Hiding in Plain Sight: B.C.’s latest homicide a reminder of a pandemic-fuelled housing crisis & Fraser Valley’s hidden homeless
Do people really need to be afraid of unhoused people or is it unhoused people who are the ones in actual danger?
March 24, 2026
There’s often a simmering fear in middle-class circles when people encounter destitute areas of a city, skid rows, places where human beings swirl around the drain of economic disaster.
These are the people who make up what documentary photographer Mark Laita calls the Soft White Underbelly in his popular YouTube series. These aren't people to fear, these are often vulnerable people who have more to fear from one another than do middle class people from “them.”
Take a look at every homicide in the Fraser Valley over the last decade and see how many of them involve a working-class victim with a job and a mortgage killed by a poverty-stricken unhoused person. Zero. (If anyone can name one, let me know.)
People on the streets killed by other people on the streets or gangsters or other criminal elements? All too common.
A few examples from Chilliwack: There was David Williams shot and killed outside a Princess Avenue house in 2016 by Daniel Fabas who shot from inside, possibly fearing for his own life. That same year, in a delusional rage, David McKay left a homeless camp and stormed into a Glenwood Street crack house and beat John ‘Mikey’ Anderson to death with a hammer tacker in a case of mistaken identity. Or Owen Charpentier who shot and killed Keith Baldwin in the car wash near Ruth & Naomi’s in 2019. Or Corey Farmer who was killed and dismembered by an unknown person, part of his body found in a dumpster downtown in 2023.
Any fear “regular” folks have of unhoused people is almost always misplaced, unwarranted. It’s the folks themselves who have fallen on hard times who have the most to lose, the most to fear from their neighbours, from drug dealers and others who prey on the vulnerable.
Hidden homeless in plain sight
Last night (March 23, 2026) before midnight, a 69-year-old man was shot and killed by someone at the Whatcom Road Park & Ride on at the northeast corner of Highway 1 where Whatcom crosses over.
No one is parking and riding at this lot that has become a symbol of the post-pandemic economic and housing crisis. The Whatcom Road Park & Ride, just like the Cole Road rest stop eastbound and east of there, or the Bradner Road rest area to the west, have become a visible representation of what, ironically, is often referred to as the “hidden homeless.” Encampments that anyone travelling in either direction on Highway 1 see every day.
Google Streetview images from 2009, 2012, 2016, 2019 into the 2020s paint the picture: Slowly but surely starting in about late 2020, these locations and several others grew into RV encampments for people with nowhere left to go.
These aren’t the street homeless folks seen in the downtown core of every city in North America, these are the people with just a little bit more than their destitute cousins living in shelter and alleys.
Greater Vancouver homelessness is up approximately nine per cent from 2023 to 2025 and 141 per cent since 2005. The number of homeless in Abbotsford jumped from 465 to 654 in from Oct. 1, 2024 to Oct. 1, 2025, according the City of Abbotsford’s “point-in-time homeless count.”
For many people priced out of housing in the Lower Mainland, the last stop before the streets is a car, an SUV, or if they are somewhat lucky, a van or a camper or an RV. These are the last semi-stable options for many on the margins.
The encampment at the Whatcom Road Park & Ride is just one example, and while we have very few details about the alleged homicide, it’s not terribly surprising when more and more people suffering with nowhere left to go end up crammed in terrible conditions in one of the few semi-acceptable locations to live: a rest stop or a park and ride.
The as-of-yet unnamed 69-year-old who was shot was transported to hospital Monday night but he did not survive.
The Lower Mainland’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) is on the case, working now with the Abbotsford Police Department’s Major Crime Unit, Forensic Identification Service, and the BC Coroners Services on the investigation.
The 69-year-old man was a resident at the encampment.
IHIT spokesperson Sgt. Freda Fong issued the standard platitudes using the terms – “isolated and targeted” – to express that folks in the housed community are not at any risk. Also, no, this was not related to ongoing gang conflicts or the more recent extortion crisis.
“While the investigation is in its early stages, investigators believe this was an isolated and targeted incident,” Sgt. Fong said in a statement.
“The swift response from AbbyPD was integral in securing the crime scene. Crime scenes such as this one can be complex due to the outdoor component and exposure to the elements. You can expect investigators in the area for some time speaking with witnesses and searching the area.”
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the IHIT information line at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448) or by email at ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.
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Paul J. Henderson
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