Some residents cleared out of East Hastings Street encampment moving into nearby CRAB Park

Some of the residents of the encampment in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside that was taken apart this week by police and city staff have moved to nearby CRAB Park. 

Curtis Scott was in the park late Thursday, wheeling a cargo wagon covered with a green tarp filled with his and his girlfriend's belongings, after leaving the encampment on East Hastings Street.

"We just got out of there as quick as we could, we didn't think of any steps ahead," Scott said, adding that he had been living in the Downtown Eastside for the past month. 

His immediate plan was to set up a tent and try to stay dry. 

Fiona York, an advocate for the camp at CRAB Park — a waterfront park just a few hundred metres north of the former encampment — said there hasn't been a "huge influx" of people at the park but people have been trickling in.

York said those people would have known about the CRAB Park camp because it has been around for a couple of years, but they may have preferred to stay on the streets of the Downtown Eastside because of proximity to services and resources. 

"Now the environment has changed a little bit. There's not a lot of places for people to go and it may be more difficult for people to stay in that area," York said. 

Months of tension

Wednesday's operation, which continued Thursday, was the culmination of eight months of tensions over the encampment, and the fourth major one in Vancouver in as many years, as bylaw officers and police worked in tandem over the cries of opposition from residents of the tents and those advocating for them.

Mayor Ken Sim ordered the long-standing encampment removed after the city's police and fire chiefs warned of escalating crime and an unacceptable fire risk.

At the camp's peak, about 180 structures covered the sidewalk along the busy street.

At CRAB Park, York said there are about 40 to 50 tents but conditions are different because a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled last year that residents could stay.

She said residents at the park meet weekly to discuss fire safety and other safety issues. 

"People want it to exist. They want to have access to it until there is housing. People are not staying outside because they want to camp out," she said. 

"They're looking for housing that's actually not a shelter. A lot of people are here because of the shelter system, because it doesn't work for them."

Scott said he and his girlfriend would accept a shelter space if they could find one that would keep them together. Many shelters separate men and women, he said. 

"It's hard to find a solid place to stay," he said. 

'A difficult day all around'

Scott said police officers and city staff "took it a little drastic" in tearing down the East Hastings encampment.

York said it was a traumatizing event for a lot of people who already have a history of trauma. 

"It was very violent, very dehumanizing," she said. "There were a lot of other ways that could have been handled."

The events have made many residents of CRAB Park worried about their future, as well, she said.  

"It was a difficult day all around," she said.