40 East Hastings residents willing to accept housing as 'challenging' street-clearing work continues

B.C. Housing says 40 people in Vancouver who were living in a Downtown Eastside street encampment being cleared by city workers are open to moving indoors and will be working with the organization to find suitable accommodation.

The agency's vice-president of operations, Dale McMann, was speaking at a news conference Wednesday at city hall, where Mayor Kennedy Stewart reported "good progress'' clearing the street in accordance with a safety order by the city's fire chief.

Stewart says the clearance operation that began on Aug. 9 was an "extremely challenging situation" that has only become more complex.

City manager Paul Mochrie says workers are removing two tonnes of material per day from the encampment on East Hastings Street.

Mochrie says it's difficult to provide a precise number of tents and structures that have been removed, but seven out of 10 zones deemed the highest risk have been cleared.

He says about 200 people are estimated to have been living in the encampment, but the situation has been fluid, with new structures being erected even as others were being removed.

Estimates of the number of people living on East Hastings Street vary, with the B.C. Human Rights Commissioner putting the number at approximately 400.

'We need more'

Nicole Mucci, communications manager with Union Gospel Mission (UGM), says while it's good that housing will hopefully be secured for some people, it's not enough.

"Hundreds of people in the last several months have been displaced due to multiple SRO fires and we've got hundreds of people currently living at CRAB Park and we've got hundreds of people living along the Hastings corridor," she told The Early Edition host Stephen Quinn.

"We need more."

She said UGM, which offers housing and support services to those living with homelessness and addiction, has had to turn people away from their shelter this summer. Typically, she added, they have extra beds during the warmer months.

"It's a very small solution for a limited amount of people," she said.

In advance of Wednesday's news conference, the executive director of the Overdose Prevention Society had hope that officials would announce more housing and places for homeless people to go until housing is found for them.

"Until someone announces more housing it's just going to be really tough to do anything — because you ask people to move, where do they go?" said Sarah Blyth.

She believes the federal government should step in and deploy resources to address the situation on East Hastings Street.

"People haven't really snapped to it on all levels of government," said Blyth. "This is a crisis that I've never seen before."

Mucci said the number of encampments that have popped up over the years demonstrate that current strategies to house people aren't working. She called on government to include those with lived experience of homelessness in decision-making.

"They are the experts in this," she said. "We need to make sure that we all have the same definition of affordable housing and that we are getting that affordable housing now. It can't be a five-year plan. It can't be months and months in advance. We need to figure out how to get folks in safe spaces."

Fire risks cleared

McMann says recent fires at several single room occupancy (SRO) hotels including the Maple, Winters and Princess hotels have displaced dozens more residents and only added more pressure to an already tight housing stock in the Downtown Eastside.

On Wednesday, Stewart said the increase in fire risk and in people living in tents presents a challenging situation. 

"Our job is to balance the fire safety risk with the need of providing housing and compassionate care for some of the city's most vulnerable residents," the mayor said.

Fire Chief Karen Fry told the news conference her July order to clear the street was triggered by a "severe risk of loss of life,'' which included blocked exits, inaccessible fire department connections, and propane and gasoline being stored in tents.

There had been an average of 4½ fires per day in the area, she said, citing a blaze on Monday that displaced dozens of people. That fire was linked to improperly stored combustible material, she added.

"It's not a matter of if a fire is going to happen, it's when it is going to happen,'' Fry said.

She said workers had been training camp residents how to use fire extinguishers.