CITY SET TO CLEAR HOMELESS CAMP
Plan would move residents from tent city in Strathcona Park to temporary housing
Vancouver's park board and city hall have crafted a plan to end the homeless camp in Strathcona Park. It would move homeless residents into temporary housing, including a site in one of Canada's most expensive neighbourhoods.
The city plans to start housing homeless Strathcona encampment residents into city-owned buildings, including the Jericho Hostel in tony West Point Grey and the 2400 Motel on Kingsway, aiming to close the tent city that grew over the past six months to include almost 400 tents and hundreds of residents.
Postmedia has learned that Vancouver's elected park board commissioners voted last month at a closed meeting to empower the board's general manager of parks to seek a court injunction to clear Strathcona Park, but on the condition plans are in place to move people into adequate housing.
Plans are expected to be announced this week. Although the city has said the goal is to end the Strathcona encampment “as soon as possible,” no deadlines were immediately available.
Since the Strathcona Park camp began in June, it has generated waves of neighbourhood complaints about rising crime.
But park board commissioners had previously held off on authorizing a court injunction for Strathcona, a method which has been used to clear tent cities in various Vancouver parks over the years.
In camera votes are typically kept secret. But the park board chair, Camil Dumont, told Postmedia about last month's decision, after clearing that disclosure with the rest of the board.
“We've authorized our GM to seek an injunction in the courts if need be, but that is all coming conditionally and I think it's being handled as carefully as possible,” Dumont said. “It's conditional on places for people to go being available.”
The new general manager of parks and recreation, Donnie Rosa, who took on the role in late September, is authorized to issue what's known as a general manager's order, asking people to clear the park.
“But if and when a GM's order is not effective, she's been authorized to seek an injunction. But that is conditional on a holistic decampment plan,” Dumont said.
He added that the plan, which is being developed by the city, B.C. Housing, PHS Community Services Society and the people living in the Strathcona camp, will require “legitimate indoor shelter options or housing for people.”
Members of the public, particularly in and around Strathcona, have protested about the tent city and criticized Dumont, his fellow commissioners and other city officials for their handling of the situation.
“We have the willingness and our board to return this space to one that is accessible for all people. But we're not going to do ... an injunction for the sake of an injunction and push people back into the community and out of the green space,” Dumont said. “It may come to an injunction at some point, but that's part and parcel of a larger plan that is basically built in collaboration with the city and the province and B.C. Housing.”
In October, council approved a $30-million plan aimed at getting residents indoors and off the streets and out of Strathcona and other parks. As part of that October motion, council directed staff to “pursue using the city-owned 2400 Motel and the Jericho Hostel for housing unhoused people as soon as possible.” The hostel is empty because of the pandemic.
Now, city representatives have confirmed to Postmedia that both of those locations will soon be used as “temporary indoor spaces.”
In the meantime, the city will implement interim measures at Strathcona to support basic hygiene and health, including setting up a temporary warming tent, shower facilities and washrooms, a city representative said in an emailed statement.
“This is intended to provide some basic human services while the partners work actively to implement the indoor spaces necessary to transition people out of the park,” the city statement said. “To ensure safe operations, the services will be staffed and monitored 24 hours a day.”
In April, the province enacted an emergency order to end a long-standing encampment at Oppenheimer Park, which was cleared out and fenced off. While some Oppenheimer residents moved into social housing, others briefly set up a camp in May on a waterfront lot next to CRAB Park, but after the port authority obtained an injunction ordering them off its land the following month, the Strathcona encampment began.
The city was not able to immediately provide a timeline for when people might start moving into the Jericho Hostel and 2400 Motel.
While the latest developments might provide some measure of relief people living near Strathcona Park, it seems likely city hall could soon be hearing from neighbourhood groups and businesses around Jericho and Kingsway.
And it remains to be seen how this plan will be received by the Vancouverites most profoundly affected by it: the community members without homes, sleeping in a rainy park.