Injunction forcing campers out of lot on West Hastings delayed
Posted November 3, 2016 11:43 pm.
Last Updated November 4, 2016 6:04 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – An attempt to push out the last remaining campers who’ve occupied a vacant lot across from Army and Navy on West Hastings has been postponed, to allow the campers time to find a lawyer.
A judge has decided to hear arguments for an injunction against the tenters on November 14.
Maria Wallstam with the Carnegie Community Action Project, which has been advocating for the campers, says there’s a myth that these people are refusing housing.
“There is no housing. It’s not that these people are hard-to-house. The housing doesn’t exist. We need to build more housing.”
She says there’s a good chance they can defeat the injunction, just as the first injunction against campers in the tent city in Victoria earlier this year was also defeated.
About ten tents remain where there were about 80 over the summer.
Wallstam says the city has initimidated many tenters to leave.
“People have left, and in the process, and because of the bad weather, there is a lot of crap on the grounds, and the city hasn’t cleaned it up. They are the ones who tried to get people to leave. We’ve tried to get the city to clean up the mess they’ve created.”
The city says it has offered the campers temporary shelter spaces.
Since the camp started, police have responded to around 70 calls at the site, four of which were for assaults.
