Park rangers on patrol for abandoned squatter tents

Park rangers continue to remove abandoned tents and other temporary housing in Stanley Park, the city's director of parks said Monday.

Amit Gandha said it is difficult to determine how many people are living in the forests in the 1,000-acre urban park.

“Some tents are occupied, others abandoned. Some will move from location to location, or they rebuild somewhere else,” Gandha said.

Some of the first squatters in the region set up camp in the 1860s in what would later become Stanley Park, the traditional territory of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. At one time, there were several squatter communities in Metro Vancouver along the foreshore. One that survives is Finn Slough in Richmond.

Gandha said park rangers regularly walk through Stanley Park to look for people who are living in tents and temporary structures. The goal is to help them find permanent housing or to connect them with social services.

“Whenever possible, they will remove tents and debris that have been left or abandoned,” he said. “We're not in there moving people out of the park.”

He said rangers are focused on keeping the park clean and reducing fire hazards. As well, once debris is removed from a temporary living site, park board staff work to plant native species so invasive types such as Himalayan blackberry and English ivy don't become established.