The number of homeless people trespassing on private property is on the rise, say some Calgary residents.

Inglewood resident Kevin Watkins says he is accustomed to seeing homeless camps in the southeast Calgary neighbourhood, but he recently saw one in an unexpected place.

“We have a lot of people wandering into backyards, but that was the first one that we saw with a tent in a backyard of an abandoned house,” he said.

“It’s private property. It’s people’s property. They should probably respect it.”

Watkins says he and his neighbours have empathy for Calgary’s homeless population, and he’d like to see more resources devoted to helping them, rather than simply making them leave.

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