VANCOUVER—The City of Vancouver has won a legal bid allowing it to begin evicting hundreds of homeless people who have been camping in a downtown park.
The Vancouver Park Board was granted the injunction in B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 8, about three months after hundreds of tents went up in Oppenheimer Park, in the city’s poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside.
The order allows city workers to dismantle tents and remove possessions starting at 10 p.m. on Oct. 15 if the campers don’t leave on their own.
Judge Jennifer Duncan says she’s satisfied park board officials will take down the tent city in an orderly and sensitive manner, noting more temporary city housing is slated to open next week.
The camp sprouted up in July in a protest by the homeless campers who said there wasn’t enough affordable housing in the area, although the city claims there is space available for the campers and the tent city poses too many safety risks.
Lawyers for the advocacy group Pivot Legal Society argued against the injunction saying the that the temporary shelter the city has offered is a worse option than sleeping in a park, and that campers were not given enough time to find their own adequate alternative housing.
