‘Where do we go?’: Rainbow Park campers say Sarnia’s removal plan ‘unfair’

David Woll and Hailey Widmann call encampment life “interesting.”

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“When you’re the only two sober people out of the whole group, it’s very interesting,” said Widmann, 19.

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They’re two of an estimated 20 people living in tents in Sarnia’s Rainbow Park. City council recently voted to remove the encampment after its next meeting May 6.

Council is expected then to receive legal advice about proceeding with a removal city officials and others have warned could lead to litigation.

Woll, 29, said he’s been living out of a tent in the park for the last three months, after moving back to Sarnia from London, where he was seeking “a new start,” but ended up with a gun to his head and a knife to his throat.

“Just decided to stay here,” he said.

Widmann said she’s been in the park since last June after trying to reconnect with her mom.

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“Since then, this has just kind of been home,” she said.

They get maybe a meal a day from “nice people” making donations, or Inn of the Good Shepherd officials, Woll said.

“Some days, it is peaceful,” he said. “But it has its moments where (others in the encampment) lose their dope and they’re tweaking around here trying to find stuff, stealing stuff.”

At one point during an interview Tuesday, Widmann left to ask someone why they were entering her tent.

“It’s not home, but it’s what we got,” Woll said.

Asked about council’s decision, Widmann called it unfair.

“Because where do we have to go?” she said. “All these people that are sitting there talking about kicking us out have homes and we have nothing and nowhere to go. So why do we have to move again? Where do we have to move to?”

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Woll, who said he’s been diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder and doesn’t deal well with shelter rules, said it’s hard to find places to rent because of his background.

“When I was younger, I did stupid things,” he said.

As for why she doesn’t stay in the shelter system, where county officials have said beds are available, Widmann said “anytime I’ve called for a bed, they’re always full.”

There are also reasons people don’t want to use shelters, she added.

“Your stuff gets robbed constantly. You have to deal with all the tweaker bulls–t,” she said.

“At least here you can close your door, (but) at the shelter you can’t. . . you’re kind of stuck with all of them.”

Woll said park neighbors have accused him of breaking into their cars.

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“I’ve never even been over there,” he said, arguing it’s guilt by association because others in the encampment use drugs.

“They’re saying all of us homeless people are all drug users and that it was the drugs that got us kicked out,” he said. “No, I thing to move out” after being robbed in London.

“We don’t need the police called on us all the time just because we’re trying to live,” he said.

He also asked people not to photograph the encampment without asking.

“If it’s for the right reason, yeah, OK,” he said. “But to take out your phone and start snapping photos, it’s like ‘OK, stalker.’ ”

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