Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says the encampment of homeless people on Hastings Street had reached a turning point in terms of rising fire risks and deteriorating public safety.
Last tents to be moved along the two block stretch of Hastings Street on April 5, 2023 in Vancouver.City manager Paul Mochrie said that since last July, the city had worked with the community to remove some 600 tents and makeshift structures from that section of East Hastings and had helped move 90 people into permanent housing with another 160 accepting shelter spaces or referrals to other agencies.
Vancouver Coun. Pete Fry said council didn’t vote directly on taking Wednesday’s action, which the public learned earlier this week was in planning for some time thanks to the leak of city staff report that outlined their plans.The neighbourhood is in desperate need of adequate housing, but it was clear Hastings had become “demonstrably unsafe for pretty much everybody, and we had to address that,” Fry said.
And Ballantyne called it “twisted” logic to address safety concerns in the neighbourhood by evicting people from their only shelter with no other housing options. Most people who’ve left the encampment were offered only inadequate SRO units. “There’s going to be clearly the signal there’s going to be an increased level of criminalization of people who live unhoused,” Ballantyne said.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Vancouver removing tents on East Hastings Street todayThe city confirmed early Wednesday that it will remove all of the estimated 80 tents and structures remaining in the area.
Read more »
Vancouver's East Hastings Street, the day after the removal of tent encampmentsA day after police descended on East Hastings Street for the removal of dozens of tents and structures in a Downtown Eastside encampment, they were back again Thursday morning.
Read more »
City reached 'turning point' in dealing with Hastings Street encampmentVancouver Mayor Ken Sim said City reached a \u0027turning point\u0027 with the Hastings Street homeless encampment, which looks like started with his party\u0027s election to…
Read more »
'People don’t want to leave': Vancouver shuts down East Hastings encampmentThe city is being assisted by Vancouver police to remove tents and structures in the area, about 80 in total.
Read more »
Dozens of tents and structures are removed from DTES's East Hastings StreetBy noon, the sidewalks on the 100-block of Hastings were mostly clear and a street cleaning truck sat at the corner of Main Street waiting to power wash what was left behind.
Read more »