Vancouver Park Board to close homeless encampment at CRAB Park
Encampment at park since 2021. Court ruled in 2022 it could stay
Vancouver's park board says it has begun the process of closing the homeless encampment that has been in place at a waterfront park since 2021.
The park board says it is talking directly with each of the seven people still in the camp located in a designated camping area at CRAB Park, with the goal of closing the encampment and returning the area to "general park use" by Nov. 7.
In a statement, the park board said all seven people on site had been offered shelter previously but declined those offers, and five of the individuals had been offered housing with one person specifically already rejecting three such offers. However, a resident of the park said he had not been offered any such options.
The park board says "ongoing non-compliance" at the encampment remains a health and safety risk, as well as an "unsustainable" strain on the park board's resources to the tune of $21,000 per week, and concern is growing as winter approaches.
The CRAB Park encampment began in 2021, remaining in place in 2022 when a B.C. Supreme Court judge set aside eviction notices partially because the city didn't have enough indoor shelter spaces to accommodate those living at the camp.
"Our hope is that the advocates that are associated with the designated area will support the remaining people to accept those offers and come inside," said Sandra Singh, deputy city manager at the City of Vancouver.
However, in a written response, activists describe the park board's latest move as an "eviction" and criticize the city's response to the camp and its residents, including what they describe as a "callous response" during last weekend's torrential rain when residents were not allowed to erect additional tarps.
The activists also criticized the city's decision to end the encampment happening outside of the courts, where an "equal platform for a cohesive decision" could be reached.
"Both the federal Housing Advocate's Review of Encampments and the National Protocol on Encampments stress the requirement for meaningful engagement and effective participation, for recognizing residents as rights holders and prohibiting forced eviction," the statement says.
Overnight sheltering permitted
Steve Jackson, the general manager of the park board, said at the Tuesday news conference that the city had consulted with its legal teams over the closure, and the date could be moved based on the consultation process.
The park board says it is "committed to supporting each person in the designated area throughout this closure," and anyone still at CRAB Park after the camp closure date would still be permitted "to shelter temporarily overnight according to bylaws."
The board says the bylaw "permits overnight sheltering with structures taken down by morning."
The park board said that there was "no longer a fair and reasonable rationale" for the individuals at the camp to have priority and exclusive access to daytime public park space.
It estimated that over 600 people experiencing homelessness across the city were required to comply with the Parks Control bylaw.
The board says the park serves about 6,000 people within a 10-minute walk, an area with very few other green spaces nearby.
The city had previously forced people out of the encampment in March to conduct cleanup on the sites, and residents were allowed to return to the designated area at CRAB Park in April.
It says the cleanup crew removed more than 90,000 kilograms of debris and material, 20 propane tanks and six generators during the operation.
Singh said that the city was aware that some advocates were influencing encampment residents to turn down housing offers — and she hoped that city outreach teams would help encampment residents find indoor housing.
"It's healthier, it's safer, and it's more secure for people, and they're able to get well inside. It's impossible to be well when you're living unsheltered," she said.
Resident pushes back against claims
In a response to Singh's claim, CRAB Park advocate Fiona York firmly denied the claim that advocates were telling residents not to accept housing offers.
"This claim is entirely false, and detracts from a deeper issue regarding the availability and access to adequate housing for marginalized communities," she said in a statement.
"The City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Park Board should reflect on why residents might not be accepting housing options that are being offered to them, and if the options that were presented were adequate to their individual needs."
Sasha Christiano, a resident of CRAB Park, said he was never once offered shelter or housing by the city.
"I've been recommended to look into it, but I've never been offered anything by them," he told reporters.
Christiano said the encampment was a "really good community" with no violence or theft, and said that many single-room occupancy (SRO) buildings for poorer people are dangerous for people like him.
He said he would advocate for himself when the time came for the encampment to close.
"If it's one of the SROs, [I'm] very kind of against the organizations that run them and how they're run and I know I don't wanna die there like a lot of people I know have."
With files from the CBC's Liam Britten