A handful of homeless people set up tents overnight along a stretch of VancouverB次元官网网址檚 Hastings Street that was cleared Wednesday in a co-ordinated effort by city officials and Vancouver police.
Mayor Ken Sim ordered the long-standing encampment removed after the cityB次元官网网址檚 police and fire chiefs warned of escalating crime and an unacceptable fire risk.
At the campB次元官网网址檚 peak, about 180 structures covered the sidewalk along the busy street.
Now there are questions about where the displaced residents will go, and many have vowed to return to the only place they feel safe as soon as enforcement lifts.
Vancouver city manager Paul Mochrie has said there are not enough shelter spaces to accommodate everyone, but a statement issued Wednesday night from SimB次元官网网址檚 office said eight people had asked for accommodation and it had been supplied.
The statement says B次元官网网址渟helter space availability is fluidB次元官网网址� but pledged to continue to work with government partners to B次元官网网址渋dentify additional capacity.B次元官网网址�
Garbage trucks moved slowly down Hastings Street Wednesday, to the shouts and protests of residents of the encampment on the sidewalks of VancouverB次元官网网址檚 Downtown Eastside.
Into the compactors went tents, suitcases, mattresses and furniture, crushed with bags of garbage and other detritus.
The implementation of a city decree to clear the encampment on Wednesday, backed by dozens of a police, was met with frustration from residents and their advocates who wonder where theyB次元官网网址檒l sleep next, even as the city says itB次元官网网址檚 too unsafe to stay.
Police and city staff rolling rubber tubs labelled B次元官网网址減ersonal belongingsB次元官网网址� arrived on Hastings Street on Wednesday to dismantle about 80 tents and other structures that lined the sidewalks.
Residents scrambled to take down tents and pack as trash and belongings were scattered.
Officials said the encampment had become a significant safety and fire hazard and, without intervention, it was a matter of time before people died.
At the heart of the encampment, at the corner of Columbia and East Hastings, resident swore at police and chanted B次元官网网址渟top the sweeps.B次元官网网址�
Some yelled and cried while others begrudgingly packed but pledged to return.
Jason Rondeau lives at the encampment and said residents have been B次元官网网址渃onstantly battling with the city.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淚 have had to replace my stuff, all of my belongings, five times this year alone,B次元官网网址� he said, pointing to a pile of luggage he packed as the police moved in.
Rondeau said when city staff come to his tent, he planned to say B次元官网网址測es sir, have a good day,B次元官网网址� to ensure there was as little friction possible.
But he said he would return B次元官网网址渂ecause as soon as the cops are leaving, I am coming back.B次元官网网址�
Rondeau called the sweep a waste of taxpayersB次元官网网址� money. He said he had been offered a shelter spot three times this year but that option was worse than his spot on the sidewalk.
Ken Johns, who spent 18 months in a tent before finding a spot at a rooming house, said the community is heartbroken after losing their homes.
B次元官网网址淭hatB次元官网网址檚 where they go to sleep, thatB次元官网网址檚 where they feel safe. When you take that away and you force them into a shelter or a (rooming house) and they donB次元官网网址檛 feel safe. (ItB次元官网网址檚) just re-traumatizing them and making it hard for them to get ahead,B次元官网网址� he said.
While the camp was being dismantled, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim held a news conference and told reporters that the longer the street camp continued, the higher the odds people would lose their lives and even more would lose their homes to the growing fire hazard.
B次元官网网址淓very day, we are hearing new and sometimes horrific stories: theft, vandalism, senseless acts of violence, violence against women, and more specifically, violence against Indigenous women,B次元官网网址� he said.
Fire Chief Karen Fry said the risk at the encampment had become worse since she issued an order in July of last year to shut the camp over the fire hazard.
There have been 16 tent fires this year alone that injured four people, she said, and 1,600 propane tanks have been seized since the fire order was issued.
B次元官网网址淪ince 2019, this area alone has had an increase of 340 per cent of outdoor fires. This persistent fire risk posed by the encampments and recent fires in the neighbourhood has made the situations of East Hastings Street even more precarious,B次元官网网址� Fry said.
Police Chief Adam Palmer said it was increasingly challenging to keep people safe in the area.
B次元官网网址淭he Downtown Eastside encampment is fraught with serious crime, violence and dangerous weapons, which have proliferated in this neighbourhood. Street-level assaults within the encampment have increased 27 per cent and nearly half of those are being committed by strangers.B次元官网网址�
He said 19 police officers have been assaulted, some very seriously.
The city said in a statement that 600 tents and makeshift buildings have been removed from the area.
Johns said now he was B次元官网网址減rivileged enoughB次元官网网址� to have a roof over his head at his rooming house, but the living conditions were not much better than on the streets.
B次元官网网址淣one of them are like an actual apartment building where everything is clean. People are getting bitten by bugs, people have to deal with mice droppings,B次元官网网址� he said.
He said money used for the sweep should go toward an actual camp to house people.
B次元官网网址淲hy donB次元官网网址檛 they have the money to set up an area where we can have an actual homeless camp? Set up the infrastructure, set up portable toilets, set up electricity, all that kind of stuff,B次元官网网址� he said.
Vincent Tao, an organizer with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said the organization found only two shelter beds available tonight, leaving people living in tents with nowhere else to go.
B次元官网网址淎nd so the problem will continue to happen as long as there is no housing being opened, and where are people supposed to go? They will come right back onto the block,B次元官网网址� he said.
Vancouver city manager Paul Mochrie acknowledged there arenB次元官网网址檛 enough empty shelter spaces to accommodate everyone being told to leave the encampment but said many have been declining shelter options for months.
B次元官网网址淭he odds of us being able to provide 100 shelter spaces today, we couldnB次元官网网址檛 commit to that. What we would do if it wasnB次元官网网址檛 available today is we would work to get people into shelter or other housing that comes online as quickly as possible,B次元官网网址� he said.
B次元官网网址淪o, anyone on Hastings today whoB次元官网网址檚 seeking indoor options, if we canB次元官网网址檛 provide it today, we will be staying connected with those people and working to get them inside as quickly as we can.B次元官网网址�
He said in the next couple of months more than 300 spaces will become available, including renovated rooming houses and temporary modular units constructed on city property in partnership with B.C. Housing.
Tent communities in Vancouver have been common.
In April two years ago, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth told campers at the cityB次元官网网址檚 Oppenheimer Park that they could leave or choose to accept the housing they were offered. More than 200 campers had been living in the park for months, after they were kicked out of Crab Park.
Many of those campers then moved on to nearby Strathcona Park, which was also shut down months later after complaints of escalating crime.
Pivot Legal Society, which advocates for those on the Downtown Eastside, called the dismantling of the Hastings Street site a B次元官网网址済ross human rights violation.B次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淭here is nowhere for people to go,B次元官网网址� it says in a tweet. B次元官网网址�(This is) a massive waste of public resources and a dangerous ploy to pretend to be doing something.B次元官网网址�
Former Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart also referred to the situation when he tweeted that a new mayor and council had been elected B次元官网网址渨ho today abandoned our attempts to reconcile with Indigenous people and resume traditional genocidal practices. Welcome to cruel Vancouver.B次元官网网址�
The decision to remove the Hastings Street camp comes despite a B.C. Supreme Court order from Justice F. Matthew Kirchner, who said VancouverB次元官网网址檚 park board wasnB次元官网网址檛 justified in issuing two eviction orders for those living in Crab Park.
Kirchner found the orders unreasonably assumed there were enough indoor shelter spaces to accommodate campers who had been forced out.
Similar court orders have since been made allowing camps to remain in Victoria and Prince George.
B次元官网网址擭ono Shen and Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
READ MORE:
READ MORE:
