Eviction deadline given to campers in Oppenheimer Park
Credit to Author: Dan Fumano| Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2019 23:04:50 +0000
The Vancouver park board issued notice Monday morning instructing campers living in Oppenheimer Park to remove their tents and structures by Wednesday evening.
A tent city in Oppenheimer Park has been growing in size in recent months, and there are more than 100 tents in the park.
A two-page notice posted to the outside of the Oppenheimer Park field house Monday morning advised those living in the park that they are in breach of Vancouver’s parks control bylaw, which says no one shall build “any tent, building, shelter pavilion or other construction whatsoever” in parks without the permission of the park board’s general manager.
“Our priority is to support you with moving into safe, secure and stable accommodation,” says the notice, which has Monday’s date and is signed by Malcolm Bromley, general manager of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation. “Carnegie Outreach team members will be in the park and can explain your options and next steps.”
The park was “abuzz,” neighbourhood resident Chris Livingstone said Monday morning in the minutes after the notice was posted. There was a highly visible police presence in the park Monday morning, Livingstone said, along with staff from the park board and fire department. Livingstone, who works with homeless people in his role as peer navigator for the Metro Vancouver Aboriginal Executive Council, lives near Oppenheimer and has friends and family living in the park.
Scenes from the homeless camp at Oppenheimer Park as the city prepares to relocate the campers, in Vancouver, August 18, 2019.
The city issued a statement Monday morning saying B.C. Housing had “identified more than 100 units of safe and stable accommodation for people experiencing homelessness who have been sleeping overnight in the park and who have engaged with the City’s Homeless Outreach team.”
But, Livingstone said Monday morning from Oppenheimer Park, “there is a bit of confusion” among park residents about those 100 units, “because we don’t know where they are, or the quality of the housing. Are they going to move people into SROs? Are they going to have enough for everybody? If not, since they’re telling everybody to disperse and pack up, where would the remainder go?”
The city of Vancouver says the order was issued in response to health and life safety risks in the park and in light of housing options being secured for those living there.
The city says there have been 17 fires in the park since February and police have expressed concern about the number of violent incidents occurring in the park.
Vancouver police spokesman Const. Steve Addison said Monday there have been 21 violent incidents in and around the park in the past week alone.
“The safety of the people sleeping in Oppenheimer Park continues to be our top priority and we are strongly encouraging everyone to work with Carnegie Outreach to move into safe and stable accommodation,” the city said in a statement.
More to come
With files from Scott Brown