Ontario's homeless feeling less welcome in Tent City
After creating a sanctuary where the homeless could eat, sleep and live without fear of harassment, the city of Ontario has begun ticketing and towing away the vehicles in which many of those transients reside.
Now, some of the estimated 300 residents of the fast-growing "Tent City" feel betrayed by officials they say promised to leave them alone if they moved into the city-run encampment near Ontario International Airport.
"I think they lied to us," said Linda Parker, who lives in a crowded, battered motor home she fears will soon be towed away. "We don't want to live this way. I feel they are stripping us of our last bit of dignity. Everything I own is in here."
City officials said that as Tent City has grown, so has the number of decrepit vehicles parked on the surrounding streets. Increased enforcement, they hope, will keep the situation from spiraling out of control.
"They have been doing this with regard to abandoned vehicles and those with expired registration in the past, it's just more visible this time," said Ontario Deputy City Manager Al Boling.
Tent City, he said, is expanding, and many of the newcomers are not from Ontario; so taking care of them means fewer resources available to the local homeless.
"The city is exploring its options in trying to provide a more managed approach to this," he said. "It is also exploring its options in addressing health and safety concerns about the rest area."
The encampment, he pointed out, was never meant to be permanent.
"But there are no plans to shut it down at this time," he said.
Police marked 20 vehicles last week and towed five Tuesday. They handed out more warnings Wednesday, saying any camper or motor home that wasn't able to move, was missing major parts or had registration expired longer than six months would be towed in three days unless moved.
Pattie Barnes, 46, learned Wednesday just how serious the warnings were.
She was sitting in her motor home when a police officer approached.
"He asked me to start it. I tried, but the battery was dead," said the tearful Barnes. "The officer wouldn't give me any time to jump-start it. He just said, 'It's mine.' "
She begged him not to take the vehicle and sobbed as it was towed away.
Barnes and her 19-year-old son Jon have been homeless and living in the motor home since her husband died more than a year ago.
