Campers living in Vancouver's CRAB Park relocated Monday for cleanup

All 30 people who were living in tents in Vancouver's CRAB Park have now been relocated, the park board confirmed on Monday.

Most of them were moved a few metres away in the same park to allow city crews to clean up the area. Once that’s completed, in about a week, they will be allowed to move back.

Even though the plans were announced mid-March, and the city said it gave plenty of notice, park rangers and police were met with hostility Monday morning.

Nerves were frayed, and shouting could be heard, but the event was not violent.

"We've engaged very carefully," said Steve Jackson, general manager of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.

"We've given a lot of time, we've shared as transparently as we possibly could all of our plans," he said.

The park board said in January an assessment found that the area couldn't be cleaned by hand. The dangers inside the camp were said to include debris, propane tanks, needles, feces and a rat infestation.

On Sunday and Monday morning, both advocates and campers told CTV News that there is growing frustration as many feel a disconnect between them and the city.

"I think it's a bit ridiculous but we don't get much of a say in the matter," said Justice Raines, a camper.

"The mood is that people are very frustrated by this entire process. There have been numerous inconsistencies; lack of information and it's extremely not consultative. It's absolutely not been respected," said Fiona York, a longtime advocate for the campers.

York has not disputed that the area needs a clean up, but says the process has been rushed and that residents' feedback has not been properly addressed. Last week, she explained that over two dozen campers did their own cleaning of the encampment, and collected a total of 176 bins of garbage and about 600 kilograms of scrap.

A 2022 B.C. Supreme Court decision allows for people to shelter in a designated section of CRAB Park 24/7, unlike in other Vancouver parks where people have to pack up and leave every morning.