'Nowhere to go': Future remains unclear for hundreds living in tents on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
Several city-supplied storage containers along Vancouver's East Hastings Street are now full to the brim. However, many of those living in tents on the sidewalks and road haven’t moved.
Providing storage for people's belongings in one part of the City of Vancouver's plan to clear the encampment on the Downtown Eastside. However, a plan for where the people themselves are supposed to go has not yet come together.
“There’s nowhere to go,” said Darren Daugherty, who lives in a tent near Main Street. “People say that we can sign up for BC Housing, but, if there was housing, how come people aren't getting shifted there?”
Dozens living in tents on the street started filling out BC Housing forms ever since the City started enforcing an order from the Vancouver fire chief to remove tents and structures in the area.
“We’ve had 1,016 fires with damage in this area just this year alone,” said Capt. Matthcw Trudeau of Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services on Tuesday.
BC Housing admits space is tight and that it can’t currently accommodate the hundreds of people who were ordered to move.
Kristy Wilson also lives in a tent near Main Street and says she’s applied for housing, but isn’t sure she’d live in a Single Room Occupancy building even if she was accepted.
“I’m worried about it, yeah,” said Wilson. “I’m terrified to be in one of those places. It’s pretty sad that I feel more safe living on Main and Hastings at an intersection than in an SRO downtown.”
With a civic election coming up in October, one opposition party says the city needs a new housing plan.
“What we’ve seen is a lack of leadership from the mayor’s office,” said Mike Klassen, a council candidate with the ABC Party. “The mayor has been talking about the quantity of units, but the fact is that we have to look at the quality of units. I mean, how bad do these units have to be for people to prefer to sleep in a tent on Hastings?”
Despite requests to Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s office and the city, CTV News has yet to receive a response on specifically where they expect the people living in tents to go, and when that move may happen. For now, many say they aren’t going anywhere.
“I guess we’ll see in the future,” said Daugherty.
The City of Vancouver has said it’s working with BC Housing and non-profits for possible solutions, including temporary emergency shelters.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.'s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease's progression.
What Michael Cohen said on the stand in Trump hush money case
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
A child killer legally changed his name in B.C. The province is trying to stop that from happening again
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
Behind the barricades: How protesters spend their first days in a new encampment
Students in Montreal describe life in a newly erected encampment in Montreal as a whirlwind of preparations, from facing rain and a potential police crackdown to setting up a space for the exchange of ideas.
Next 48 hours will be 'extremely challenging' for B.C. wildfire crews near Fort Nelson: officials
A wildfire burning dangerously close to Fort Nelson, B.C., has grown to more than 50 square kilometres, and officials are warning that the blaze's behaviour is expected to become more volatile over the next 48 hours.