Vancouver’s CRAB Park campers await court decision on potential eviction

Clint Randen is just one of the people who call the encampment at Vancouver’s CRAB Park home.

“It’s a good place to be, there’s good people here, and it’s safe. It’s a really safe, calm place for me to be. I’m healthier here, I’m stronger here,” he tells CityNews.

Along with others, he’s anxiously waiting to see if the Park Board will be granted an injunction, which would enable the police to come and clear out the people who have been sheltering there, along with all of their belongings. A decision is expected in the coming weeks.

According to a spokesperson for the board, there are other options available for the unhoused people in the park — many of whom previously lived in Strathcona Park before an injunction was granted.

“The Park Board received confirmation from BC Housing that enough suitable housing was available for all the individuals sleeping in the park. Park Board and City staff regularly check in with BC Housing to ensure enough indoor spaces remain available,” an emailed statement says.

“Pursuing an injunction is not a step we take lightly and is only pursued when all other avenues, such as enforcing bylaws and general manager orders, have been exhausted. With this said, our primary focus continues to be working with our partners to help support individuals experiencing homelessness in the park by connecting them with indoor spaces and other services.”

But Randen says he’s chosen to stay in the park because alternatives like Single Room Occupancy (SRO’s) hotels aren;t actually liveable.

“It’s disgusting. It’s roaches, rats, infestations, lead paint, asbestos. It’s not healthy living for anybody, right? Maintenance workers come in in full hazmat suits and I’ve got to live there? It’s not right,” he says.

“First of all, how about asking us what we need? Aren’t we the ones you’re trying to house? Instead of deciding what we need, why don’t you ask what we need? There’s a lot of us that would be happy to tell you.”

John Gazeley, who has been there since he lost his apartment following a fire that left him badly burned, feels the same.

“It’s good for the most part, except for the cold. That’s a little hard to get used to. The safety and the community’s a little bit better than a lot of the alternatives.”

‘A mat on the floor does not equal housing’

Fiona York, an advocate for residents of the encampment, says even if other spaces are being offered, they aren’t meeting people’s needs. She says a spot at an emergency cold weather shelter, where people have to line up each night, sleep on a mat on the floor in a communal space, and leave in the morning is not enough.

“A mat on the floor does not equal housing, it’s not the same thing,” she says.

“Suitable housing is different for each person, but usually it’s about access to friends and family, and services, and belongings, and storage, and not being isolated — all of those things that really constitute a home for anybody.”

“You can come up with numbers of beds, shelter mats, and indoor spaces, and you can look at the number of tents or people and match them up and say you provided housing, but is that really the case when you’re really

York says injunctions and clearing encampments haven’t reduced the number of people who are homeless.

“There’s still a large number of people who are homeless, many people who are unsheltered. Despite the new units of housing, we still have all of those root causes of homelessness it still continues, it’s multi-generational.
Barring a park or closing a park or issuing a bylaw, it’s not going to stop people from being homeless.”

Crider Cooey, a volunteer support worker, says a Christmas Tree has been set up in a recovery tent, where people can gather to get food and respite.

“It’s an attempt to make something positive out of a holiday season, it’s going to be very cold and wet for the people who live here and all we need is presents under the tree,” he says.

Morale in the park has been high, Cooey says, despite the potential of an injunction and what residents describe as months of harassment from park rangers. A parks board bylaw currently only allows overnight camping in parks until 7 a.m.

“Earlier in the summer, they were shaking tents and waking people up early in the morning and telling them to take down their tents. In the long run, that didn’t happen, so the park board applied for, or at least the general manager of the parks, applied for an injunction,” he says.

Both Cooey and York say fencing put up by the city has made it more difficult for crucial supplies to get into the park, and requests things like salt to melt ice or an additional bathroom have not been met.

Previous injunctions at other parks, York says, haven’t made people safer.

“They ended up going to places that were really unsafe like bridges and train tracks and places that certainly were not housing, and certainly were not as safe as being here in a community that people have chosen to be in together — where there are supports, where there are resources, where there are peers, where there is overdose response where there’s training, where there is food security, where there’s supplies and survival gear.”

That’s why Randen says he “ain’t going anywhere” if the injunction is granted.

“We love this place we treat it good. We want the public here, right? But we need a place to live too, we’re human beings.”