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CRAB Park tent city cleared again

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – For the third time in a year and a half, CRAB Park in Vancouver has been emptied of its campers.

Dozens of people were living in CRAB Park in recent weeks until the space was cleared out by rangers on Thursday.

According to a Vancouver Park Board order, the southwest section of CRAB Park at Portside is being temporarily closed for ground remediation. It’s unclear how long the work is going to take, and fences are going up while it’s done.

Homeless advocate Fiona York says she can understand why people were reluctant to leave.

“Literally, in some cases, people were choosing things like under a bridge. It’s not a harm-reducing option for people. The bylaw, and the order, and the reduction of access to public space is making people choose unsafe decisions,” she explained, adding unlike when other parks were cleared and people were offered housing, campers were only given the option of shelter spaces.


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Shelters, she says, come with problems of their own.

“People lose their belongings, they’re not able to keep track of their belongings, people often are not able to keep their pets with them, they’re not able to stay with their partners,” she told NEWS 1130.

Many people moved into CRAB Park last year when a tent city at Oppenheimer Park was cleared out. Soon after people moved, CRAB Park was also cleared, forcing many to move into Strathcona Park not too far away.

While CRAB Park was cleared out, many people returned when Strathcona was fenced up, leaving many tent city residents once again with nowhere to go.

Advocates have called previous evictions, including from Oppenheimer, CRAB Park, Strathcona, and Raymur Street, “dehumanizing” and “traumatic.”

-With files from Lisa Steacy and Claire Fenton

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