By Chuck Chiang
The park board says it’s speaking immediately with every of the seven folks nonetheless within the camp positioned within the designated space at Crab Park, with the aim of closing the encampment and returning the realm to “basic park use” by Nov. 7.
In a press release, the park board says all seven folks on website had been supplied shelter beforehand however declined these provides, and 5 of the people had been supplied housing with one individual particularly already rejecting three such provides.
The assertion says “ongoing non-compliance” on the encampment stays a well being and security threat, in addition to an “unsustainable” pressure on the park board’s assets, and concern is rising as winter approaches.
The Crab Park encampment started in 2021, remaining in place in 2022 when a B.C. Supreme Court docket choose put aside eviction notices partially as a result of town didn’t have sufficient indoor shelter areas to accommodate these dwelling on the camp.
In a written response, activists describe the park board’s newest transfer as an “eviction” and criticize town’s response to the camp and its residents, together with what they describe as a “callous response” throughout final weekend’s torrential rain when residents weren’t allowed to erect extra tarps.
The activists additionally criticized town’s determination to finish the encampment occurring outdoors of the courts, the place an “equal platform for a cohesive determination” may very well be reached.
“Each the federal Housing Advocate’s Evaluate of Encampments and the Nationwide Protocol on Encampments stress the requirement for significant engagement and efficient participation, for recognizing residents as rights holders and prohibiting compelled eviction,” the assertion says.
The park board says it’s “dedicated to supporting every individual within the designated space all through this closure,” and anybody nonetheless at Crab Park after the camp closure date would nonetheless be permitted “to shelter quickly in a single day in response to bylaws.”
The board says the bylaw “permits in a single day sheltering with constructions taken down by morning.”
“Given these people have acquired shelter and housing provides, there is no such thing as a longer a good and cheap rationale for these people to have precedence and unique entry to daytime public park area given the opposite over 600 folks experiencing unsheltered homelessness throughout town who’re required to adjust to the Parks Management bylaw,” the park board assertion says in a background explainer of the scenario.
The board says the park serves about 6,000 folks inside a 10-minute stroll, an space with only a few different inexperienced areas close by.
The town had beforehand compelled folks out of the encampment in March to conduct cleanup on the websites, and residents had been allowed to return to the designated space at Crab Park in April.
The cleanup crew eliminated greater than 90,000 kilograms of particles and materials, 20 propane tanks and 6 turbines in the course of the operation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Oct. 23, 2024.
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Final modified: October 24, 2024
