Some residents in a Brackendale trailer park on Squamish Nation land say they are becoming increasingly desperate to find out their housing status.
Approximately 40 residents who live in the Riverside Trailer Park on what is known as the Seaichem Reserve or Indian Reserve 16 are unable to sell their homes due to an internal land dispute dragging on within the First Nation. The situation involves lots 6 and 7 on the reserve.
As The Squamish Chief previously reported in November of 2015, former Squamish Nation chief Bill Williams previously ran the park and the residents paid pad fees to his representative at the park.
In 2012 tenants received a letter from the Squamish Nation claiming Williams had no right to operate the park and homeowners were affectively trespassing on the land.
Williams told The Chief last November his family had been on the property for over 100 years while the Nation’s Chief Ian Campbell said the Nation was “conducting a legal review of the matter.”
In the meantime residents on lots 6 and 7 have been without a lease and therefore unable to sell their properties.
Trailer owner Mark Taylor said he is desperate to sell. His young son has cancer, so he and his wife want to move to somewhere more affordable where more family support is available.
“My son Kyle Taylor, will be struggling for awhile with his cancer and all I know is money is getting tighter,” Taylor said in a social media message to The Chief. “I feel I’m in a headlock, and I have enough on my plate…. And I can’t sell my place or rent it – I’m in jail.”
Taylor’s neighbour Tom Green, who bought his trailer in 2009, said the uncertainty of his housing future has caused such emotional stress he is considering going on work leave.
“The thought of pending eviction is brutal,” Green said, expressing a fear echoed by two other owners The Squamish Chief spoke to. “The feeling of being terrorized fills my heart. Being told I cannot sell and to stay put until my fate is decided, at some point months or years down the road, is unacceptable.”
Prior to this situation arising, Green purchased eight acres of land in Ontario in order to be closer to his elderly mother. He has a construction crew ready to build his new home back east but needs to sell his current home first.
Green and the other residents currently pay pad fees and property tax to the Nation. He showed The Squamish Chief receipts for his paid fees.
Another issue, he said, is the residents are left in the dark, not getting answers as to what is happening.
The Squamish Nation sent The Squamish Chief an emailed statement in reply to a request for comment for this story. “The Squamish Nation has wanted to communicate with the occupants but did not want to do so in a piece meal fashion or without a fully formed response to them,” the statement reads. “As such we have [been] working through understanding the many issues for the Squamish Nation to resolve pertaining to this matter and that has taken time. Once these have been addressed we will be updating the residents.”
Green received an email from Nation representatives advising that a meeting would be held to discuss the homeowner’s status in July, but it was later postponed to September.
Green called on Mayor Patricia Heintzman to “get up from the table” in whatever negotiations are ongoing between the district and the Nation until the issue is resolved.
“You have 40 homes in limbo… 100 people, that are being held as what are called ‘real estate hostages,’” Green said.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman said while she feels for the residents stuck in limbo, neither she nor the District of Squamish can make demands of the Nation regarding the dispute, which is essentially a tenant/landlord dispute.
