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Cece’s cousin Danielle Willier was shot at Moccasin Flats in the summer of 2021.
Cece lives at the encampment at First Avenue and George Street and won’t move to Moccasin Flats when city council enforces a proposal to remove the Millennium Park encampment and returns the site to its previous condition.
Moccasin Flats is the only designated site where overnight camping is permitted in the City of Prince George. Those who will have to move from the Millennium Park encampment are supposed to go to Moccasin Flats, as named by the residents of the encampment at Lower Patricia Boulevard encampment.
Many of the unhoused in Prince George consider Moccasin Flats unsafe.
Cece has been living unhoused in downtown Prince George off and on for the last 20 years and ended up unhoused most recently to escape an abusive relationship.
“All my family and friends are here,” Cece said about choosing to live at the Millennium Park encampment. “We watch each other’s backs here and we try to make sure none of our stuff goes missing.”
Cece said she’s tried to go to Moccasin Flats but it’s just too much for her.
“Every time I go there I feel like I’m going to throw up,” Cece said. “In my culture that feeling is called bad medicine. My cousin was shot there and I really don’t want to be reminded of that.”
When the time comes that city staff enforces the removal of the Millennium Park encampment, Cece said the group of people she lives in close proximity with will move someplace else together.
“Our little group here, none of us want to go to Moccasin Flats,” Cece said. “People have had their tents burnt down, people have been shot there, people have been stabbed there. Nobody wants to go there. There are no lights there. It’s like going into the abyss.”
