The Vancouver Police Department has once again called for an injunction at Oppenheimer Park to clear campers out, and again the park board chair is saying no.

“This problem of crime in this neighbourhood is not because of Oppenheimer,” said board chair Stuart Mackinnon. “Oppenheimer is a symptom not the cause.”

Police held a news conference Monday about the three shootings that took place in the pan of 15 hours on the Downtown Eastside, and suggested Oppenheimer is becoming a target for crime. It was the second time in less than a week that authorities called for a new injunction at the park.

“Oppenheimer Park right now is acting like a magnet it’s drawing the criminal element into the park that was otherwise untapped, didn’t exist before,” said Deputy Chief Constable Howard Chow. “Everybody’s vying for that piece of the action.”

The Strathcona Business Improvement Association has also expressed concerns about what's happening in the park.

"Paramount is the feeling of are we safe? And what happens next?" said executive director Theo Lamb.

Injunctions were ordered in 2014 and 2008 to clear out Oppenheimer Park when violence ramped up around the tent cities that existed then. Chow said he wants to see an injunction used again, arguing that it worked to address violence then and could again now.

"It cleared out the park. The criminal element went back to where they were," he said.

But Mackinnon told CTV News in an interview the 2014 injunction worked because the city had a plan.

“They had a hotel that the residents of Oppenheimer were able to move into,” he said. Mackinnon went on to say that when Mayor Kennedy Stewart reached out to offer to have the city take over jurisdiction of the park, he was told Stewart had a plan.

“We responded that if he would take his plan to city council and get it approval that we would consider it. We’ve not heard back from the mayor,” he said.

On Monday, Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the city was waiting to see how the park board would respond to the problem, but signalled that hte faster Oppenheimer returns to normal operations, the better.

“The situation at Oppenheimer Park is drawing [police] resources out of other communities,” Stewart said.

Mackinnon told CTV News there should be another group of modular housing units that come available in February, so they only need a temporary solution for the next few months.

He listed an intentional camp set up by the city as an option or renting a hotel or motel in the city for them as another.

BC Housing told CTV News in a statement it is working on a modular housing project located at Vanness Avenue and Nanaimo Street that will have 58 units. It won’t be ready until early 2020.

Premier John Horgan was also asked about Oppenheimer at a news conference Tuesday. He said the issues are "squarely in the lap of the City of Vancouver,” and that the province will continue to work with both the city and park board going forward.

While board chair Mackinnon has pushed back against the idea of using an injunction to clear the park, he also said he's not ruling it out as an option.