Ottawa has been a gridlocked, honking mess since late last week when members and supporters of the now-infamous "Freedom Convoy" started arriving in the capital to protest vaccine mandates.

Along with causinggeneral mayhemin the city, the masses have apparently been hitting up homeless shelters in the area to try and get some free meals as they hunker down on Parliament Hill, and have even been accused of harassing shelter staff and residents.

All this as aGoFundMe for their causehas raised more than a whopping $9 million,most of whichhas been temporarily frozen by the crowdfunding platform unti. there is a clear plan from the organizer for how the monies will be spent.

Meanwhile the GoFundMe continues to grow and is almost at $9 million, with $1 million already released for expenses.

-卡伦绿色(@KarenGr59432768)January 30, 2022

Shepherds of Good Hope, one of the four main homeless shelters in Ottawa, shared an incident involving protesters who allegedly came into the organization's soup kitchen, demanded free food and harassed staff members over the weekend.

"Earlier today, our staff and volunteers experienced harassment from convoy protesters seeking meals from our soup kitchen. The individuals were given meals to diffuse the conflict," the grouptweetedon Saturday.

"Our soup kitchen is committed to providing meals to people experiencing and at risk of homelessness in Ottawa. This weekend’s events have caused significant strain to our operations at an already difficult time."

The two-part post has gotten thousands of quote tweets, retweets and replies, as well as more than 20,000 likes in just two days as tensions in the city — and on the topic of the rally in general — remain dreadfully high.

issue and no further meals were given to protesters. Our soup kitchen is committed to providing meals to people experiencing and at risk of homelessness in Ottawa. This weekend’s events have caused significant strain to our operations at an already difficult time. (2/2)

— Shepherds of Good Hope (@sghottawa)January 30, 2022

Others on social mediahave similarly cited incidents of demonstrators seeking free food and shelter from social services, relieving themselves on people's lawns, and more amid what has grown into a very chaotic situation that is costing local police$800,000 a dayto try and keep up with.

On top of the hours-long altercation with staff at Shepherds of Good Hope, members of the convoy also assaulted a shelter resident outside the centre's doors and made racist remarks to a security guard who game to the man's aid.

The organization's president and CEOtold the Ottawa Citizenthat there have been many disruptions over the last few days, and that staff are very discouraged — as are, clearly, residents of the city.

This is what the Canadian Trucker protest turned into.
Desecration of the Terry Fox Memorial and of a War Memorial.
Anti Semitism.
People shitting on residents lawns.
Fights at homeless shelters, protesters wanting free food.
Fuck you all, go home, you're embarrassing Canada.

— Andy Slag (@AndySzilagyi)January 31, 2022

On the topic of the homeless, many are also finding it frustrating that the convoy has been able to garner so much support, both financial and otherwise, while those experiencing homelessness or food insecurity are consistently overlooked by the public.