Vancouver Park Board to detail CRAB Park ‘cleanup’

It appears the Vancouver Park Board is going to move forward with plans to clean up CRAB Park.

The board is set to provide an update Tuesday about its work to “address health and safety concerns” at the space.

According to an advisory to the media on Monday, the board will detail its plans to clean up the park “once people are provided a new temporary sheltering area to go to.”

“The cleanup will result in a safer and cleaner Daytime Area,” the board explained.

Previously, Vancouver Park Board Chair Brennan Bastyovanszky told CityNews the clean up is “not a decampment,” suggesting residents might be told to move to a different area of the park.

“The situation in CRAB Park is unsafe for the residents there,” Bastyovanszky said on Feb. 29.

There are about 30 residents in CRAB Park at any given time. Rangers and city staff have been in the park asking residents to leave at various times over the last few months.

Some advocates have raised concerns about what they describe as a lack of information around what’s being planned. Fiona York, who advocates for those living in CRAB Park, said last month there were “a lot of grey areas,” adding, “the timeline is also very, very short.”

In December, residents of CRAB Park — the city’s only legal encampment getting services from the city — launched a human rights complaint, claiming the City of Vancouver and Park Board were refusing adequate services to some members of the camp.

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

-With files from Kier Junos and Michael Williams