City: 570 structures removed from DTES encampment since August, tensions rising
Protesters held a sign reading “no displacement” and “eviction kills” on Friday, as Vancouver police and city staff continued work to clear a tent city growing in the Downtown Eastside.
Around noon, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users posted photos on Twitter showing a heavy police presence at Gore and Hastings Street.
Members of Car 87—a municipal program that pairs a psychiatric nurse with a plain clothes police officer to attend non-emergency mental health calls—also responded to the scene, according to the tweet.
“One resident has refused to vacate his home,” VANDU said.
Less than two hours later, the group wrote online that its “decampment team” had moved down to Hastings and Columbia streets, where another eviction was underway.
The group also posted photos of items allegedly discarded by city staff—including fire extinguishers.
In an email to CTV News, the city said it intends to bring the East Hastings encampment to an eventual closure—as the fire chief ordered for last summer.
“At the request of the City, the VPD is present to assist our crews in ensuring their safety as they continue work,” the email reads.
“There has been a noticeable increase in violence and tension associated with the encampment zone,” the city said. “While there are people in the encampment who are vulnerable and without housing, many others are not there for shelter alone and are there engaging in commercial and/or illicit activities.”
In addition to public safety being at risk, the city says its engineering crews are “encountering increased aggression” as they conduct cleaning and by-law enforcement.
HUNDRED OF STRUCTURES REMOVED SO FAR
According to the city, a total of 570 structures have been removed from the area since August, when the encampment reached its height of 180 items.
Earlier this month, a spokesperson told CTV News that the number was down to 74.
A variety of options for shelter, housing, and storage are being made available to people living in the encampment, the city said in its statement.
“The work is critical in terms of addressing life safety risk and returning the street to diverse activities,” it concluded.
Since Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry ordered for the removal of tents and structures on East Hastings, she says her crews have responded to at least 370 structure fires in the area.
On Sunday, multiple tents were destroyed near Main and Hastings streets in a blaze that spread to a building before being extinguished. The next day, VFRS wrote on Twitter that another small tent fire had erupted directly across the street.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What do weight loss drugs mean for a diet industry built on eating less and exercising more?
Recent injected drugs like Wegovy and its predecessor, the diabetes medication Ozempic, are reshaping the health and fitness industries.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.