Vancouver to ‘escalate’ East Hastings tent removals: community advocates

Advocates in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside believe the city is getting ready to remove remaining tents along East Hastings Street in the coming days.

In a release Monday, Stop the Sweeps Coalition says it received leaked city documents that show the city’s intention to begin police-led decampment efforts, including evictions.

The coalition describes it as a “major shift” in the city’s approach, adding it’s an end to the “so-called compassionate approach to encampments.”

“The City and the Province have failed to create enough dignified housing. They’re now choosing to use blunt force to make people disappear from the street,” said Jess Gut, a Stop the Sweeps organizer.

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Stop the Sweeps says the police-led decampment efforts will bring an increased threat of arrest to people experiencing homelessness, with the use of police being criticized by both the Federal Housing Advocate and the United Nations Special Rapporteur On The Right to Adequate Housing.

“All we’ve been asking for is somewhere to go. Instead, they want us to disappear,” said DTES tent resident Syn. “They need to work with us. Bringing in more police will just create more trauma.”

In leaked documents released by the organization, the city says “with VPD support” engineering teams will “no longer disengage when tensions rise or protestors/advocates become too disruptive.”

Stage two of the city’s alleged plan also involves a “significantly larger Eng and VPD deployment,” with an area-by-area removal of “all remaining structures” from the encampment along Hastings.

The documents show the city is also planning to close sections of the Hastings blocks to the public, with “limited in/out privileges.”

The organization is calling for a moratorium on evictions while all levels of government come up with options for housing, “with that suitability being determined by unhoused people themselves rather than the Vancouver Police Department or City Engineering.”

Encampments are not an acceptable model: Vancouver Mayor says

In a media availability Monday morning, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said the city is seeing fires in tents, but it’s not just the individuals living in tents who are at risk — the buildings adjacent to the tents and structures are as well.

“What we’re seeing on the street now is an increased level of violence. The area has become a lot less safe,” Sim said, adding the “large entrenched encampments aren’t an acceptable model going forward.”

“We’ve been working as a city in a very empathetic way to help people off the streets and into better situations — that’s been going on since July and it’s been a City of Vancouver-led thing,” he said.

“What we’re seeing on the streets now is an increased level of violence. The area has become a lot less safe. We’re seeing fires in tents and it’s not just the individuals that are living in the tents that are affected — now you’re seeing propane tanks blow up. So it puts our first responders at risk. It also puts the structures that these tents are leaning against at risk as well, so it’s an untenable situation,” he continued.

Sim also pointed to a recent survey of 50 women that he said showed all of them had experienced sexual assault.

“From the City of Vancouver’s perspective, we will continue the work that we’ve been doing since July of finding empathetic ways of getting people off the street into the housing that they need but also making the place a lot safer for everyone,” Sim concluded.

In a statement to CityNews, the City of Vancouver confirmed the documents leaked to Stop the Sweeps are “prepared for staff-level discussions,” adding it will be continuing to clear the structures along East Hastings Street with the “intent of bringing this encampment to an eventual close.”

“The work is critical in terms of addressing life safety risk and returning the street to diverse activities. The Mayor signaled this intent at last week’s press conference alongside Premier Eby related to the coordinated response of partners in the DTES,” it said.

The city says since the Vancouver Fire Rescue Service’s Chief’s Order to remove structures along the strip came down in August 2022, over 600 structures have been removed from the area. The city notes the encampment along East Hastings had 180 structures at its height.

“The fire and life safety concerns associated encampment remains high. The VPD has reported a nine per cent increase in assaults in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) since last August when the encampment began, with the four-block encampment zone accounting for 28 per cent of all assaults,” the city claims in its statement. “In addition, the VPD has noted an increase in weapons from tents in the zone being used in the commission of crimes.”