By Dave Demers

Everyone should have access to housing yet in Vancouver, the rate of homelessness is increasing. This is more and more apparent on our streets but also in our parks.

The most recent encampment at Oppenheimer lasted more than a year. Then a new one was established in a parking lot by the port, before relocating in Strathcona Park. And there are hundreds more individuals taking refuge in other parks throughout the city.

As this situation intensifies, so does the burden on our park system. As our population grows and urbanizes, so does the need for accessible-to-all green spaces, especially in a pandemic. These two trends play out on the same limited land and yet, are difficult to reconcile.

Social services and supports to deal with homelessness do not fall under the Vancouver park board’s jurisdiction. This lies squarely with the City of Vancouver and the province. However, as much of it unfolds on land we are responsible for, park board staff find themselves boots-on-the-ground, dedicating a growing amount of time and resources to this complicated issue.

It is pulling resources away from the park board's core mandate and is weighing down a system that’s already at capacity (even more so following pandemic-induced labour cuts). While the park board is not structured to address the root causes of homelessness, I still believe it has little choice but to be proactively searching for a constructive and sensible path forward through this situation. 

In the past, encampments such as the one now found in Strathcona Park were dismantled with the help of a court-ordered injunction. Such injunctions often lead to further displacement and endangering of homeless people, and, as we are seeing these days, isn’t preventing a new camp from establishing elsewhere. Furthermore, we now know that the foundation of the legal case for such an injunction is shaky. 

Recent court cases have ruled that a blanket ban on overnight sheltering in parks is in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Our current park board bylaws need to be revised to better represent this jurisprudence, and this bylaw revision is a top priority for us.

Of course, I am not expecting that this new bylaw will solve homelessness, but I’m hoping it will deliver a clear framework to help guide our efforts in dealing with this growing societal problem. I am also hoping that this bylaw will help us better identify the support needed from higher levels of government for its implementation. 

I am optimistic that this support will come. In its latest budget, the provincial government announced $50 million in new funding for homelessness-related initiatives, one of which is a novel concept called "navigation centres". This "enhanced shelter model", if established in Vancouver, could be of tremendous help in providing wrap-around services and support, which the park board has been calling for.

But all of these initiatives take time to shape up and deliver. Right now, a new encampment is growing in Strathcona Park, interfering with the regular park uses of a community with limited alternatives. And I here ask: would the city or the province help us find an alternative, non-park site to facilitate the relocation of this camp, as we work on updating our bylaws and as we wait for additional shelters, affordable housing, and improved wrap-around services?

This would be a short-term solution to ensure that the Strathcona community still has access to its green spaces and play fields. The safety and well-being of all Vancouverites is, this summer more than ever, most important. If we work together, I am convinced we can quickly improve on everyone’s situation.