Vancouver Park Board passes bylaw changes, tightens rules for sheltering

The Vancouver Park Board has passed amendments to its bylaw regulating sheltering in parks.

In its previous form, the city’s Parks Control Bylaw allowed people experiencing homelessness to shelter temporarily in a park between dusk and 7 a.m., with limits on proximity to certain amenities including sports fields, pools, beaches and trails.

A staff report presented to the board Monday evening proposed tightening those restrictions, citing the growing number of temporary dwellings, their “impact on public access to park space and amenities” and the “strain” they are putting on city staff.

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Park Board commissioners passed the proposed changes unanimously, with amendments asking staff to ask the provincial government to strike a joint working group focused on park encampments in the city.

The modified bylaw bans all built structures and restrict shelters to camping tents or canopies spaced one metre apart.

It also bans sheltering under the canopy of a tree or within seven metres of a body of water. Further, it allows the general manager of parks to inspect tents in designated shelter areas with 24-hour notice to prevent their use for criminal activities or the storage of dangerous goods.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has raised concerns about the changes, calling them an “iron fist approach.”

“We are in the middle of this housing crisis. We know that there are certain areas where folks rely on public space for survival,” spokesperson Latoya Farrell said.

“We’d like to see the amendments not passed and the Park Board work with people with lived and living experience to establish a better pathway forward than just displacing folks.”

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The vote came the same day that the Park Board said its cleanup of a designated homeless shelter area in CRAB Park had been completed.

Sixteen people who had been occupying the space have now been allowed to return following the removal of built structures and unsafe items, while three people had accepted alternative shelter, the city said.

That area has operated with a special exemption to the city’s sheltering bylaw since the Park Board lost an injunction application seeking to clear the park of campers in 2022.

The Park Board said that designated area will be made progressively smaller as housing is found for residents, with the goal of eventually eliminating it completely.