PHS Community Services Society contracted to help fix homelessness crisis at Oppenheimer Park
Credit to Author: Nick Eagland| Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2020 21:18:58 +0000
Vancouver park board chair Camil Dumont confirmed Friday morning that PHS Community Services Society has been contracted to help fix the homelessness crisis at Oppenheimer Park.
Dumont said PHS staff will work on the ground with the support of B.C. Housing and the park board.
“I’m very happy about it because they have an expertise and perspective that I think is different than the government institutions in this matrix,” Dumont said.
“They have really dedicated and expert staff that can speak the language of the neighbourhood and understand what they need.”
Dumont said PHS staff have already been building relationships with people in the park, and have an understanding of the acute situation.
“I think it’s a really important step in what is happening here,” he said.
“It’s particularly important that people understand that these people are being supported in a few different ways.”
But Dumont cautioned that there’s no “quick-fix” when it comes to helping the homeless people sleeping in the park.
Rather, government needs to secure a supply of affordable housing and fix bad policy, he said.
“The fact that we’re taking a slightly different approach still doesn’t mean we have a cultural or social solution to people living with homelessness,” he said.
The encampment at the park began in October 2018 with a few tents and grew to 200 tents in early August 2019.
In December, the park board directed staff to engage a third-party organization to assess the situation and make recommendations for a “decampment plan” to safely house the roughly 40 people living there.
The park board has also authorized its general manager, Malcolm Bromley, to seek a court injunction to clear the park, after certain conditions were met, including the engagement of that third party.
In September, the board had rejected Bromley’s earlier recommendation to clear the park with an injunction.
In previous years, the park board has authorized the use of court injunctions to clear encampments in Oppenheimer, including most recently in 2014.
The board is also working to update a bylaw so that the people sleeping in the park aren’t considered breaking the law.
The amended bylaw would be in line with other municipalities which allow overnight sheltering in parks when no other shelter is available, the board said in a news release.
More to come …