The Vancouver Park Board will not apply for a court ordered injunction to evict dozens of homeless campers from the city’s Oppenheimer Park.
Park Board Chair Stuart Mackinnon announced the decision he said was voted on by commissioners Thursday night.
“Clearing Oppenheimer Park doesn't solve the problem, it just moves in elsewhere,” Mackinnon said.
Instead Mackinnon is calling on all levels of government to declare a state of emergency and fund a solution to the homelessness problem in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
The park board issued a general manager’s notice to residents to remove tents on Aug. 19, but close to 40 people are still believed to be living in camps at Oppenheimer Park.
The decision not to seek an injunction was contested immediately by Park Board Commissioner John Coupar, who fears homeless people will start camping at other parks in the city.
“The mandate of the Vancouver Park Board is to provide clean and safe parks for everybody and I think this is a dangerous precedent,” Coupar said.
Coupar was then heckled during his statement to television cameras by two woman claiming to be residents of the tent city at Oppenheimer Park.
