‘The park will be closed’: Minister says no grace period on deadline to evacuate Oppenheimer
Posted May 8, 2020 5:53 pm.
Last Updated May 9, 2020 7:59 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) — The province is saying the order to clear campers from Oppenheimer Park will be enforced by police and “staying there is not an option.”
Saturday’s noon deadline remains firmly in place, according to Shane Simpson, minister of social development and poverty reduction.
“The park will be closed. It’s being fenced. It will be secured,” he said Friday.
“The order will be enforced –officially enforced– as of noon tomorrow [Saturday]. That order directs a number of things to occur, including directing the city and the park board to secure the site, to fence it and to begin the restoration. The police also are directed to ensure the safety of the site, and that includes ensuring that all people are removed.”
Simpson said he anticipates fewer than ten people will remain at the park by the deadline.
According to BC Housing, 227 people had moved out of Oppenheimer and into hotels or accommodations provided by the province as of Friday morning.
Nearly 300 people were living in the park when the province ordered it cleared on April 25, according to estimates from advocates.
Simpson said he is working with the City of Vancouver to make sure the park does not become the site of another tent city.
“The order does not allow for a reoccupation of the park,” he said, noting there have been four previous encampments.
“We are working hard with the city of Vancouver, we’ll work with the park board and others to hopefully ensure that there’s not a fifth.”
He said temporary shelter in hotel rooms or community centres is only part of the plan to assist the homeless people living in Vancouver and Victoria’s parks.
“This is step one and it’s an interim step over the next couple of months, this housing. But the expectation, and our committment, is to be able to access permanent housing that can be made available to those folks moving forward,” he explained.
RELATED: Rally calls for more housing, no forced removal of campers from Oppenheimer
Simpson also responded to criticism that offering immediate housing only to people in the park overlooks the urgent needs and extreme vulnerability of people living on the city’s streets, or in shelters and SROs.
He said there are “critical health and safety issues” when it comes to encampments in parks, which is why moving people out of them is urgent amid a pandemic.
“We have a situation where there is a large number of people, a couple hundred people, housed in a very small area. We weren’t able to provide the health and safety supports necessary, healthcare workers are reluctant to go to the site for personal safety reasons.”
He also said at least 90 per cent of people at Oppenheimer have addictions or mental health issues.
“This is a very vulnerable population. In order to support that population, we have believed for a long time that certainly the best way was to house them in more secure accommodations with wrap-around supports,” he said.
“There will be mental health and addiction services in all of the accommodation. There will be supports for primary care, there’s 24/7 staff in the buildings, and we are looking at overdose prevention strategies to be in those facilities.”
While few remain in Oppenheimer, more than 200 remain in the tent communities in Victoria at Topaz and Pandora Park.
The province will not enforce an order to evacuate people in Victoria for at least another 11 days.
