Editor: I don’t think the homeless should be allowed to camp in Rotary Park on the Thames River in downtown Chatham.
I think the PUC property on Grand Avenue is a better solution because it will bother fewer citizens. And it won’t be in the centre of the community.
It is a shame for people in that area to lose the green space and the trail. It is, however, a given that a homeless camp is always going to bother some people.
It is problematic that the Grand Avenue site was a former cemetery. And there may be people still buried there.
Perhaps the camp should be pushed back more in front of the PUC building.
There is already a homeless camp behind Teppermans.
But there is no place for a homeless camp in the downtown.
Rotary Park in our downtown on the Thames River was the bad decision made in the first place.
The homeless do not belong in our downtown.
I am asking you to not advocate for the return of the homeless to Rotary Park on Thames Street.
I feel the new Grand Avenue location is a better spot for the homeless camp.
I am aware of homeless camps behind the Real Canadian Superstore on St. Clair Street, behind Teppermans and as one homeless man told me sitting in front of the downtown LCBO, “I sleep in the forest behind Sobeys.” That’s private property.
Diane Gilhula
Chatham
