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Calls for homeless camp to be shut in Vancouver park as council considers plan
BY , Oct 7, 2020 11:12 PM - REPORT AN ERROR
Katie Lewis, vice-president of the Strathcona Residents' Association, poses for a photograph at a homeless encampment at Strathcona Park, in Vancouver, on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. Residents of the neighbourhood were used to a few people sleeping overnight in a park before moving on, but they weren't prepared for an entire village of homeless campers still occupying 400 tents after over three months. They have been demanding the city take action to house campers, especially as concerns have mounted about the spread of COVID-19 among hundreds of people living in tight quarters. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Residents of a Vancouver neighbourhood want the city to shut down a homeless encampment at a park where people have been living in about 400 tents since the summer.
Kelsey Mulyk says families in Strathcona have lost use of the park in June. Data from police show calls to the area more than tripled between June and September compared with the same period last year.
Mayor Kennedy Stewart has called a special council meeting for tomorrow night on the city's homelessness problem.
He wants councillors to approve his 30-million-dollar plan to buy or lease hotels and vacant commercial buildings to house about 750 homeless people in the city.
He says that's the best option to get funding from the provincial and federal governments because other ideas councillors have come up with, including putting tents on the lawn of city hall, are not workable in the long term.
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