Officials have put up a metal fence around the Downtown Eastside's Oppenheimer Park – the same green space that is currently home to a growing tent city – but the City of Vancouver says it is not a response to the encampment.
The fence could first be seen on Wednesday, some six weeks after city council and the park board passed a motion to provide support for those living there.
But the city has since told CTV News Vancouver the barrier is not a response to the encampment, but a temporary measure as park board staff conduct lawn maintenance at the park.
"A portion of the turfed area of the park has been fenced temporarily to accommodate fertilizing and seeding, as well as irrigation system testing," a spokesperson said in an email.
"City and parks staff removed any garbage or abandoned tents from the area in question in order for this work to proceed. The fencing will not prevent people from erecting tents in other parts of the park. Campers were not asked to leave the park. Parks staff requested that campers in the work area move to another section of the park."
According to the city, the fence will stay in place until mid-June and will be removed before the National Indigenous Celebration planned for June 16.
Councillor calls for provincial help
Last week, Coun. Jean Swanson called for more to be done to help those in the encampment.
"As far as I know there’s no progress made on housing … and I’m really disturbed by it," Swanson told CTV News Vancouver at the time. "We desperately need to get more from the province."
The councillor said she has put forward a motion for the city to petition the B.C. government to build 600 more units of affordable housing in the Vancouver. The province's most recent budget only allocated resources for 200.
Residents of the tent city, meanwhile, say they haven't been treated fairly by police and city staff.
A resident named Terry told CTV last week that police and sometimes city workers force campers to move their tents every morning, tearing them down and throwing belongings out if they're not gone by a certain time.
At the time, Terry said he'd been on a waiting list for housing for three years.
"I do know how to work," he said. "The fact is that housing is so hard to get into."
Tents and other structures have been popping up in Oppenheimer Park over the past few months, similar to one that sprouted up in the summer of 2014 in the same location.
Five years ago, roughly 200 people were living in the park until police and the city moved in – enforcing a B.C. Supreme Court order to tear down the encampment.
One man died in the previous tent city, but his death wasn't considered suspicious.
With files from CTV News Vancouver's Nick Wells
This story has been corrected to say that the fence was erected at the site of a tent city at Oppenheimer Park, but not as a response to the encampment, following clarification from City of Vancouver staff who said the barrier is only intended to help crews conduct lawn maintenance.
