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The B.C. government has cleared a homeless encampment that has been at an Abbotsford rest stop for the past three years.
Dozens of people used to live at the Whatcom Road Park and Ride, which sits on provincial land.
Crews used heavy machinery to start moving structures and debris after erecting yellow fencing around the area on Tuesday.
Abbotsford police said they had been called to the encampment more than 200 times in the last year.
A 69-year-old man was shot and killed at the camp in March in what police said was a targeted shooting.
Then, a fire broke out at one of the RVs used for housing a few days later.
“We continue to call on the provincial government and other bodies to work through the situation, work through to support a clean environment down here, get some law and order, some safety order on a regular basis, and not make this park and ride what it currently is, which is out of sight, out of mind for the different levels that need to take and fix this,” Sgt. Paul Walker with the Abbotsford police said in late March.
The provincial government says that over the last month, 20 of the roughly 30 people living at the Cole Road rest stop were supported by outreach teams in finding alternative housing.
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Bruce Banman, Conservative MLA for Abbotsford South, told Global News that the encampment was a “blight” on the neighbourhood.
“These neighbours here have been screaming for years to have this cleaned up. It should not take years, it should take weeks,” he said.
“People should not live like this, and if you let people live like this, they will live like this.”
In Abbotsford, there are currently more than 300 supportive homes open or underway, the government said in a statement.
There are 145 shelter spaces funded through the Homeless Encampment Action Response Temporary Housing (HEARTH) initiative, and 89 permanent shelter spaces, along with the 10 temporary winter shelter spaces.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
