Fewer than half remain at Ontario encampment for homeless

The population at a homeless encampment in Ontario has been cut by more than half after a week of screening by city officials, who have eliminated those they say have no ties to the community.

Camp residents who could prove ties to Ontario were issued photo identification cards. The rest must leave by 8 a.m. Monday.

Hunting down documents and submitting to a bureaucracy is difficult for people who by definition are rootless, said Mike Dunlap, founder of the advocacy group Homeless We Care.

"Homeless people already have a (hard) time getting through the day without putting them through a process like this," Dunlap said, watching the lines of encampment residents waiting to make their cases. "We weren't allowed enough time to walk people through this."

City police began examining documents about 9 a.m., Schultz said. Residents were divided into groups -- those allowed to stay, those who needed to track down more paperwork and those slated for eviction -- and given different colored wristbands corresponding to their group.

The deadline for residents to prove their case or vacate the premises is March 24, Schultz said. Pet owners are required to get rid of their animals or leave, city officials said. The city will provide cab or bus fare for evicted residents to return to their city of origin, Schultz said.

After creating a sanctuary where the homeless could eat, sleep and live without fear of harassment, the city of Ontario has begun ticketing and towing away the vehicles in which many of those transients reside.

Now, some of the estimated 300 residents of the fast-growing "Tent City" feel betrayed by officials they say promised to leave them alone if they moved into the city-run encampment near Ontario International Airport.

"I think they lied to us," said Linda Parker, who lives in a crowded, battered motor home she fears will soon be towed away. "We don't want to live this way. I feel they are stripping us of our last bit of dignity. Everything I own is in here."