Squatters find dangerous home at Lakeshore

Campus security at Lakeshore has found homeless people sleeping in vacant buildings filled with mould and bird waste.

“There have been problems with people getting into the unoccupied buildings since the start,” said Spencer Wood, manager of maintenance and operations.

He said during the early 1990s when the school bought the buildings from the psychiatric hospital, there have been displaced people staying in them.

“It quickly became evident that there were people living in the three unoccupied buildings,” Wood said. “So we started boarding up the windows.”

The homeless have been found in the G, I and K buildings on the east side of the Campus.

The J building was also being used by the homeless before it was renovated and turned into classrooms and offices.

“We’ve never caught one (of the squatters),” said Bonnie Higgins, public safety supervisor for Lakeshore. “We’ve seen them coming out or around the buildings where the boards have been taken off.”

Despite their occupancy, Higgins said there haven’t been any complaints from students.

“We’re working alongside facilities . . . to keep an eye on the building (and) making sure all the boards are constantly on,” Higgins said.

Wood said the buildings are dangerous and uninhabitable due to toxic chemecials inside.

“Those buildings are not healthy,” Wood said. “We cannot go in there without suits on because there’s mould and pigeons have been in there.”

Facilities management worker Ed Humphries said he still sees the homeless, but less in the past year because security has been more vigilant in removing them.

“We clean up after them . . . Security chases them off,” he said. “If they can’t get in, they sleep in the space under the pathways between buildings.”

“We’ve never had problems with them. They just see us and they move along,” Humphries said.

Local homeless person Kevin said many homeless people end up living in squalidly conditions.

Kevin said “the people who are addicts are usually a problem,” because it’s difficult for homeless people like him to find safe places to sleep.

Humphries said the area where Lakeshore is located could be related to the homelessness problem.

“This neighbourhood is a mixture of good and bad. You’ve got the nice homes down by the lake but there are also low-income families. It’s rough for some people.”