The so-called “Sugar Mountain” homeless tent city in East Vancouver is without heat or water, according to people who live there.
Residents allege police came Tuesday night and went into the tents to take the propane tanks they rely on for heat, especially as Vancouver moves into colder, wetter weather.
“What sort of world do we live in when the response to the temperature dropping is police coming and stealing your means of making food?” said JJ Reich with Alliance Against Displacement.
Captain Jonathan Gormick with Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services says his crew took propane-powered cooking devices and space heaters from the homeless camp because of fire risk.
“We can’t tolerate having sources of ignition in the tents,” he said. “Because we saw it in Chilliwack and we’ve seen previous examples that the flammability of the tents is so high that it would just take a spark on that nylon to set the tent on fire and it could very rapidly spread to other tents.”
He said firefighters try to work together with homeless people to make sure their living conditions are safe.
WATCH: Vancouver tent city obeys eviction order… and moves to another location
But Joyce, one of the residents, says heat isn’t the only issue, claiming the water has also been shut down.
“We have to go to the store and buy water, there’s not really very much water around here, all the businesses shut their water off so we pretty much buy our water.”
She said the tent city uses about 30 gallons a day.
Joyce said they moved from the so-called 10-year tent city to Sugar Mountain after campers were served with an injunction.
But in an email, the City of Vancouver says it has not turned off the water at the Franklin encampment.
The email says the city has sent a team to check if frozen pipes may be to blame for the lack of water but found service is “working as normal.”
~With files from the Canadian Press