Downtown Eastside Cleared
Tent encampments along the street in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood | Photo Credit: Ben Nelms/CBC
After eight months of conflict between by-law officials, police, and locals on East Hastings Street in Vancouver, a coordinated operation to remove the long-standing camp there started on Apr. 5 and carried into the next day. The clearance was mandated by Mayor Ken Sim, in response to the city's police and fire chiefs' warnings about rising crime and high fire danger.
Vancouver city staff and police took aggressive measures to clear out the remaining tents on East Hastings Street after months of softer attempts to convince people to leave.
The police and city employees resumed their efforts to remove the last of the tents, temporary buildings, and a few returning inhabitants on the morning of Apr. 6. While outreach workers looked for shelter options for displaced homeless people, Vancouver Police Department officers blocked off East Hastings between Main Street and Gore Avenue to ensure safety and enforce the Streets and Traffic Bylaw.
Photo Credit: Mike Zimmer/CBC
City Manager Paul Mochrie, Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer, and Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry emphasized that the entrenched camp had resulted in increasing violence, more fires, and more dangerous situations that could no longer be tolerated. Fry cited in The Globe and Mail that there had been 16 fires since the beginning of 2023.
According to The Globe and Mail, Mayor Sim and City Manager Mochrie have both acknowledged that there were not enough housing options for residents to move into, but insisted that the camp needed to be evicted because of safety concerns. Mochrie stated that there were likely not 100 shelter spaces available for the remaining homeless on Hastings, adding that some would have to continue to shelter outside.
Premier David Eby called the situation "very sad" and has admitted that resolving homelessness was not going to happen immediately.
Photo Credit: Ben Nelms/CBC
In the Downtown Eastside, hundreds rely on shelters or live on the streets, and many are struggling with addiction and mental illness.
Most of the unhoused in Vancouver don’t live on East Hastings but rather are spread out in the area. This includes a homeless camp in Crab Park, living quietly in bush areas around the city, in tents alongside streets in the Downtown Eastside, under overpasses and bridges, in parking garages, or in other parks avoiding attention by packing up their tents every morning.
Mochrie stated that the city had no plans for Crab Park because of a court ruling prohibiting the park board from evicting homeless people from the park if there is no suitable housing available for them.