‘This is a humanitarian crisis,’ calls for emergency DTES meeting with David Eby

“Where are people supposed to go?”

That’s one question a Downtown Eastside organizer is asking former B.C. minister of housing and NDP leadership candidate David Eby to answer, as it calls for an emergency meeting to discuss the decampment of Vancouver’s East Hastings Street.

Vince Tao, a community organizer with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), says the order to remove all tents and structures along the street, not just the ones that aren’t “up to code” is criminalizing and outlawing “every homeless person who lives on East Hastings.”

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“Meanwhile, BC Housing has no answer,” Tao said, adding that the housing agency issued a statement confirming that it does not have the housing stock available to house people who are being displaced from the area.

Tao’s statements come as Vancouver Fire Rescue Services issued an order July 25 for the immediate removal of the structures within three days. The deadline was initially extended to Aug. 3, only to be again postponed another week.

At the time, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services admitted that the deadline would likely not be met. However, members stressed the importance of access to windows and doors in the event of an emergency.

On Tuesday, backed by Vancouver Police Department officers, city crews began removing structures from the sidewalks. After city crews had finished for the day, a confrontation occurred between VPD and DTES residents and activists when a man, who Tao says was having a mental health episode, was arrested and “hog tied” before being put in the back of a police van.

On Thursday, VPD confirmed that seven people had been initially arrested, three of whom will appear in court at a later date on assault charges, while seven officers were allegedly assaulted in the incident.

A 44-year-old woman has since been charged with assault with a weapon, according to Vancouver police. Vancouver police allege the woman struck an officer in the head with an object.

“The officer was one of seven VPD members who were surrounded and assaulted after staff from the Carnegie Centre phoned 911 and asked for help to deal with an unruly man who was destroying property and putting other people in danger,” VPD Sgt. Steve Addison said in a statement earlier this week.

VANDU, who is part of the Our Streets team, says on March 31, 2021, Eby signed a memorandum of understanding which laid out a procedure for decampment in the province.

In this memorandum, Section 6 states that the Ministry of Housing will “provide housing outreach through BC Housing,” and will “work with government partners to find and develop temporary and permanent housing options to reduce the number of unsheltered residents in parks and public spaces.”

“Outside of stating there are no housing options available, BC Housing has been notably absent and no support has been offered to residents. There is no housing; only evictions,” VANDU wrote in an open letter to Eby.

Speaking to CityNews, Tao says if Eby would like to be the next premier of B.C., he has to answer the community’s questions. “We’d really like to hear from him… There’s a crisis in his hands, because he was formerly the minister in charge of housing.”

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The City of Vancouver also signed the MOU, and Tao believes the city has been strategic in its language use of “structures” rather than tents.

“The city changed [its language and said] ‘it’s structures.’ No, it’s a tent city, but they don’t want to call it as such, because they would then be bound to their own memorandum of understanding. But they don’t want to do that, because ultimately, they do not have an answer to the fundamental question of where are people supposed to go?” he said.

Police and city staff used to clear tents and belongings off East Hastings Street every morning, but that stopped at the beginning of July after years of opposition from advocates.

Tao says since the sweeps stopped, the housing and toxic drug supply crises have been illuminated even more.

“This week has been very tough for me, because you realize the severity of the crisis, because that’s what the street sweeps did — It didn’t just sweep away the unwanted populations of people, [it] actually swept the severity of the crisis under the rug,” he said. “The housing crisis has produced such mass human-need, which was revealed when the sweeps were stopped for 39 days.”

While the city paused decampment operations on Wednesday to “focus on informing community members of storage options,” the resumed operations on Friday morning after Tao says a text message was sent from the managing director of social policies at the city, Mary Clare Zak, letting them know to expect staff.

The city is providing city-issued residential garbage bins to DTES residents as storage, Tao says.

“The symbolism isn’t lost on residents, or anyone here,” he says.

In a statement Friday, Murray Rankin, the acting attorney general and minister responsible for housing says that housing is a human right and “the deeply concerning scenes from Hastings Street demonstrate how much more work we have to do to make that a reality for everyone in our communities.”

“These are our neighbours, our friends and our family members. While the province is not involved in the fire chief’s order or local bylaw enforcement on Hastings Street, we are bringing all of BC Housing’s resources to bear to do what we can to secure housing for people. I am in direct contact with Mayor Kennedy Stewart to ensure that we are working together as closely as possible with the city to find housing solutions for those currently living on Hastings Street,” he wrote.

Rankin says since 2017 the NDP government has expanded supportive housing and housed over 1,400 people in Vancouver.

“Outreach teams are offering the limited number of spaces we do have available, and BC Housing has further accelerated its efforts to secure new housing and shelter for people on Hastings Street. We are pursuing new sites to lease or purchase and expediting renovations on single-room occupancy (SRO) units as they become vacant, so we can reopen them as soon as possible, remaining mindful that some people are living outside because their current SRO accommodation is challenging, especially in the summer,” he said.

“There are currently dozens of SRO units being assessed for remediation work, and several locations are being explored for additional shelter activation. It is our goal to have a limited number of remediated SRO spaces available next week, with more opening in September and in the fall.”

Meanwhile, the Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society says that while the city said the decampment would be conducted with “thoughtfulness and care of residents and their circumstances”, residents received little information and limited supports to improve safety and livability.

“Later in the day, the presence of over 50 police officers resulted in escalating police violence, including physical restraints, pepper spray deployment, and five arrests.

“We are critical of any framing of this incident as equal violence from both sides, particularly when one side is a group of unhoused residents being displaced and the other side receives over one million dollars per day in City funding,” the service wrote in a statement on Twitter.

“Given the long history of over-policing in the Downtown Eastside, and especially of Indigenous residents, this decampment process is not trauma-informed and does not recognize the needs, rights, and circumstances of our unhoused neighbours,” it said.

Noting that unhoused people are disproportionately Indigenous, the service says Indigenous people were “once again displaced on unceded lands by the same authorities who claim to support reconciliation.”

“We are grateful for the community-led initiatives, such as the Our Streets team, who liaised with the City and empowered residents to help keep the affected blocks cleaner and safer for all,” it wrote.