Unhoused people in Vancouver’s CRAB Park launch human rights complaint against City and Park Board

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal will hear a complaint from unhoused people living in CRAB Park — Vancouver’s only legal encampment that gets services from the city.

Park residents allege the City of Vancouver and the Park Board are refusing adequate services to some members of the camp.

They say the city and Park Board are discriminating against them on the basis of Indigenous identity, race, disability, mental ability, and more.

“[For] the Indigenous, and the people who are older, it makes it extremely difficult. To be honest, some days I’m surprised they’re still with us. I wake up every morning, and check on a lot of these people,” says Clint Randen, who lives in CRAB Park.

Unhoused people have been living at CRAB Park for about three years. Recently, the Park Board stepped up enforcement of tenting bylaws on the south side of the park, which is outside of the legal camping area.

This has spurred ongoing tensions between park rangers and some residents.

“It’s just a bunch of hot-headed rangers who think they’re gods. They come down here, causing problems, get in our face and laugh at us,” said Randen.

Brittany Littlejohn, speaking to CityNews inside the camp’s “warming tent,” says rangers don’t treat everyone at the encampment the same.

“Well, they do pick favourites. They’ll talk to the same people over and over and over again,” she said.

“It’s easy to talk to the same people because those people will do the same, or they’ll listen or they just know them better. Why talk to new people that are going to argue or complain?”

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A spokesperson from the Park Board told CityNews no one was available for an interview Tuesday, but in a statement said the City of Vancouver and Park Board are unaware of any complaint letter from the tribunal, but it “will be reviewing any complaint when we are served with it.”

Steven Adamson, a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal member said in a letter to the complainants the tribunal is fast-tracking the complaint process so both parties can go to mediation in a few months.
Vibert Jack, Litigation Director with the BC Civil Liberties Association said this will hopefully lead to a solution, and pressure the city and park board to come to the table.

“I think that this human rights complaint is a way to continue to advance the rights of unhoused people – beyond just having the right to shelter, to recognize they have the right to live with dignity and that cities need to be providing necessary services to people in encampments who are exercising their rights,” he said.