Vancouver encampment on East Hastings removed

In a media availability at 10:30 a.m., Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said that for eight months, city team members have been working “every single day to remove structures, to enforce bylaws, and to help transition vulnerable residents into shelters and housing.”

Sim says the work has been done with “respect, compassion, and patience,” adding more than 600 tents and structures have been removed so far.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, police and fire departments provided an update on the move to shut down the East Hastings encampment Wednesday. (Hana Mae Nassar, CityNews Image)

“Now, unfortunately, things have reached a turning point. … Many of those individuals in the East Hastings encampment have indicated an unwillingness to remove structures or to cooperate with Vancouver team members and every day we’re hearing new and sometimes horrific stories — theft, vandalism, senseless acts of violence, violence against women and more specifically, violence against Indigenous women,” Sim explained. 

“We’ve also seen a sharp increase in fires. Fires that not only threaten the lives and personal belongings of individuals but also they pose a risk, a significant risk, to affordable low-barrier rental housing in the community.”

Sim says he and the city have “said time and time again” that entrenched encampments are not a viable model moving forward.

“And the longer the East Hastings encampment continues, the greater odds that more people will lose their lives, and even more people will lose their homes,” Vancouver’s mayor said. 

“And that’s why city staff with my team made the decision to request support from the Vancouver Police Department to bring the encampment to a close.”

Sim notes the challenges in the area and city “did not emerge overnight and they will not be solved overnight,” but with Wednesday’s decampment efforts, he is confident Vancouver is moving in the right direction.

“We need to restore Hastings as a street that is safe and welcoming to everyone,” Sim said.

Police in Vancouver have shut down East Hastings Street at Main Street Wednesday morning as part of the city’s plan to decamp the area. (City of Vancouver)

Police in Vancouver have shut down East Hastings Street at Main Street Wednesday morning as part of the city’s plan to decamp the area. (City of Vancouver)

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) issued a Fire Chief’s Order in July 2022 to remove tents and structures along the street to address “fire, life, and safety concerns.”

In Wednesday’s availability, Fire Chief Karen Fry said the risks coming from the structures included blocked exits, obstructed fire department connections, and “combustibles” against buildings in the area — including propane and other flammable liquids.

“Since that order, while we have seen some improvements on the street, it has not changed and it is only getting worse. There has been an increase in outdoor fire activities in this area, with an increase of 17 per cent of outdoor fires from January to February of this year compared to last year,” Fry noted.

“Since 2019, this area alone has had an increase of 340 per cent of outdoor fires. This persistent fire risk posed by the encampments and recent fires in the neighborhood has made the situation of East Hastings Street even more precarious since the fire order went in place,” the fire chief said. 

“Over 1,600 propane tanks have been removed — 1,600,” Fry emphasized.

She goes on to note the number of fires the area has seen in recent times, mentioning the explosion and fire on Columbia Street, the fires seen at the Imperial, tent fires, and the explosion of a propane tank at 500 East Hastings St.

“We have had reports of people not being able to escape a building, and we have had reports of firefighters not being able to adequately fight and put out a fire in a building above them,” she said.

“It is escalating and it is untenable and unsafe,” Fry added.

Fry notes the risk to first responders and unhoused residents is extremely high. “We will continue to work with the city to address these serious life safety issues to balance the compassion to the vulnerable populations, but to also address the fire chiefs order to keep the community at whole safe.”

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The city also described fire concerns in an earlier statement.

“The persistent fire risk posed by the encampment and recent fires in neighbouring buildings has made the situation on East Hastings even more precarious. Fires are occurring too regularly in the area and with escalating intensity due to an accumulation of materials and propane tanks. More than 400 outdoor fires on East Hastings have occurred over the last eight months. Four people have already been injured this year.”

In a tweet, the VPD said Wednesday morning that it had “deployed additional officers” to the area, to work “within the Hastings Street encampment.”

VPD Chief Adam Palmer says it is “no secret” that it has become challenging for police to keep people safe.

“The Downtown Eastside encampment is fraught with serious crime, violence, and dangerous weapons, which [have] proliferated in this neighborhood,” Palmer said. “Street-level assaults within the encampment have increased 27 per cent and nearly half of those are now being committed by strangers. More than two times a day, a person is being assaulted in the encampment and approximately one-third of the assaults are serious assaults or involve a weapon.”

“The encampment is unsafe,” Palmer added.

Palmer says police understand there are some who will be unhappy with the decampment. “And while we support everyone’s right to express their opinion, we will step in if there is violence, law-breaking, or any actions that jeopardize the safety of anyone within the encampment area.”

Meanwhile, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) said in a social media post it believes there are over 100 officers along Hastings. The community advocacy group says police “are creating an ‘exclusion zone’ barring community & legal observers from entering” while city crews arrive.

Palmer would not say specifically how many officers had been deployed, only noting the figure was in the “dozens.”

Vancouver police have said that to “ensure public safety and privacy,” they limited public access.

Meanwhile, the City of Vancouver’s traffic cameras showing the Main and Hastings intersection went down just after 9:10 a.m., going live again as of 9:45 a.m.

In the availability, City Manager Paul Mochrie noted it was an “inadvertent technical error on the part of our staff” that led to this outage.

“That was a mistake as we’re working to manage the technology around this, so, once that camera was brought to our attention we did remedy that error. That camera is now online, and then … generally … this is obviously a very complex operation. We are working to provide as much transparency as possible,” he said.

Police in Vancouver have shut down East Hastings Street at Main Street Wednesday morning as part of the city’s plan to decamp the area. (City of Vancouver)

Mochrie says the city’s decision to decamp the street is not a solution to homelessness, and highlights the need for all levels of government to respond to the crisis.

“Vancouver continues to carry an outsize burden of service delivery as compared to other municipalities around the region. Our response to homelessness involves working with the provincial and federal governments to build affordable and supportive housing, support the creation of emergency shelters and advocate for support services, mental health services, and income assistance,” he said.

The city knows there are folks sheltering outside who have declined to move into SROs, Mochrie says, and notes shelters are not a substitute for permanent housing, “but they are warmer and clearly safer than the situations in this encampment.”

However, Mochrie says there are more people seeking housing than the city has available, “that is absolutely correct.”

He goes on to say the city will continue to work with the estimated 100 unhoused folks on East Hastings to find shelter and housing, as “here is a situation where this encampment in its current form is clearly unsafe.”

The city’s plan was leaked to the Stop the Sweeps advocacy group earlier this week, which showed that city engineers, flanked by VPD, will “no longer disengage when tensions rise or protestors/advocates become too disruptive.”

Related articles: 

• Vancouver SRO being evicted as East Hastings decampment looms

• Vancouver police, city works to clear Downtown Eastside encampment

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

Stop the Sweeps describes the plan 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.

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.”