WATCH: Oppenheimer campers remained as the court-ordered deadline passes. Catherine Urquhart reports.
VANCOUVER – A 10 p.m. eviction deadline for residents of a tent city at Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park came and went with many campers still in place, but no sign that police would immediately enforce the notice.
“The deadline has come and gone. We’re going to remain down here monitoring the park, we’re going to encourage people to comply with the court order,” said Vancouver Police Cst. Lindsay Houghton.
“We’ve been encouraged with what we’ve seen so far.”
Houghton said there were no plans to arrest people overnight, but “those plans can change as circumstances change.”
“We don’t want to arrest people. That said, people do run that risk, they are breaching a court order, but at this point we’re encouraging people to leave voluntarily,” he added.
WATCH: Asa Rehman reports on the mood in the park as the 10 p.m. deadline passed
While tensions rose slightly in the park when a small police presence re-entered Oppenheimer at 10 p.m., the mood had been relatively subdued through the evening.
WATCH: Eviction deadline looming for Oppenheimer Park tent city residents
In a statement, Rena Kendall-Craden with the City of Vancouver said “Over a hundred people from the park have already been moved to shelters and housing units ahead of the court’s deadline and the number of tents significantly reduced.”
“Just today approximately 20 individuals at their request have been referred to shelters with their belongings stored by the City. Campers have been very respectful of the Judge’s direction and we expect this approach to continue into tomorrow.
The City and Park Board staff with VFRS and VPD in support will continue the work in the morning to help people get out of the park as quickly as possible. Tomorrow some of the shelters will open earlier than usual to accommodate people leaving the park to get warm and out of the cold.”
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