Little changed in East Hastings tent city as residents wonder where to go

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It was hard to see that any difference had been made at the encampment of tents in Vancouver’s troubled Downtown Eastside on Wednesday, a day after city staff began what is expected to be a week-long process to remove the structures.

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That’s a good reason, said a resident who goes by the name of Edith Elizabeth: People who live in tents have nowhere else to go.

She previously said residents would relocate their nearby structures so city staff could clean up the street.

“It’s like, ‘Okay, great, knock down our structures and move around the block so they can wash it down,’ and that’s it,” Elizabeth said. “But here, now, it’s like we have to disappear or something.”

Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry ordered the dismantling of tents along the stretch of Hastings Street last month, saying there was an extreme fire and safety risk.

The city has said staff would focus their efforts on “highest risk” areas, but several structures in those areas remained in place Wednesday.

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The neighborhood struggles with many complex challenges including drug use, crime, homelessness, housing problems, and unemployment.

Tuesday was tense, Elizabeth said, with a heavy police presence on the street.

The Vancouver Police Department released a statement Tuesday saying multiple people were arrested after officers were assaulted during a “melee.”

He said staff at a community center had called police to report a man who was throwing computers and behaving erratically. The man was resisting arrest, police said, when “a large crowd gathered and became hostile and combative with officers.”

Elizabeth said police used pepper spray and the incident left people scared.

An update from the city on Wednesday said a large contingent of police officers at the intersection of Main and Hastings in the afternoon “was not a result of the city’s effort to remove structures” but instead stemmed from the incident outside the community center.

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The city said staff aimed to approach camp residents “with respect and sensitivity, encouraging and supporting the voluntary removal of tents and belongings through conversation.”

“We recognize that some people believe the city shouldn’t be doing this work, but there are significant safety risks to everyone in the neighborhood that the city cannot ignore,” he said.

Elizabeth stood near her belongings on the sidewalk where she said she has been staying for about three weeks after moving from another location nearby.

“It’s not like this is a permanent place forever,” she said, though she’s not sure where she might go next.

“As far as options here, there has generally been Crab Park, which is like a tent city,” he said, referring to the tents set up around the park near the Vancouver waterfront.

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Elizabeth said she, like many other people living in tents along the street, doesn’t feel comfortable or safe in single-room occupancy buildings with “horrible” conditions.

The city said staff have been meeting weekly with a community task force since May, and more frequently with members of the Overdose Prevention Society and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users for the past two weeks. .

Staff spent Wednesday briefing residents on storage options for their belongings, the city said.

These included up to two 360-litre storage containers, which were sealed with tamper-evident labels by staff before short-term storage. The city said the bins are on wheels, so owners can take them with them if they don’t want them stored.

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A long-term storage container is also being provided nearby, the city said.

Community advocacy groups, including the Drug Users Network and Pivot Legal Society, have said clearing the encampment violates a memorandum of understanding between the city, the British Columbia government and the Vancouver parks board, because it it tells people to move without being offered adequate housing.

The stated goal of the agreement reached last March is to connect homeless people to housing and preserve their dignity by dismantling the encampments.

The city of Vancouver can enforce statutes that prohibit sidewalk structures “where adequate space is available for people to move indoors,” it read.

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