A 'sad day' on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside but one we've seen before

The irony was impossible to ignore.

Inside Vancouver's Wall Centre a 48-storey condo of glass named for one of the city's most prominent developers hundreds of politicians were gathered to discuss B.C.'s housing crisis and what could be done to improve it.

Less than two kilometres away wasCanada's most visible tent encampment.

"It is a rare opportunity that we have a federal, provincial and municipal governments increasingly aligned on solving this problem," said Liberal MP Terry Beech, representing Ottawa at the conference.

"This is a window of opportunity that we need to jump through."

That was on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the batons were out, and specifics on what comes next were few.

"This encampment in its current form is clearly unsafe. That's what we have to deal with today. It's not going to solve the issue of homelessness," said Vancouver's City Manager Paul Mochrie, at a press conference where city hall leadership explained their strategy for ending the dense collection of tents that have been along Hastings for nine months.

"We recognize that there will be people sheltering outside. In the city, that's a long-term challenge."

In the city, it's also a giant understatement.

A tent city per year for a decade

"It's really time that the encampment comes down," saidGregor Robertson, then-mayor of Vancouver,nine years ago.

"We're looking forward to a peaceful resolution, but we want to ensure that we've gone through the right process."

That was in 2014, regarding a tent encampment in Oppenheimer Park.

Since then, Vancouver has taken action to remove encampments on Hastings Street and Thornton Park (2016), Franklin Street and Main Street (2017), Oppenheimer Park againand again(2019 and 2020), CRAB Park (2020), Strathcona Park (2021), and now, once again, Hastings Street (2023).

That's 10 tent encampment removals in 10 years, all within a kilometre of the epicentre of the Downtown Eastside at Main and Hastings streets.

That may have been one of the reasons the energy on Wednesday among many people being removed was less explosive and more resigned, as the cycle began anew.

"I'll wait a day or two, and I'll come right back. That's what we did last time," said Krusty Poirer.

"The options that were offered to me weren't good options I cannot be in an SRO, don't want to be in an SRO."

City alignment

The circle of people being offered housing, some accepting and some refusing, and the latter being joined by new people finding themselves on the streets is nothing new.

But what is new is the way the City of Vancouver is talking about it: focused less on the people on the streets and more on the impacts to those around them.

"I would suspect that most people watching this would probably drive through there and think this is not a safe area, and they're right, it's not a safe area," said Vancouver Police Department Chief Adam Palmer.

"So we're there to restore some public safety."

WATCH | VPD chief talks about violence in the encampment area:

Encampment poses too high a safety risk, say Vancouver police

1 year ago

Duration 1:24

Vancouver police Chief Constable Adam Palmer says people are being assaulted in the encampments more than twice a day, about one-third of those assaults are serious or involve a weapon, and that women are reporting being sexually assaulted.

In the same way Beech talked about alignment between governments, there's now an alignment in philosophy between Vancouver's city council, the police department and the park board that hasn't existed in some time, courtesy of ABC Vancouver's sweep of power in last year's election.

"We support all of our teammates, including the VPD and fire, that may have been lacking in the past," said Mayor Ken Sim.

"We're one unified team that has a common purpose."

It could provide a different "window of opportunity" for the city to try a new approach.

Though what exactly it means for the most vulnerable and whether it yields more positive results is a question that will be answered long after the politicians from the rest of the province head back to their communities.

"This is a very sad situation," said David Eby, speaking to reporters at the end of the summit, "and a sad day."