The seven remaining residents of Vancouver’s CRAB Park encampment are set to be moved Thursday after more than three years of living there.
The residents have survived numerous city-issued eviction notices since setting up their tents in the waterfront park in 2021, with a B.C. Supreme Court judge voiding the orders and drawing attention to the lack of indoor shelter options.
But two weeks ago, Vancouver’s park board said the final residents had been offered alternative living arrangements and that there was no longer a justification for the encampment to continue in its current form.
City officials said the park poses an “unsustainable” strain on the park board’s resources to the tune of $21,000 per week.
Residents and advocates say that the closure will shatter a friendly and tight-knit community built up over the years, though, and leave precariously housed people with very few options.
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