Nearly three weeks after the City of Vancouver carried out a planned removal of tents and temporary shelters in the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver police say they’ve noted “positive signs” of crime reduction.
Between and April 5, the day the operation began, and April 20, there has been just one robbery and one assault in the embattled neighbourhood, no reported sexual assaults, and a 10-point drop in street-level assaults compared to March, Sgt. Steve Addison said.
“We’re optimistic by what we’re starting to see in that area, but we know there’s a long way to go,” Addison said in a Monday news conference.
“We always caution against reading too much into day-to-day or week-to-week ebbs and flows in data.”
The Vancouver Police Department has stood alongside city staff who have removed, and in some cases disposed of, the informal structures and belongings of unhoused people on East Hastings Street.
Since the process began, Addison said the VPD has maintained an increased presence in the neighbourhood and ramped up foot patrols, “keeping the peace.”
Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) Chief Karen Fry0 ordered the tent city’s removal in July 2022, citing “catastrophic” risk to human life through fires.
At that time, Addison said the force was dealing with a 67-per cent increase in robberies, a 21-per cent increase in arsons in surrounding neighbourhoods, and more than two assaults per day.
The VPD remains concerned, however, by the number of weapons it continues to recover from the neighbourhood. In a single evening last week, it seized 18 weapons, including daggers, machetes, brass knuckles, baseball bats, and modified household tools, it said Monday.
“It’s very concerning for us and we know the that progress we’ve made could all go out the window, could all be reversed with just a couple of bad days,” Addison said.
“So we’re committed to stay the course, we’re committed to doing what needs to be done restore a sense of public safety.”
Since Fry’s order last summer to clear the camp, some 2,000 propane tanks have been taken out of the DTES. The week before the April 5 eviction began, Vancouver’s fire department said it responded to about 83 outdoor fires in the encampment area.
Last week saw a reduction in outdoor fires of 43 per cent and no reported tent fires.
“Cautiously optimistic about where we as far as increasing fire safety for unsheltered populations for first responders, for people in the community, and for local businesses,” VFRS Capt. Matthew Trudeau said.
Almost 10 propane tanks continue to be removed from the neighbourhood each day, Trudeau added. But he said firefighters responding to single-room occupancy hotel fires in the area now have clear, quick access to the buildings, without the obstruction of tents.
The decampment has been a controversial process since it began, with human rights and housing advocates accusing the City of Vancouver, VPD, and B.C. government of criminalizing poverty and cyclically displacing residents.
In an early April submission to the federal housing advocate, the BC Civil Liberties Association and Pivot Legal Society argued that sustained efforts to “forcefully evict” people sheltering outside in the neighbourhood, coupled with government failures to provide adequate, safe and effective housing, amount to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing has also condemned the use of police in the removal of people and possessions from the encampments in Canada.
The City of Vancouver and B.C. government have said that every displaced East Hastings Street resident who has requested a shelter bed has been given one, and many others turned down the accommodations they were offered.
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