Protestors confront security and police at Roos Island in Kitchener

Housing advocates are protesting in Kitchener’s Victoria Park Thursday, the day after the city closed Roos Island to the public and brought in a third-party security group to manage who is allowed on and off.

Housing advocates are protesting in Kitchener’s Victoria Park Thursday, the day after the city closed Roos Island to the public and brought in a third-party security group to manage who is allowed on and off.

The region says the move is to ensure the privacy and safety of six people living in an encampment at the site as the campers prepare to move into interim housing.

Demonstrators say the region and the City of Kitchener are forcing unhoused people out of the downtown core.

“People are being forced into these so called mini houses on top of a dump and they're being coerced,” protest organizer Julian Ichim said, referring to the region's hybrid encampment that opens this week.

“People slept out there all winter and the city did nothing ... now all of a sudden they have a solution and people are being forced to go there whether they want to or not."

On Thursday, protesters asked security if they could come deliver food and offer social services to people at the camp, but so far only lawyers have been allowed to cross.

After demonstrators were told many times that they would not be allowed on the island, several people starting pulling on the gate, eventually overpowering the security guards.