Our family recently moved to South Surrey. We are thrilled with the beauty, conveniences, and combination of both abundant nature and the services and amenities. As a family with three children, aged, 11, 6, and 4, we frequent local parks where our children love to scooter, enjoy playgrounds and sometimes enjoy a picnic.
On an early September trip to our neighbourhood park, my husband planned a longer two-hour stay as the children played an imaginary survival game, finding blackberries and fallen sticks as they navigated the area with laughter and innocence.
For the little ones, we brought a new two-person-sized children鈥檚 tent, allowing for the kids to relax if they needed a break. As our family of five enjoyed a weekend morning at the park, we noticed nearby residents stopping to stare and a couple of them looking on with what seemed like disapproval. Eventually a woman approached us asking if the tent belonged to us.
When we kindly answered that it did, that it is for play, and not staying longer than a couple of hours, my husband joked that we were 鈥渕oving in,鈥� with a laugh. When I clarified that he was kidding, the woman smiled and responded that we did not look like that type.
As she walked away, I wondered what 鈥渢hat type鈥� looks like. I also asked myself why neighbours looking on were concerned by a family playing alongside a small child鈥檚 tent.
More importantly, I thought of the , not to mention the hundreds of homeless individuals, couples, and families in neighbouring White Rock, Langley, and Delta combined.
I was saddened by what Maclean鈥檚 Magazine recently called as thousands of Canadians are living in encampments nationwide. says that for the first time, its members have served 100,000 users in a single month; August 2024. While working with a variety of BC non-profits, such as Surrey鈥檚 , it's clear that many are struggling while living paycheque to paycheque and at the risk of homelessness.
Is it not in times like these, when the community should join forces to provide support?
Instead, we have seen repeated community opposition to affordable and supportive housing in various Greater Vancouver communities, and this is nothing new. This includes disdain for those surviving under the roof of a thin nylon tent shelter.
The reality is that this is much like any stigmatized experience, including substance use challenges. Often those struggling are judged and labelled by society. Only when a loved one, or oneself, experiences unexpected job loss, a growing dependency on alcohol or other substances, or experiences a string of bad luck, do people sometimes see that their judgments have been unfair and not based on fact but on the stereotypes they often grow from.
Political division, how one鈥檚 neighbourhood looks, and these stubborn stigmas we experienced at the park were not hurtful to us but instead painful for us to think that one鈥檚 well-being was not the priority. Instead, it was the unacceptable possibility of a family setting up home in a local park.
Our family is blessed with financial security and health, but we understand that the realities of relying on a tent for shelter, being evicted from a home due to prohibitive costs, and other factors, can happen to anyone, no matter their background or position.
To answer my own question, 鈥渢hat person鈥� who lives in a park tent looks like me and could look like you. Let鈥檚 remember compassion and kindness, and if we do not understand an issue, we should learn more about it.
When we can help, we should do exactly that.
Rachel Thexton is principal of and a resident of South Surrey.
