John Henry was out in the rain, packing up his belonging in a large recycling bin Thursday morning after being told he had to move from his East Hastings Street spot.
Henry had been living on the street but was told to move along by City of Vancouver crews as they cleared out the tent encampments.
He said he doesn’t want to go into a shelter.
“They’re sick, they’re corrupt, they’re dirty,” he explained.
When asked what he is going to do next, Henry said he is just going to keep coming back to the same spot.
“I walk here, I live here. I mean, this is my neighbourhood,” he said.
Henry said he hasn’t been offered other formal housing.
“I just want to be a part of the city, I want a job, I want those things but (I) can’t – I spend all my time locking down my stuff so it doesn’t get stolen.”
City of Vancouver crews worked all day Wednesday to deconstruct the Downtown East encampment, giving residents recycling bins to store their personal belongings in, and throwing tents and other items in garbage trucks.
They returned with Vancouver police officers on Thursday morning to continue dismantling tents and structures on the sidewalks. They closed stretches of Hastings Street to traffic and transit while crews worked to clear the areas, and reopened them late in the afternoon.
Tent City resident Kelvin Beee said what the city has done in the past 48 hours has been really hurtful to the residents.
“Where are you going to put them?” he said, speaking of the residents. “Where is the city going to put them? Hiding them?”
On Wednesday, Vancouver’s city manager said the municipality “couldn’t commit” to providing shelter spaces to all those in need. Only a handful requested it, however, and all of them were accommodated.
On Thursday Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon there is “enough housing” for all.
“If people need it, we have the shelter space available for them,” he said at the legislature.
“We also were able to get the occupancy permits on 98 units which we’re going to open this month, so we’ll also in the coming days, be able to move some people from shelters into these new 98 units, which is also good news.”
Advocates for residents in the Downtown Eastside have long repeated, there is “nowhere” for them to go if their temporary shelters are dismantled.
“I’m so mad and it’s so sad,” Beee said.
Last month, the province announced 330 new housing spaces would be coming for DTES residents by the end of June, including 241 renovated single-room occupancy (SRO) units. More units will come online later in the summer.
That announcement, however, comes as BC Housing confirms nearly 100 modular housing units — currently occupied — will be shuttered and moved in July due to the end of a lease agreement. It has not finalized a plan for their relocation or reoccupation.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Service’s chief said Thursday the fire department supports the city’s decision to remove the structures.
Karen Fry said the ongoing situation of tents and structures next to buildings has created a “whole different risk factor.”
“The potential impact of a hundred-pound propane tank exploding boggles my mind. It can be catastrophic if it were to explode in an area like that,” she told Global News.
“It’s a ticking time bomb right now … Something devastating is going to happen and we are going to lose an entire building and lives.”
Vancouver police say officers have reported an increase of nine per cent in assaults in the DTES since last August with 28 per cent of those occurring in the encampment zone.
A recent survey from Atira Women’s Society found all respondents reported feeling unsafe or having experienced violence in the area, including sexual assault.
Vancouver Police Chief Const. Adam Palmer said Wednesday it has become too challenging to keep people safe in the Downtown Eastside.
“Street-level assaults in the encampment have increased 27 per cent,” he said. “It is unsafe.”
“Nineteen police officers have been assaulted inside the encampment,” Palmer added, mentioning some of them were very serious.
Ryan Sudds, an organizer with Stop the Sweeps, which opposes the dismantling of the encampment until suitable housing is found, said the biggest issue remains that most people don’t have a place to go.
“Eight people were sheltered last night,” he said, speaking of Wednesday’s activities. “I think 100 folks were living in the Hastings tent city. I don’t know where the other 92 people have gone but it’s not a home and it’s not a shelter.
“Watching the City of Vancouver descend on homeless people, on poor people, and bully them off the street, it makes me so very angry. It reminds me of anti-vagrancy laws in the 30s.”
Sudds said the whole process has been dehumanizing.
“Nothing good is going to come from this,” he said. “People need housing, they need support, people need access to their drugs. People are getting dope-sick because the chaos caused on the street means people can’t get their drugs and it’s making them sick.
“They’re coming back here because they don’t have a place to go and until they have a place to go, this is going to continue to happen.”
– with files from Global News’ Darrian Matassa-Fung and Elizabeth McSheffrey