Tents line the sidewalk on East Hastings Street in Vancouver’s downtown Eastside, July 28. DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
A sudden move by Vancouver Fire and Rescue to clear 150 tents and other structures from three main blocks of the Downtown Eastside has community groups and BC Housing scrambling to come up with ways to find new shelter for residents on short notice.
Many housing advocates, as well as the director of a local business association, say the city should have planned a long time for what they know happens every summer: People who have been sleeping on friends’ couches or in cars start to sleep outside, because many who have stayed in downtown Eastside hotel rooms that can become unbearably hot in warm weather.
People with makeshift homes on the stretch of Hastings Street hit by the crackdown have been told everything must be gone by next Wednesday, a week longer than they were originally given. (The deadline was extended after public criticism.) The fire department said the structures must be cleared because there is a risk they could catch fire or block access to buildings firefighters must enter.
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The city has promised to provide storage space, bathrooms and other services to residents of the buildings, but it is unclear how and when those relief measures will be provided.
BC Housing said in a statement that it was surprised by the fire chief’s order.
“We have been clear with the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Fire and Rescue that we do not have access to a large number of new spaces in Vancouver on short notice to accommodate the timing of the emergency order,” the statement said.
This is just one of several camps that municipal authorities have undertaken to clear in recent years. Wally Wargolet, executive director of the Gastown Business Improvement Society, said he and others are lobbying the city to stop treating each encampment as a one-time event and instead create a standing committee to deal with them. He said what has happened so far is not a workable way of dealing with the serious structural problems that lead to homelessness.
“It’s a black mark on the city,” he said.
Advocates say they agree.
“It didn’t need to get this bad. It’s preventable,” said Karen Ward, a Downtown Eastside resident who works as the city’s drug policy advisor. “They could have created a public space. A side street could be closed to them. Now they’re all crammed into three blocks on the sidewalk and they’re all jostling.”
Sarah Blythe, who runs an overdose prevention site at the heart of the sidewalk camp, said the same.
“There’s an amalgamation of people in one area,” she said.
Ms Blythe said some of the back alleys where people used to gather were closed due to construction while Pigeon Park, a popular gathering place, was being patrolled by the owner of the building opposite it.
BC Housing has opened 1,400 new social housing apartments in Vancouver since 2018. The agency has provided 300 housing units — through purchases of hotels such as the Patricia on Hastings Street, the Ramada on Pender Street and the Howard Johnson on Granville Street — for people who lived in another camp, in Strathcona Park.
But those additions were followed by the loss of several important residential hotels to fires and a summer of unexpectedly full shelters.
Rachel Allen, spokeswoman for Union Gospel Mission, said the organization’s shelter was full every night in June and July – something that is not typical for this time of year.
Amanda Burroughs, acting executive director of the First United Church, which is located near the camp, said the urgency should have been expected given past cycles of homelessness spikes.
“The shuffle that’s happening now is the shuffle that happens every time,” she said.
Ms. Burrows added that the current crisis is the result of a multi-month series of events.
Vancouver police announced in November that starting July 1, they will no longer accompany city crews on “street sweeps,” during which city engineering crews remove what they consider trash.
Advocates began to oppose the cleanup, saying people’s valuable personal belongings were being thrown away. The engineering department apologized and crews stopped this work. Then the tents began to multiply in a place that seemed safe from immediate enforcement action.
Ms Ward said because of the crowded pavement conditions on Hastings Street, people were tense.
This was reported by the Vancouver police in a recent statement that there has been a spike in violence on and near these blocks. A man in a wheelchair was stabbed as he tried to make his way through tents and debris, a woman was sprayed with bear spray and another woman was attacked and then seriously injured when she fell and hit her head.
In its own statement, the City of Vancouver said several departments were involved in encouraging people to remove tents and structures from Hastings Street. The statement said the city is working on a plan to clean up the area while maintaining safe and clean streets for everyone who lives, visits and works in the area.
Like Ms Ward, Ms Burroughs said giving people a reasonable chance to find shelter would be more helpful than a sudden crackdown.
“I don’t know why the city can’t find a place for people to move that has a bathroom, a misting station. This is not new.”
Meanwhile, she said, it’s unfortunate that the fire department decided to issue a near-immediate clearance order when community groups began working to reduce fire risks on sidewalks and make them more accessible.
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