e¢ Restaurant ‘circuit breaker’ closures
extended until May

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e Virtual Health Week events, dog

A therapy, and more this March
..and more

Controversial Strathcona Park
encampment will be cleared
by the end of April

» The BC Government has + Wiper
allocated $75.5 million to he SS A)
purchasing indoor spaces =
for the homeless Py

 

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Luana Ross
Senior Columnist

 

ancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart estimated that x \
COVID-19 pushed up to 1500 people out of shelters y
due to reduced capacity restrictions. So it comes as ANY Og NOG
welcome news to some that last Friday, the City of
Vancouver broadcast that it had purchased the former 205
Kingsway Mount Pleasant Best Western to repurpose into
68 units of supportive housing. . CPR
Earlier this month, the Patricia Hotel at 403 E. . .
Hastings St. was purchased for the same reason. In Se . . i
total, the city has obtained six hotels to convert. The ee
Government of BC devoted $75.5 million to the three most x
recently attained hotels, and all together the buildings offer > Le = ) ter
340 permanent homes with support for the homeless. y < Ne Ay £ A
These spaces have been purchased as a solution for = ; , ;
pressing issues like the Strathcona Park encampment ne oN Sy ; wh
for example. Because of such, the government will be : S
enforcing its bylaws against camping in the park attheend ep
of the month to clear the encampment. Specifically, an ae or me
order has been delivered that “all existing tents, temporary Z ; ee irs an
shelters and structures must be removed from Strathcona y ; ;
Park by 10am Friday, April 30.” te ;
Similarly, Oppenheimer Park had an 18-month ; ' —_ rab
encampment until May 2020. It dissolved when BC ‘ ~*~ j ie
Housing moved campers to supportive indoor spaces. But — ; ;
the Strathcona Park campers created Canada’s biggest tent ial - orm
city by June 2020—so some are skeptical that the problem 7
will go away so easily. Katie Lewis, vice-president of the
Strathcona Residents’ Association, brings up the concern
that campers will not leave unless what they have asked P
for is given to them. According to The Canadian Press, “A = uf \¥ — —
group representing those in the park has said they want 2 P 4 - - <
residences that are at least 600 square feet, that allow drug i 3 Jf iz nara 8
use and have no restrictions on guests.” In reference to the >;
homelessness crisis, in an interview with the CBC, Anna ——
Cooper—staff lawyer with Pivot Legal Society—says that ~~
“it’s impossible to achieve’ a solution. “For a short period
of time you'll have some people indoors. Then a bunch
of people—that housing won't work for them—they’ll
be evicted, they'll be banned from a shelter, they'll be

on the street again.” The staff lawyer predicts that the garbage” from the park from October 2020 to the end of encampment resident Claudette Abraham reported flames
encampment situation will arise again shortly. She calls February 2021, Levy states that from his experience “they've _ that were about 25 feet in the air due to propane tank
the zero-encampment policy one that does not seem done a half-ass job of cleaning up half of Strathcona Park explosions.
“fundamentally caring, rights-based, or dignified. That [...] There is still endless amounts of garbage there, if you Although there are many disagreements about the
sounds like the policing of unhoused people and forcing go to the east side.” Other issues in the park that have zero-encampment policy and the attempted solutions and
them out of the public eye.’ been reported on include high-profile camper Sandy necessity for bylaw enforcement, nearly all of the people

; In contrast to Cooper's statements, Strathcona Parisian getting charged with killing a senior citizen— interviewed on the subject highlight the importance of
resident and father Adam Levy was exhausted by the and when officers arrived at the park to search her tent, getting help to those struggling with mental health issues
government's inaction in dealing with the encampment. the cops were met with a “volatile and hostile crowd” of and addictions. May 2021 will offer the City of Vancouver
When speaking of the park, Levy stated that in the encampment residents that had to be held back by a line some more insight into their attempt to solve this crisis.

park one will find “condoms and needles, broken glass, of police. Additionally, as reported by the Vancouver Sun,
everything.” While the city has cleaned “over 70 tonnes of

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Photo by Billy Bui

Encampment resident Claudette Abraham reported flames that were
about 25 feet in the air due to propane tank explosions.