CRAB Park residents won't budge with plan to clear site days away
With a deadline approaching fast, none of the roughly 30 people living at a three-year-old camp at CRAB Park in Vancouver had left Friday to make room for a scheduled cleanup.
The City of Vancouver is planning to bring in heavy machinery on Monday to clear the area at the northwest point of the park, which it says is rife with non-compliant structures, combustible materials and unhygienic waste such as discarded needles, feces and rats.
“We are hearing (from park rangers) that the fencing and bulldozing has been moved up one day to Sunday night,” said Fiona York, a local housing advocate.
Postmedia News was not able to confirm with the city whether the deadline was advanced.
Liaison workers from Atira Women's Society tried speaking with residents Friday, encouraging them to sort through their possessions to store at a city or non-profit site so that none ended up in the garbage, but to no avail.
Park rangers rushed in to respond to a fire burning that morning in one of the camp's uninhabited tents. Its cause was not known.
Otherwise, most residents remained quiet in their makeshift homes on Friday.
The city's cleanup plan, which was finalized March 18, indicates that it reviewed feedback from CRAB Park residents, and implemented what was “feasible.”
It says if residents do not move willingly, police could be called in to escort them from the camp.
Residents who move to threeby-three-metre spaces nearby will be allowed to move back into the designated area of CRAB Park once cleanup is completed in early April, the plan states. They are not allowed to move motorcycles, generators, wood, pallets, propane tanks, or building materials that the city claims risk personal and park health and safety.
Park rangers visit CRAB Park three times a day, overseeing the enforcement action and Vancouver police have been ordered to keep a buffer of distance, according to city documents.
Dave Robinson, a volunteer from activist group Stop the Sweeps who has regularly been on site, said he suspects it might come down to arrests.
“The size of the tents and cases they've displayed are too small for most people's belongings,” he said.
The ultimate goal, deputy city manager Sandra Singh has said, is to have all residents of the camp housed indoors as soon as possible and to clear the camp for good, hopefully before next winter.
But advocates and residents are continuing to push back against the disruption and displacement, saying that the cleanup should be halted.
Marie-josée Houle, Canada's federal housing advocate, tweeted Friday: “I urge the park board to pause and work in good faith with encampment residents on an approach that upholds their dignity, protects their belongings and respects their security and human rights.”
More than 200 people, including lawyers from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and law professors from the University of B.C. and Simon Fraser, also signed an open letter, calling on the city to halt its stated plans and allow residents to conduct the cleanup themselves.
“While residents agree and want the tent city to be healthier and safer — and put in hours of work to make this happen — destroying their homes will make people less safe and less healthy,” reads the open letter.
If the city's cleanup goes through, it says “the CRAB Park tent city will be ... replaced by a city and non-profit managed tent city in which no new residents will be allowed to live ... park rangers, backed by VPD will determine who is allowed to live in the tent city.”
It also alleges that February claims made by Amit Ghanda, acting director of parks and the park board, that Vancouver Coastal Health conducted a review of the camp and found a rat infestation, were “to justify the destruction of homes and unhoused people.”
In an email statement Friday, Vancouver Coastal told Postmedia that “at the request of the city,” a VCH environmental health officer did a walk-through of the encampment with city staff on Feb. 20.
“The EHO confirmed evidence of rat activity, and provided advice on strategies to address this,” the authority said, mentioning its recommendation to involve the city's integrated pest management co-ordinator.
“No issues requiring a public health order were identified, and there have been no public health orders issued to date pertaining to the CRAB Park encampment.”