City crews moved in with heavy equipment on Tuesday as work to clean up Vancouver’s only sanctioned homeless camp got underway in earnest.
About 30 people were sheltering in an area of the waterfront CRAB Park that was designated to allow round-the-clock tents after the Vancouver Park Board lost a legal challenge to the encampment in 2022.
Those people have been temporarily moved to another space while crews remove illegally-built structures, propane tents, human waste and other debris the city says has become a health and safety hazard.
The city said 16 rangers and 20 police officers were on scene Tuesday to ensure the operation went smoothly.
Rangers said someone cut the locks off fencing around the worksite to gain access overnight.
Homeless advocate Fiona York told CKNW’s The Jill Bennett Show that the sight of heavy machinery tearing down shelters was “distressing” for people who had been moved out of the encampment.
“People are now (having) front-row seating to see the destruction of their own homes and community just a few metres away down the hill,” she said.
York alleges that the city has overstated the poor conditions in the encampment, which she said could have been addressed without vacating it and tearing down structures.
She said those in the encampment weren’t sufficiently consulted or given enough information about the plan and various changing details.
“They didn’t, in this entire process … recognize that people in these encampments are consultants and experts and deserve that same amount of dignity and respect for their point of view,” she said. “That definitely did not happen.”
The park board maintains it consulted with stakeholders and encampment residents over several months, and provided the full details of the final cleanup plan one week before those in the designated area were required to move.
“This is not a decampment. This is a response to health and safety, including non-compliant and unsafe structures,” the board said in a media release on Monday.
The park board said city staff and peer workers have been on site helping people pack, relocate and store belongings, and that tents and cultural supports are being provided to any resident who needs them.
The city has also erected two gazebos for a kitchen and donation tent, and staff with BC Housing and the city’s outreach team are on site working to try to connect residents with shelter or housing options.
People who were already sheltering in the designated area will be allowed to return when the cleanup work is complete, potentially as early as next week.