Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Cleared Out

Police officers standing by as the streets were cleaned up

This morning people who reside on the streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside got a rude wake-up call -- pack up and leave -- now.

The city suddenly announced it would be clearing what is described as an encampment of some 80 people, with city workers clearing out several blocks along East Hastings Street and Chinatown next door, with police officers standing by. One hundred and forty people were involved in the operation.

Conveniently the city's cameras that monitor the area were not working while the clean-up occurred, and media rushed to the scene to document the situation. Tents, tarps, mattresses, clothing, and other detritus were thrown into waiting garbage trucks.

Some 80 tents, stuff were removed from sidewalks

Two days earlier homeless advocates got hold of a document from the city and leaked it to the media, as it said municipal officials were moving ahead to clear the area that has been occupied for years by homeless people.

At around 9.08am, city sanitation workers began removing the 80 or so tents that remained in the area -- there had been a few hundred months earlier. In the last eight months there have been 400 fires set in the downtown east side and Chinatown by homeless people cooking or staying warm in tents, and four people injured. 

In July the fire chief declared the area a fire hazard, but stopped short of sweeping the area clean at that time.

While homeless people had mere minutes to pick up all their belongings and leave the area this morning, their advocates complained these people had no where to go and would be back, that it was not fair to remove them now when there wasn't adequate housing. 

The encampment used to stretch for blocks

When asked by reporters where they would go, the homeless people had no idea, only knowing that they were not wanted in the area, but they would be back, and about a dozen or so did return later in the day.

Although it is good to finally have the place cleaned up -- no more tents, stuff, and human faeces strewn on the sidewalks, where are these homeless people going to go? The notorious single-room occupancy suites known as SROs are uninhabitable with bugs and rats, but at the same time drug-addicted people cannot properly look after themselves either. 

They say they feel safer on the streets, but there have been more assaults, particularly on women.

It's a never-ending cycle that needs to be stopped somehow, but there are no simple solutions, except for more support for treatment when someone wants to withdraw from drugs and finding decent housing for them.

While businesses around Chinatown are breathing a sigh of relief today, the homeless population will be back, and there will probably be another sweep. All levels of government have been sitting on this problem for decades and not done enough to effectively tackle it. 

It's time for a concerted effort. The city has started the clean-up, who will step up next?