Vancouver police and park rangers moved in on an encampment of unhoused people in Oppenheimer Park on Tuesday, enforcing a bylaw that generally prohibits daytime tents in parks.
Some 26 tents remained in the Downtown Eastside park on Tuesday morning. Park rangers could be seen removing upright and collapsed structures, a bicycle and other belongings as owners and housing advocates protested.
“We believe that these are people’s homes and it’s against Charter rights for security of the person for them to be taking down their homes and taking them away,” said Latoya Farrell of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
“More than anything, I think that this is a huge infringement on humanity and people’s lives that they are being put at risk on the coldest day of the year.”
Some people whose belongings were confiscated weren’t present at the time, she added, meaning they’ll return to the park and not know what happened to their possessions.
Section 11 of Vancouver’s 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 when there is insufficient shelter — but not during the day.
The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation said no staff were available for an interview Tuesday.
In an emailed statement, the board reinforced that tents are permitted overnight as long as they’re packed up in the morning.
“Park Rangers will continue to work with those sheltering in the park daily to reach full compliance and provide a list of warming shelters that people can access,” the board wrote.
“Programs and services are offered through the Field House in the park during the day, and the City of Vancouver’s Homelessness Services Outreach staff connects with individuals sheltering outdoors across the Vancouver and connects them with supports, shelter and housing when available. ”
Global News has also reached out to the City of Vancouver for comment.
Oppenheimer Park resident Maninder Singh said he was frustrated Tuesday, because he’s been complying with the bylaw — packing up his tent daily — but others have not.
“This problem just started maybe a week ago when new people started pitching up, making noises and now today this happened,” he said.
Singh told Global News he’s warm enough, but not dry enough as the rain continues to pour.
“Because of picking it up and removing it every day my tent is also broken now,” he added.
Singh has lived in the park for about two months, but previously stayed at the Union Gospel Mission. He said he left, in part, because residents have to leave shelters early — between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. — only to wait three or four hours outside for a community centre to open for service.
“It’s disgusting. It’s a B.C. housing crisis is what it is,” said David Bradbury, an Oppenheimer resident who also cooks daily for other unhoused folks at nearby CRAB Park.
“It’s become a bureaucratic nightmare here. Where do you want these people to go? They’re already down on their luck as it is. You have some people trying to help and you have some people trying to do their job and this is a big clash.”
Last spring, the BC Civil Liberties Association and Pivot Legal Society argued that sustained efforts to “forcefully evict” people sheltering outside in the Downtown Eastside, coupled with government failures to provide adequate, safe and effective housing, amount to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” in a submission to the federal housing advocate.
The Office of the Federal Housing Advocate protects the right to housing in Canada with support from the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
In December, Premier David Eby said the province is considering creating more daytime shelter spaces for those in need in the neighbourhood, and in the long-term, working to identify nearby parcels of land that can be redeveloped for housing.
That work, he said, will include major changes to a housing type that has long defined the Downtown Eastside.
“Ultimately what you are going to see from us is some significant steps forward in getting rid of the SROs, those single-room occupancy hotels, that are unlivable in the summer because they are too hot, they’ve got bugs, half of them are only half full, and replacing them with self-contained units,” he told Global News.
The province may find a willing partner in that endeavour in the Vancouver city council, which passed a motion in November instructing staff to come up with ways to speed up the full replacement of the city’s aging SRO stock.
According to the 2023 Greater Vancouver homeless count, there were more than 4,800 people experiencing homelessness in the Metro Vancouver region, up 32 per cent from 2020.
— with files from Simon Little