A trail in Guelph has been collecting obstructive piles of trash and residents say the city can’t do anything about it.
Jacob Boudreau lives near the trail on James Street East and believes he knows where the garbage is coming from.
“There’s a good number of homeless people living down there,” he said.
Boudreau says other people living in the neighbourhood have called the city of Guelph to get the path cleaned up.
The municipality says the trail is owned by the University of Guelph and is leased out to private golf and tennis club Cutten Fields.
The city adds that the trail isn’t technically a trail, but people use it anyways.
“During May/June of this year, several vagrants set up a campsite on this private property closer to the river,” Cutten Fields said in a statement to CTV Kitchener. “After numerous calls to Guelph Police and bylaw enforcement, we eventually hand delivered no trespassing letters to these individuals.”
The statement says that police assisted in removing the people from the area and Cutten Fields cleaned up the mess left behind.
“I’ve seen the cops back there a few times,” Boudreau said. “I guess they ask the homeless people to leave and they end up coming back.
“The trash keeps coming back with them.”
Cutten Fields says it wasn’t aware the mess had returned, but plans to keep working with the city to help find a solution.
Canadace Wrixon, manager of housing program at Guelph’s Welcome In Drop-In Centre, says there programs in place to offer support and services to the city’s homeless.
“We leave them with our pamphlet, what hours everybody is open, and then we’re there to offer the service,” she said. “Whenever the individuals are comfortable needing or wanting, then we’ll help them the best we can.”
Wrixon adds that since the centre launched the sleeping rough protocol, they’ve started keeping track of people they’ve talked to.
