WESTLOCK – Amid whispers of a tent city emerging on the outskirts of Westlock, local town officials have clarified that numerous tents spotted in a yard on the outskirts of the community are not a homeless camp.
Town of Westlock Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Simone Wiley confirmed with Town and Country Thursday that the tents are being used strictly for personal purposes.
“As far as the Town is aware those are just rumours and the structures on the property are for personal use, not a homeless encampment,” said Wiley.
Fifty-two-year-old grandmother Joanne Halls-Fox has found herself at the center of the misunderstanding after some residents have mistaken her lovingly crafted playground, she calls Tiny Town, as a makeshift tent city for the homeless.
She expressed frustration over the rumours that the elaborate playground she meticulously designed for her five-year-old grandson from Edmonton is being mistook for a homeless encampment.
“I am so sick and tired of people making assumptions,” she said on Wednesday. “To assume to know someone else’s story, better yet, to run around and tell it like it’s true, when any of them could have done what you just did today, drive in and ask, ‘what you got going on here?’”
Halls-Fox was more than happy to show the media what was under each of the tents scattered throughout her yard, and invited any community members who want to see to drop in as well.
Under about half a dozen tents in her 2.3-acre yard at the edge of Westlock, Halls-Fox has built forts and playhouses. There’s an underground bunker with a cap gun ready for her grandson to grab to fight invading zombies.
In another tent known as Cohen’s arts and crafts room, a Superman cape is draped over a small couch with a big stuffed, stripped zebra keeping watch. Nearby, toys are stacked on a plastic white shelf. In front of the couch are colouring books and containers with crayons.
Other tents in front, and on the side of Halls-Fox’s home, protect tiny wooden play houses from the elements. They also enclose a large stuffed bird and bear sitting around a table with a butterfly and squirrel overhead. She had bought three play houses and they are all under different tents, serving a different purpose.
In the backyard, under a medium-sized white tent is a wooden fort with a ladder, two motorized kids’ cars and a wooden box full of trucks and cars.
In front of that tent is Cohen’s “splash park” complete with a water fountain that sprays water. This is where they hold boat races.
She has planted cherry and apple trees and wants to plant a plum tree. There are also several different garden plots scattered throughout the yard. Cohen even has his own tiny garden that he tends.
She admitted that in the spring she was cited for having an unsightly yard and a bylaw officer told her to take down her large white tent. In fact, she agreed her yard was an eye sore. Halls-Fox, who has always lived a rustic lifestyle, said she doesn’t have the skills or ability to build appealing structures.
“I got arthritis extremely bad and fibromyalgia,” she said.
One homeless young man did move into her backyard, she admitted – her son, who lost his home and had to move back in with her. The house she shares with her husband, who isn’t her son’s father, is small so she set up a small trailer and a canopy for him amid Cohen’s Tiny Town.
“My son had to move home. He should be able to come home. It’s his life on my lawn. Do you think he’s happy about it? Let’s kick him some more.
“I am so tired of people right now,” added Halls-Fox. “I was sitting and crying last night.”
Halls-Fox’s friend who went to school with her in Westlock when they were children said that she has never seen Joanne house the homeless.
“Joanne is not harbouring homeless people. She doesn’t feed them. Her tents are play things for her grandson. She is not mixing the homeless and her grand baby. She knows better.”
Likewise, a community worker who helps those in need in Westlock who asked not to be identified said the rumours of a homeless camp in Joanne’s yard have gotten out of hand.
“People like to say things and it got really messed up and one lady said to me a couple weeks ago, ‘did you notice they took the white tent down and they took all those people to Edmonton?’ And I said, ‘who is they that took them?’ and she said ‘you know, the people who round up the homeless people.’ I said, ‘As far as I know that tarp was for her grandson.’
“I thought it was kind of ridiculous,” she added.” People in this town are ready for gossip no matter what they get.”
After taking down the one large white tent earlier this year that housed the entirety of Cohen’s Tiny Town, Halls-Fox put different segments of Tiny Town under individual tents. She said she uses tents to keep everything out of the elements.
Halls-Fox’s grandson visits several times a month and she said it’s easier to leave all of the structures up instead of putting them away after his visits, and then having to haul them out and set them back up.
“I live for him, I literally live for him,” she said. “He’s my life. I always tell him ‘you’re my most favourite person in the whole wide world.’”
