It has been a contentious few weeks in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and advocates, as well as the residents who will soon be displaced, are firing back at the City of Vancouver and the BC government.
Community leaders from Pivot Legal, VANDU, and OUR STREETS organized a press conference called #StopTheSweeps, denouncing the “forced decampment” of the Hastings tent city as well as the City and police “campaign of terror.”
Many people spoke at the event, which was situated right outside the soon-to-be demolished Balmoral Hotel on 160 East Hastings Street, just a short walk from the most populated areas of the Hastings tent city. Harsha Walia, the former Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, hosted the event.
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The initial concerns from residents and advocates stemmed from the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) fire order that was issued in late July.
Some advocates claim that the move wasn’t about fire safety at all, because according to them if it was, why wouldn’t SROs be subject to the same treatment? They’ve also claimed that police are criminalizing poverty, something that the City submitted a motion to put an end to in 2021.
One of the people who spoke claimed they were assaulted in the melee that occurred on the Downtown Eastside last week. Community leaders referred to the event as a riot started by the Vancouver Police Department.
Another speaker was Fiona York, a well-known community advocate and a coordinator for the Carnegie Community Action Project.
“There have been over eight evictions,” she said.
That’s eight evictions in just three years. Evictions of tent encampments and cities.
“People ended up going to live under bridges and live on train tracks where they’re invisible. They can’t access services and they’re not being helped.”
She also named VFRS Chief Karen Fry, stating that people had coined a slogan for her when she worked in Nanaimo: Fire Karen Fry.
“I think it should be the same thing here. She’s evicting a tent city where people have come together in community.”
She said she spoke to the residents in Crab Park where there’s currently a sizeable tent city, and the message from those residents was that there was nowhere to go. Many Indigenous speakers, including Judy Wilson with the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, expressed their thoughts.
“The crisis of homelessness on Indigenous lands, and the City and Province’s neglect and criminalization of unhoused people is outrageous. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately homeless in one of the world’s wealthiest cities, and Indigenous women and children living with disabilities are most vulnerable to violence,” said Wilson.
The situation in the Downtown Eastside has disproportionately impacted the Indigenous community.
Wilson said that the current situation is the “last stand” for residents.
A Memorandum of Understanding
Amir Ali/Daily Hive
Advocates are claiming that the fire order issued on July 25 was in violation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
The MOU that was issued on April 6, 2021, was signed by the city, the province, and the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation. It stated that the province would work with its partners to fund and develop temporary and permanent housing options so no one is forced to live outside. The MOU came out around the time the Strathcona Park encampment was in effect.
The intention of the agreement was to help prevent encampments “in the future,” along with ending the Strathcona Park encampment.
Other details in the MOU included the following:
- the province working with government partners to fund and develop temporary and permanent housing options so no one is forced to live outside;
- the city bringing forward available land and buildings for housing or shelter, and to expedite land use decisions necessary to rapidly respond to housing need; and
- the city and the park board enforcing bylaws when suitable spaces are available for people to move indoors.
“MISSING: DAVID EBY”
Amir Ali/Daily Hive
Speakers made comments about former Attorney General and BC Housing Minister David Eby. Eby is currently on the campaign trail, positioning himself to become the next BC premier. Some advocates decried the fact that Eby has remained silent about the events that have taken place in Vancouver over the last few weeks.
The OUR STREETS team sent a request to Eby to attend an urgent meeting. He has not responded to it yet.
“Where the f*ck are you. Pause your campaign trail and accept this meeting now,” exclaimed Walia.
There were also posters of David Eby with the caption “MISSING: DAVID EBY.”
The acting Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing is Murray Rankin, and he did issue a statement about the situation in the Downtown Eastside.
“When word came of the impending order from the fire chief, we were clear with the city and fire services that, despite our ongoing efforts to secure additional housing, we did not have access to large numbers of spaces to accommodate the order on short notice.”
“It’s not a waste. It’s reality.”
A resident shares his story. (Amir Ali/Daily Hive)
While much of the discourse around the Downtown Eastside is filtered through the lens of local media, should that be the case? That’s the question some advocates were asking. They’re suggesting the issues that face Downtown Eastside residents should be looked at not only on provincial and municipal levels but also on a federal level and that it has a place on the world stage.
One speaker named Paul who was from the Our Homes Can’t Wait Coalition reflected on some of the sentiments from the public about the Downtown Eastside. He acknowledged that some look at the Downtown Eastside as a waste.
“It’s not a waste,” he said.
“It’s reality.”
He added that the reason there are so many people on the streets is that SROs are unliveable.
“Third-world conditions exist down here.”
He said that in some of the SROs he lived in, he was forced to walk eight blocks just to take a shower or use the bathroom. In some cases, the bathrooms don’t even work.
“A lot of these buildings are like 100 years old or more.”
He also mentioned that the fire codes in many of these buildings are outdated, yet rhetorically asked the crowd why the City of Vancouver is concerned about fire risk at the park or encampments and not at the SROs.
One key message from the event is that the solution to the woes plaguing the Downtown Eastside continues to be one thing: adequate housing. It seems apparent that until the province and the City of Vancouver are able to fulfill their commitments to creating safe spaces, the situation in the Downtown Eastside will continue to escalate.
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