VANCOUVER -- With the eviction date looming for campers to leave Oppenheimer Park, B.C.'s social development minister says everyone is still expected to be out of the park by Saturday.
Late last month, the province announced its plan to relocate 1,000 campers in Vancouver and Victoria into vacant hotel rooms. At the time, the province said the deadline for all the campers would be May 9.
While an extension on that moving deadline was given to campers in two Victoria parks, people living in Oppenheimer Park will still need to be out by Saturday.
"We've been very, very clear with people that the park is going to close and that staying there is not an alternative or an option. Again, we welcome them to take the housing that's been made available to them,” said Social Development and Poverty Reduction Minister Shane Simpson.
By Friday morning, only a small handful of people remained in the park.
Simpson said that as of Thursday at 4 p.m., 320 people in both cities had moved into temporary accommodations.
As people have moved out of Oppenheimer, workers have installed eight-foot-high, spiked metal fencing to prevent others from moving in and taking over the vacated space.
Most of the 225 people that have been moved from the park so far have been placed in one of several Vancouver hotels, and the province said each person will have their own living space, and access to meals, laundry, washrooms, storage and health care.
A man named Jay who was packing up his belongings Friday morning told CTV News Vancouver that staff from the city’s Homeless Services Outreach Team, which is based at Carnegie Community Centre, helped place him in a recently renovated SRO on East Hastings Street.
“They helped. They helped a bunch of us out,” he said. “They hooked us up with a spot to live, right? That’s pretty cool.”
After two years as a tent city, the park is in rough shape, covered in trash, with a number of large bare spots where the grass has worn away.
“They’re going to have to re-sod everything because of what happened,” said Amanda Zwack, who lives near the park.
She expressed concern that as soon as the park is cleaned up and re-opened to the public, more campers will move back in.
“We should be allowed to enjoy the green space and we’re not being afforded that privilege,” said Zwack.
Simpson said the province is aware of concerns from residents and local businesses.
"I think there have been four encampments over the years that I'm aware of in that park at different times,” he said. “We are working hard with the City of Vancouver, the Park Board and others to hopefully ensure that there's not a fifth."
Simpson said the deadline for people to leave Oppenheimer Park is noon on Saturday and it will be up to Vancouver police to make sure people comply.
