Vancouver would 'absolutely' dismantle another encampment, mayor says after latest homeless count

Amid reports of increased homelessness in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, the mayor of Vancouver said Wednesday that his city would "absolutely" dismantle another major encampment if there were significant safety concerns.

Ken Sim did not give any indication of immediate plans to do so, though advocates have recently sounded the alarm about park rangers threatening to remove some tents from the long-standing encampment in CRAB Park.

"Just this morning, the rangers and police came – with a film crew – and were again harassing the campers," said Fiona York, an advocate for CRAB Park residents. 

A B.C. Supreme Court ruling from 2022 protected the rights of campers to remain in a designated section of CRAB Park full-time, but York said that area is fully occupied, forcing some residents to spill over into other areas.

"Because it's quite small, people have also started putting tents up on the hillside, which is not protected for 24-hour sheltering, it's only protected for overnight sheltering," York said.

Sim held a news conference Wednesday to unveil his ABC council's pending motion to address the city's housing crisis with seven "bold moves," including measures to expedite building construction and increase supply. None of the measures specifically addresses homelessness.

With temperatures beginning to drop, the mayor was asked whether Vancouver intends to tear down any of the city's homeless encampments – as it has several times over the years, including in April, when city crews dismantled dozens of tents and structures on Hastings Street.

"That was to enforce a city bylaw where if we didn't, we could have had a situation where 100-pound propane tanks would explode and take out whole city blocks," Sim said. "So if we're faced with a dangerous situation like that again ... we will absolutely do that."

Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services had raised concerns about safety at the site, where there had been repeated fires and a handful of fire-related injuries, though no official has previously indicated propane tanks posed the level of threat suggested by Sim on Wednesday.

York called the mayor's comment another example of officials "whipping up a little bit of frenzy around the idea of propane and fire risks" at encampments where vulnerable people are keeping warm and trying to survive.

"I really don't see that as being a possibility, taking out an entire city block," she added.

The advocate said Sim's latest remarks about encampments were not a surprise, given that a succession of Vancouver municipal governments has repeatedly dismantled homeless camps and scattered residents from parks and other public spaces.

The last decampment in the spring left dozens of vulnerable residents displaced, and while the city initially made assurances there would be temporary shelter beds available for everyone, internal emails obtained by the Vancouver Sun showed officials knew that would not be the case before evicting the campers. 

"We've traced the history and there have been 10 encampments in a row in the Vancouver area that have been evicted," York said. "The city's approach is just the same old shuffling of people, removing of belongings, evicting, dismantling – not recognizing that people do have the right, and should have the right, to find shelter."

The mayor's remarks also came days after the release of the latest Metro Vancouver homeless count, which found there has been a 32 per cent increase in unhoused residents in the region since 2020.

"There are a lot of reasons why the homeless numbers go up," Sim said of the report. "We could talk about lack of housing, we could talk about socioeconomic issues, we could talk about the economy, we could talk about the cost of housing in general – so that's an ongoing challenge that we're addressing at the city."

Barring significant safety concerns, Sim said the city would take a "very humanistic approach" to providing supports to the city's homeless population.

"We actually had a conversation with the city manager earlier this week, and it looks like we're prepared for when the cold weather sets in. But it's something that we think about all the time," Sim said. "We want to make sure that people who are facing housing insecurity right now are safe."

The mayor did not provide any specifics on the city's plans for the coming cold weather. Normally, when temperatures drop below zero, Vancouver operates basic warming centres to provide refuge from the cold.

Anna Cooper, a lawyer at Pivot Legal Society, said there is tremendous work to be done if the city truly wants to care for its most vulnerable residents, and argued that so far, the current government has approached the issue of homelessness "from a place of ideology and not from a place of care."

"If somebody dies in a tent fire, as frequently happens in the winter, it will be because they have been displaced, they are isolated, and they have not been provided with a safe way to take care of themselves," Cooper said. 

Earlier on Wednesday, the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate released a report on encampments across the country, calling on governments to end forced evictions while also working to address discrimination and violence against those experiencing homelessness.

York urged Vancouver officials to take the report's recommendations into account as they continue to grapple with the problem.

"We need a rights-based approach to encampments – treating those who live in encampments as people who need to be consulted in decisions," she said.