More than 700 Canadian academics are urging the City of Vancouver to stop evicting people from the Hastings Street encampment in the Downtown Eastside and find permanent housing solutions.
Last week, city crews removed dozens of tents and structures that have been entrenched in the sidewalk encampment after growing concerns over public safety and complaints from residents and businesses.
But the academics say the forced displacement of people who have nowhere else to go can have harmful effects.
“These harms include higher risks of violence, especially gender-based violence, decreasing health — both physical and mental, increased overdose risk, loss of connection to community and social services, increased isolation, and even increased deaths,” Dr. Jeff Masuda, a professor of public health and social policy at the University of Victoria stated in a news release issued Friday morning.
An open letter signed by 732 academics from 57 universities across Canada said the Hastings tent city was the result of the federal and provincial governments’ failure to build or support affordable housing, the erosion of income security for residents, and a municipal reliance on private-sector solutions that have led to gentrification in the neighbourhood.
“This systemic failure across all three levels of government is the context for the precipitous decline in Vancouver’s (single-room occupancy) stock, which has been the main bulwark against homelessness in the city until recent years,” they said in the letter.
“In the wake of this failure, the inevitable rise in the numbers of unhoused people in the city has resulted in no less than 10 previous decampments carried out over the past decade, the only effect of which has been to make a terrible situation worse for those caught in the daily struggle to survive.”
The letter was addressed to municipal and provincial leaders, including Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, Premier David Eby, and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon, as well as city staff, health officials, and union leaders.
It denounced the decampment as a vendetta against the poor and said the city’s claim it is acting in the interest of safety has little merit.
The letter called on the city to ensure services and supports are available to people where they are and to redirect public resources toward affordable permanent housing for camp residents. It urged city workers represented by unions to refuse “unsafe and unconscionable” work of dismantling the camps.
It also called on all levels of government to create and provide safe, permanent housing with strong tenant protections to address homelessness.
Vancouver has seen encampments sprout up in city parks and public spaces in recent years, including at Oppenheimer Park, CRAB Park and Strathcona Park, as the city’s homeless population try to find a place to live.
The latest, the Hastings Street encampment, started last July. That same month, Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry’s ordered the encampment dismantled because it posed a fire and safety hazard.
Since then the city of Vancouver has worked with the community to remove about 600 tents and structures from the area. About 90 people have been placed in permanent housing, while another 160 accepted shelter spaces or referrals to other agencies.
According to the city, more than 400 outdoor fires have occurred in the last eight months on East Hastings. Four people have been injured. Assaults have also increased by nine per cent in the Downtown Eastside since last August when the encampment began, said Vancouver Police.
SOURCE: O.CANADA