The city says it needs to temporarily move about 30 people from a homeless encampment in CRAB Park due to unsanitary conditions, built structures and fire hazards.
Tensions are high in a park near Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood Monday as crews move in to clean up an area occupied by an encampment. The cleanup was planned, but as Andrea Macpherson reports, advocates have an issue with the way it's being carried out.The city says the area has become dangerously cluttered with debris, propane tanks, human waste and rats and that people sheltering in the area have built permanent structures that violate the park board order.
“People’s lives are really turned upside down. There’s people who can’t access their belongings, there are people who are just devastated.” York said the city didn’t need to rush into the cleanup and should have waited while a pending human rights complaint was heard.Canada’s federal housing advocate has also raised concerns about the process. In a social media post last week, she urged the park board to “pause and work in good faith with encampment residents on an approach that upholds their dignity, protects their belongings, and respects their security & human rights.
The city says it is offering storage options for residents’ belongings and that homelessness service teams have been working with BC Housing to try and find shelter spaces.The cleanup work, which will involve the use of heavy machinery, is expected to take about one week, after which people who were already sheltering in the designated area will be allowed to return.
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