Tent-city campers seek after-hours refuge in the park

Expanding Oppenheimer Park settlement sparks controversy in community as police stop overnight bylaw enforcement

ROBERT MATAS
Globe and Mail
July 31, 2008

VANCOUVER -- Brian Humchitt is, as authorities say, of no fixed address. He speaks more plainly. "I don't have a home. I'm homeless," the 50-year-old unemployed labourer says.

Mr. Humchitt was one of the first this spring to settle into Oppenheimer Park, a small city block of open field bordered by a few trees in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

He began sleeping under a tree wrapped in his blankets seven weeks ago. Now, as many as 80 people are spending the night in the park. About half of the people are genuinely homeless, according to a police estimate. Some are camping out in solidarity with the homeless; others are just camping out.

Vancouver police initially tried to run them off. Police officers accompanied by park officials issued fines for violation of a city bylaw that prohibits erecting structures and sleeping overnight in the park. They hauled off some of the possessions of the homeless and put them in storage.

But earlier this month, police suddenly stopped trying to enforce the city bylaw.

Instead, they decided to listen more closely to what Mr. Humchitt was saying.

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See also Homeless fight against $75 fine for erecting tents