Trailers are once again parked in a carpool lot near Cambridge, Ont. despite eviction efforts by the Ministry of Transportation. On Wednesday, most of the people who had been living on the lot in trailers and RVs either left the area on their own, or their vehicles were towed away. However, on Thursday, two trailers were still onsite as their occupants refused to leave. The owners of two other trailers that had voluntarily left the lot earlier this week also returned on Thursday, but they said they won’t be there long as they plan to move off the grid. “Realistically, it’s a lot better of a long-term solution, and we’ll be out of everyone’s hair because we’ll be out in the middle of the forest,” a man called Ruben told CTV News. Ruben is a full-time welder with family in Cambridge. He said being forced to leave the carpool area has made a difficult existence even more challenging. “I can’t work my full-time job if I have to worry about moving this every three or five days,” he said. “Then I have to worry about where I’m going, what people are going to think about me. That’s a level of stress nobody wants.” The cost of relocation A researcher who studies homelessness in Canada worries people who had been living in the carpool lot may have to consider other alternatives. “If someone is no longer able to access their trailer, they could end up tenting or living rough, and then there can be a spin off effect where folks that do have jobs may find it difficult or impossible to keep those jobs because of their living situation.” She said moving forward with the eviction without a plan in place doesn’t make sense. “Shelters are full right now. Overflow is full. What we should be trying to do is find solutions that help people stay in the shelter that they have, rather than adding to the system burden,” Laura Pin, a professor of political science at Wilfrid Laurier University said. She said there could be a public cost to asking people to leave. “Having someone enter the homelessness system, staying at an emergency shelter, staying at an overflow motel, that is going to be the most expensive way of dealing with homelessness and the least satisfactory,” Pin said. A 2025 study by Indwell found a month in a shelter costs taxpayers over $5,000. “From a cost perspective, it’s much more effective to support people in terms of finding alternatives to shelter,” Pin said.
