When Peggy Allen first moved into her Gladys Avenue home in September 1989, it was a secluded location, the perfect spot to raise her two boys.

“I used to think it was quite beautiful,” Allen says from the top of her driveway, before adding: “I still do.”

Nearly three decades ago, she says, there were few buildings nearby besides the grain elevator and the Salvation Army property.

“We bought this half-acre because obviously we wanted a creek and we wanted some privacy. We wanted them (the boys) to be able to run and whatever. It was very different back then,” Allen says.

Turning off Gladys and onto Allen’s driveway is like entering a whole new ecosystem at first – everything seems a bit quieter, more peaceful under the canopy created by parallel rows of trees that line either side of the long corridor.

About 50 metres deep, you’ll find an enclave shrouding Allen’s home amid what is otherwise often a busy scene. Beyond the envelope of trees, cars drive at high speeds to and from Highway 11, and a neighbouring property houses the Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope. The shelter and soup kitchen are part of what make Gladys Avenue a hub for the local homeless community.

Allen says the issues didn’t start for her until around 2004, when a plan to move the Salvation Army to its current location – which formerly housed the Fraser Valley Child Development Centre – came to council.

Read the full story in the Abbotsford News.

You can also read a transcript of a CBC Radio/The Current documentary about Peggy and the local homeless community that followed my piece here.