative tasks and will have trouble moving their personal belongings themselves. They also object to the rules and regulations of housing facilities and believe they won’t be able to conform to living arrangements and the expectations of communal living in those facilities.

St. Germain states close to 70 per cent of unhoused people in Prince George are Indigenous. For reasons of mental and physical illness, combined with systemic racism and life experience, she said that increases the likelihood that Moccasin Flats occupants won’t trust BC Housing representatives to look out for their best interests.

Over the past four years the city made several attempts to permanently shut down Moccasin Flats to prevent people from using the area as a permanent encampment until a precedent-setting court ruling in October 2021 obtained by Bel and two other unnamed residents, represented by the Indigenous Justice Centre, forced the city to back off on its original eviction plans.

On Feb. 23, 2022, Justice Simon Coval ruled against the city’s second request to close Moccasin Flats, citing insufficient shelter space and a lack of daytime facilities for people without permanent homes. Coval stated that the city’s dismantling of much of the encampment in November 2021 breached Hinkson’s October 2021 ruling, which allowed the camp to remain open until sufficient housing and daytime facilities were available.

Coval also ruled that the city was not entitled to dismantle much of the camp and failed to identify how many people were regularly occupying the camp and how their shelters and belongings should be handled after it brought in heavy equipment to clean up the site, resulting in destruction of personal property.

“This action eroded trust in a community that already experiences distrust of institutions due to histories (both individual and institutional) of mistreatment,” said St. Germain, in her response to the city’s claim.

She also states that Bel allows unhoused visitors to Moccasin Flats the chance to stay overnight at his camp. Shutting his camp down would leave them nowhere else to go and they would instead have to erect their own shelters at the site.

In an update letter from Yu and city council sent two weeks ago to area residents and business owners, council acknowledges shutting down Moccasin Flats will not address what that has become a nationwide crisis.

“We want to be clear: this legal action is not a solution to homelessness,” said the letter. “The path forward requires sustained collaboration and investment from all levels of government and our community partners.

“We believe the City’s case is strong and are actively pursuing a timely resolution through the court process.”

The letter acknowledges the city’s efforts to clean up Moccasin Flats, working with community and social partners. Since 2024, 250,000 kilograms of debris has been removed to reduce fire hazards and improve safety at the site. Notices of the cleanup work was provided directly to camp residents.

The city installed gates at either end of the camp on May 7 to block the entry road to prevent illegal dumping and restrict traffic only to authorized vehicles. The area that last year was home to 44 individuals has less than 20 people living there now.

“We are aware of community concern that the number of occupants could increase again,” states the letter. “Council shares this concern and remains committed to ensuring sheltering options expanded on collaboration with BC Housing and the province. To date, growth has been limited in 2025 and we continue to monitor the situation closely.”

Council and senior staff have kept up regular correspondence with Premier David Eby and provincial ministers to continue to highlight the urgency of coordinated responses to issues of mental health, addictions, encampments and public safety.

The city’s intergovernmental affairs committee met with the Eby in Victoria in early May to reinforce the city’s push for bail reform to address chronic property crime by repeat offenders and the establishment of a mental health and addictions treatment centre in Prince George.

“Council wishes to reaffirm that addressing the impacts of the encampment on nearby residents, businesses and the wider community is among our highest priorities,’ said the letter. “We remain committed to supporting partners such as BC Housing and Northern Health in their critical work to provide housing, health and mental wellness supports.”