Locals, officials, react to removal of Vancouver’s East Hastings decampment

Locals and officials are voicing their concerns after the decampment of Vancouver’s East Hastings Street ramped up Wednesday.

B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender took to Twitter to share some of her concerns.

“I have been following with great concern the removal of people and their belongings from the Hastings St encampments this morning. My Office has requested meetings with the Province and City of #Vancouver on an urgent basis and expect to meet with both later today #DTES,” a tweet reads.

Dozens of police officers were deployed to assist city crews to get residents to clear their belongings.

Read more: Vancouver encampment on East Hastings removed

Dozens of police officers were deployed to assist city crews to get residents to clear their belongings, with some community groups suggesting around 100 officers flanked city engineering crews.

I have been following with great concern the removal of people and their belongings from the Hastings St encampments this morning. My Office has requested meetings with the Province and City of #Vancouver on an urgent basis and expect to meet with both later today #DTES

— Kasari Govender (@KasariGovender) April 5, 2023

Former Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart also weighed in.

“On October 15, 2022, 85,732 of you voted to elect a new mayor and council who today abandoned our attempts to reconcile with Indigenous people and resume traditional genocidal practices. Welcome to Cruel Vancouver,” he says in a tweet.

Meanwhile, Mayor Ken Sim said in a news conference that 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.”

“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.

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This all comes after 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.”

But in a tweet from the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate, Advocate Marie-Josée Houle says she is calling for a stop to the decampment.

“I call on @KenSimCity and @CityofVancouver as well as municipal authorities to put a moratorium in place on dismantling encampments. I also urge all governments to respect the principles of the National Protocol for Homeless Encampments in Canada: https://bit.ly/3ZxCooN,” the tweet reads.

Police in Vancouver shut down part of East Hastings Street Wednesday morning as part of the city’s plan to decamp the area. (POOL / CityNews Image)

Many of the people living on East Hastings were left heartbroken and devastated as they watched their tents and personal items being thrown into the garbage.

“They were rude to people. They were, they would laugh at them as they took their stuff. Like, this a place where it’s so condensed with mental illness and drug addiction that you think people would be more educated about it but they’re not,” a woman who lives in a nearby single-room occupancy told CityNews.

But one concerned resident says they believe it was time for the city to do something like this.

“It’s high time. You can’t have this, you simply can’t have this. The crime, the fires, the abuse, assaults on women, stabbings, shootings, overdoses, you name it. I don’t know how this even got started in the first place,” they said.

Police in Vancouver shut down part of East Hastings Street Wednesday morning as part of the city’s plan to decamp the area. (POOL / CityNews Image)

Vince Tao with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) says he was on the block all day.

“[With the] concentration of services in one neighborhood, of course people are going to tent on the block, because it’s very close to where they need to go every single day. All of that is concentrated in one neighborhood. Of course people are going to sleep on the street if there’s nowhere else for them to go. So, this is the city’s fault,” Tao said.

“I think that’s the most psychotic part of all this, there is no endgame. The city knows that they can’t remove everyone from the neighborhood, right? They know. They’re lying to the rest of the city saying, ‘Hey, we can fix this problem in one day,’ no, they won’t. This is Hastings. Where are people supposed to go? They’re only going to be chased into the alleyways…back onto other streets and then back onto Hastings.”

However, in March, B.C.’s Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the provincial government will be opening over 330 housing spaces for people living in tents on the Downtown Eastside. The government expects these spaces to be ready in June.

With files from Robyn Crawford