Crews from the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation moved in to disassemble the tent encampment at CRAB Park on Monday, citing a bylaw that generally forbids tents and shelters being set up in parks.
Park rangers will be in the area conducting cleanup between now and Wednesday, in compliance with “Guidelines for Shelters and Fire Safety” for the park, according to a posted park board notice.
They could be seen there Monday morning, taking away belongings and dumping tarps into garbage trucks. They removed a large bed frame, gas stoves, tent poles, and more.
“We’re hoping to get housing. I’m working with BC Housing. Sh–, I’ve been on the list for about eight years, it’s ridiculous,” said a CRAB Park resident who identified himself only as Jay.
Jay said he was happy to let rangers take away some of his accumulated belongings, and was able to keep the pile of items he needs without conflict. He said he and his wife will move to a “designated area” where they can set up again.
“There’s a lot of us here that need help, but nothing’s being done,” he said. “Not an SRO, like a basement suite somewhere affordable. I get just over $1,000 a month … We need help.”
Jay said he and his wife have been on the street for several years — setting up temporary structures first in Coquitlam then in Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver. He described CRAB Park as “safe,” with weekly community meetings, an established kitchen and cook.
CRAB Park is the site of a long-running encampment of unhoused folks that, following a protracted court battle, the city has been ordered to leave in place due to a lack of adequate alternative housing. That ruling, however, only applies to a corner of the park, and in recent weeks tents have been popping up elsewhere in the green space.
Monday’s action took place as the B.C. government announced 100 new affordable and supportive units under construction in the Downtown Eastside in a mixed-use housing development. The project at 320 Hastings Street is a partnership of the provincial and federal governments, BC Housing, the City of Vancouver, the Aboriginal Housing Management Association (AHMA), and First United and Lu’ma Native Housing Society.
The 11-storey building will have 35 supportive housing units and 68 rental homes prioritized for Indigenous Peoples, as well as four floors dedicated to social services. Construction is expected to be completed late in 2025.
Rider Cooey, who is part of a group supporting the CRAB Park residents, said he and other advocates attended the Monday cleanup to witness and prevent the “theft” of any items the residents need to keep.
“What they’ve done is take a lot of stuff with or without permission. I’m not aware at this point of what’s been done with permission or not,” he told Global News.
“What I’m doing and what most of us are doing now is identifying with residents the items they don’t want to lose, and sequestering them so they don’t get taken arbitrarily by the rangers.”
Cooey said the “designated area” for CRAB Park’s residents is “too crowded.” He said that’s dangerous, and the group is circulating a petition calling for access to a local parking lot for overflow.
“With the homeless rate increasing the way at the way it is, we need it now.”
Section 11 of the Park Control Bylaw states that no tents, buildings, shelters, pavilions or other constructions may go up in any park without the permission of the park board’s general manager, unless a temporary shelter is in compliance with provisions of that bylaw.
The bylaw is in place from dusk until dawn, meaning people can stay overnight but not during the day.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services and park rangers are set to conduct fire extinguisher training in the CRAB Park gazebo on Friday, not far from where some tents were set up Monday morning.
In January 2022, the B.C. Supreme Court rejected a park board injunction application against the encampment, accepting residents’ argument that the city hadn’t shown there was suitable shelter elsewhere.
In his ruling, Justice Matthew Kirchner noted that the park was the “last major public park” in or near the Downtown Eastside open to overnight sheltering, and closing it could affect residents access to services.
“Simply assuming that those sheltering in CRAB Park can find ‘another place to go’ fails to accord the necessary priority to their (charter) rights and ensure minimal impairment of those rights,” he further found.
Earlier this year, the city received a grant through the Union of B.C. Municipalities, with $660,000 going to fund four temporary full-time park rangers and $55,000 going to health and sanitation at the park, including washroom cleaning, trash disposal, and police support for cleanup work.
— with files from Simon Little