Violence in park on top cop’s radar
Farnworth meets with mayor over crime around tent city
B.C.’s top cop is “very concerned” about the sprawling tent camp at Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that has stood its ground for more than a year now.
Mike Farnworth, the province’s minister of public safety and solicitor general, met with Vancouver
Mayor Kennedy Stewart in Victoria this week, where they discussed the camp after a 53-year-old Powell River woman was shot in a vehicle west of the park. The shooting was the latest in a string of serious violent acts in and around Oppenheimer Park and it comes amid an ongoing gang turf war.
But the minister said policing remains the city’s responsibility, and it’s unclear what the province could do to assist Vancouver, where jurisdictional divisions and a lack of consensus across party lines have led to political gridlock and a lack of action.
Farnworth said he’s willing to help out, but the city has not asked for anything specific.
“If there are things we’re able to do, we’d be prepared to consider them,” the minister said.
Stewart sought to take temporary control over Oppenheimer from the park board late last summer, but the board rejected the idea. Later, Green and COPE board members defeated their NPA counterparts in a vote and rejected a recommendation from the park board’s general manager to seek an injunction to clear the tent city.
Then, in early fall, park board members voted to support a goal of “voluntary decampment.”
Service providers in the Downtown Eastside are calling for help.
Jeremy Hunka, a spokesman for the Union Gospel Mission, said his organization was concerned with the safety and well-being of those living in the park.
“We need to get people moved into housing. What’s happening with the park is not sustainable. It’s not the best place for people to be. It’s bad and a struggle, and it’s damaging and heartbreak to the extreme,” Hunka said.
“At the same time, we don’t believe that just displacing people that are already on the street into another area up the street is the right answer. It’s not going to solve the problem. We want to see people get into housing, we want to see people get into recovery programs or get wraparound supports that can help them.”
The city said its outreach workers are in regular contact with about 50 people who frequently sleep in the park. There are others who sleep there intermittently, but have opted not to engage with the workers, according to the city. There are more than 100 tents in Oppenheimer Park, but some are empty, according to the city’s count.
When asked about the feeling of safety in the area, Hunka said the mission’s outreach workers had no concern going into the park. And he said he had spoken to a resident who claimed to feel more safe inside the tent camp than outside of it due to a sense of “safety in numbers.”
But Hunka said shootings and reports of violence in and around the park remain distressing.
“Unfortunately, people who are homeless are typically victims of any violence that happens nearby. If there’s nothing between you and a shooting except for a thin tent, then you’re extremely vulnerable.”
Vancouver police have raised concerns in recent months about deteriorating public safety in the area. Last month, police said emergency calls to Oppenheimer Park had increased by 87 per cent from June to August this year, compared to 2018.
Police Chief Adam Palmer said earlier this year several gangs were “jockeying for position” in the area, including the UN, the Wolfpack and Middle Eastern organized crime operators.
If there’s nothing between you and a shooting except for a thin tent, then you’re extremely vulnerable.