Vancouver’s only sanctioned homeless encampment to be closed by Nov. 7, city says

The City of Vancouver says it volition unopen down the municipality’s lone sanctioned stateless encampment by aboriginal adjacent month.

The Vancouver Park Board said Wednesday that it has acceptable Nov. 7 arsenic the deadline to extremity sheltering successful a peculiar “designated area” successful CRAB Park.

The designated country has been successful spot since 2022, and was implemented aft the metropolis mislaid a tribunal conflict with residents of a stateless encampment successful the park. Earlier this year, the metropolis conducted a monolithic cleanup astatine the tract and constricted the usage of the tract for structure to existing residents connected a registered list.

The metropolis said those radical person since been offered housing, and that it is moving to instrumentality the abstraction to parkland use.

“Given these individuals person received structure and lodging offers, determination is nary longer a just and tenable rationale for these individuals to person precedence and exclusive entree to daytime nationalist parkland abstraction fixed the different implicit 600 radical experiencing unsheltered homelessness crossed the metropolis who are required to comply with the Parks Control By-Law,” the parkland committee said successful a media release.

“The Park Board and City are committed to supporting each idiosyncratic successful the designated country passim this closure and are identifying done consultation with them the supports they whitethorn need.”

Jeremy Omand with the Gastown Residents’ Association welcomed the move.

“Three and a fractional years of radical surviving successful tents successful our park, it’s enough. We’re blessed to spot it go. Everyone has a close to housing, but everyone doesn’t person a close to lodging wherever they please,” helium said.

“There is lodging disposable for these folks, it’s their prime whether they instrumentality it oregon not, but they can’t take to transportation up a structure successful our parkland due to the fact that this is wherever they privation to live, that’s however I feel.”

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But Kerry Bamberg, who has lived intermittently astatine the encampment since it began successful 2021, said the offers of lodging from the metropolis and state haven’t been suitable.

She presently lives with her semipermanent partner, but said nary of the offers truthful acold would let them to enactment together.

“They to this day accidental determination truly isn’t thing for couples. We’ve tried shelters, they don’t enactment for us. There’s violence, there’s drugs … and they ever effort and divided america up,” she said.

“I americium not going to unrecorded without my spouse of 20 years. I’m conscionable not. What are we expected to do?”

The parkland committee said conscionable 7 radical stay successful the designated structure country of the park, 5 of whom person declined lodging and 1 of whom has turned down 3 offers.

It said the metropolis is moving straight with the radical who stay successful the encampment, on with BC Housing to effort and code structure options.

Anyone who turns down those offers tin legally inactive structure successful CRAB Park, oregon immoderate different Vancouver park, nether the city’s sheltering bylaw, which requires tents oregon structures to beryllium taken down each morning.