On Thursday, Rachel Nielsen was ready to move from her tent in Oppenheimer Park, where she’s lived for almost a year, to a supportive social housing unit offered by B.C. Housing.
But as she was finishing inspecting the room, even as she had already packed up her belongings and been approved, she learned she would not be able to have any visitors for the first month, including her two children.
“I won’t sign anything that says I have to live where my children can’t come see me whenever I want,” she said.
Advocates and housing providers say poor communication around housing relocation has created “chaos” for occupants of a homeless tent city at Oppenheimer Park. Some homeless remain in the park even after an eviction notice ordered them to leave by Wednesday evening.
Pivot Legal Society staff lawyer Caitlin Shane says that eviction notice and housing offers that followed were poorly executed and have created an air of anxiety in the camp, where roughly 100 people still lived Thursday afternoon.
Police, park rangers and other city staff have been a constant presence in the park. But Shane says their activities, including confiscating items and regular patrols, have created anxiety for some residents.
“None of the authorities are communicating with each other,” said Shane. “You have all these groups operating in silos.”
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Carnegie Outreach staff and contractors have been at the park helping residents who accepted housing offers pack up their belongings.
But Shane says city staff have confiscated tents and personal belongings they believe to be abandoned, sometimes erroneously.
“A woman this morning lost her tent that was full of her own belongings and birthday gifts,” said Shane. “She was in tears. Peoples’ whole lives are in these tents, basically.”
Chrissy Brett, an activist living in Oppenheimer, says volunteers have organized “tent watching” shifts to prevent people’s belongings from being unduly taken.
In a statement to Postmedia News, City of Vancouver communications manager Ellie Lambert wrote that the city and park board “will only dispose of someone’s belongings if that person has moved and confirmed that they no longer want them or if they have clearly been abandoned in the park.”
“Any belongings that individuals might wish to retain will be labelled and securely stored for up to 60 days,” she wrote.
The city said today that is has moved more than 100 former park residents into B.C Housing units and plans to move 30 more. On Thursday, it estimated two-thirds of residents who were present when the notice was signed had been relocated. B.C. Housing says that 35 of the residents accepted offers before the eviction notice was served.
The actual population of the park is constantly in flux as residents move in and out, but on Friday afternoon more than 50 tents remained.
On Friday, the city directed remaining occupants to move to the perimeter of the park to begin restoring recreational space.
Some residents, like Nielsen, say they won’t leave until they can find housing that allows them to have visitors, or that suits their needs.
“That’s a basic human right” she said.
Housing providers, who were not told why they were asked to hold units, have declined to be present at the park, which Shane said was creating even more confusion around relocations.
Portland Hotel Society and Janice Abbott of Atira Women’s Society, which collectively have over 70 units to house Oppenheimer residents, wrote letters to the city saying they wouldn’t participate in the decampment process.
“With such a heavy park-ranger and police presence in the park as of yesterday, we didn’t feel comfortable being in the park doing that,” said Portland Hotel Society interim executive director Tanya Fader on Tuesday. “We want people moving in to be able to trust us that we’re their housing-provider.”
Fader said the city hadn’t asked them to participate and accommodated their request to abstain. Atira CEO Janice Abbott, speaking last week, expressed similar concerns and said her staff would remain in nearby Atira facilities.
Shane says the process feels rushed.
“I think the city was planning to decamp Oppenheimer, and the only way they could do that was present an image of people being housed,” she said.
The park board says it’s still considering its next move. A bulletin sent Tuesday says police “will not remove people living in the park without further legal authorization and notice.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
