A month after denying a similar motion from the City of Vancouver, the B.C. Supreme Court has granted an injunction ordering residents of a homeless encampment to leave the land.
The injunction, granted Monday morning by Chief Justice Joel R. Groves, means that a tent city set up on a vacant lot at 950 Main St. must be cleared out by Wednesday at noon.
The request was filed earlier this month by a lawyer for Lu'ma Native Housing Society, a B.C. group that owns and operates affordable housing rented at below-market rates. The society has leased the land from the City of Vancouver for 60 years, with plans that include a 26-unit housing complex with about a third of units available at shelter rates of $375 a month. The rest of the units will be rented out for between $650 a month and $875.
The apartments are expected to be occupied by December of next year, the group's lawyer said.
Lu'ma's lease began June 15, and the housing group issued a trespass notice to those currently living on the empty lot.
The camp, named "Ten Year Tent City" is relatively new, but was erected on land used as a homeless encampment a decade ago. Residents started occupying the land earlier this spring, and defied an eviction notice issued by the city at the end of April.
The lawyer, Michael Walker, said 48-hour deadline is being imposed so the non-profit can start work on the land.
"We had to get on site to start doing soil testing, and if we didn't do that now, the capital financing was doing to start unravelling," he said.
"It's just in time and it should be enough, if the campers cooperate, to keep the financing intact."
Walker previously told CTV News that two donors will walk away from the project if ground isn't broken in the next few weeks. One of those donors is the regional government of Metro Vancouver.
The local government donation is part of a federal program designed to combat homelessness, and the rules are that the funding will be pulled if Lu'ma doesn't spend its money by the end of the fiscal year.
The Supreme Court justice approved the injunction to evict residents so Lu'ma can start the construction process, satisfied that there is enough space in local shelters for those forced to leave. But a group representing residents living in the encampment criticized the city for offering only shelter beds as an alternative.
The Alliance Against Displacement said many are opting to live in the tent city because it feels safer than shelters, where residents may have their belongings stolen and there isn't as much of a sense of community.
"We got no showers for us, someone sleeping a foot away from me… No dignity," said tent city resident John Craft.
The camp also feels safer than traditional street homelessness, where people "face harassment and seizure of belongings by police and by-law officers," the alliance said in a statement
Others are living in the camp because they can't live as a couple in most shelters and supportive housing alternatives, the statement said. They added that it can be difficult to find other options, like affordable single-room occupancy (SRO) housing, especially in the wake of the Balmoral Hotel closure.
An organizer with the alliance said the encampment provides "what the government is not: safety, stability and shelter."
"What we're fighting for is homeless people's rights to stay on public land. It's a very small ask and basic," Maria Wallstam said.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Shannon Paterson, Breanna Karstens-Smith and Jon Woodward
