Campers at Oppenheimer Park in the heart of 91原创鈥檚 gritty Downtown Eastside have a longhouse, a firepit and no intention of taking down their shelters until the issue of homelessness has been addressed.
They were given notices by the 91原创 Parks Board to leave Thursday and again on Sunday because camping is against bylaws.
The campers issued their retort in a press release.
鈥淭his land is still First Nations land and is under treaty negotiations,鈥� said Saturday鈥檚 release. 鈥淯ntil that鈥檚 settled, people camping there can stay as long as they need, during the housing crisis created by the three levels of Colonial Government.鈥�
One of approximately 30 campers on the site is Audrey Siegl, a member of the Musqueam Nation that asserted aboriginal title along with the Haida Nation in the Oppenheimer occupation.
鈥淭he intention is to find homes but also to raise awareness of the issue that is underneath why all these people are here,鈥� said Siegl.
鈥淚鈥檓 here because my people have been on this land for more than 10,000 years and we have been displaced for over 500 years,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to stand by and watch and not use my voice while it (displacement) is happening to other people.
鈥淲e will stay here until people have homes,鈥� she said. 鈥淣obody wants to be here. People want to have homes.鈥�
Vision 91原创 city councillor Kerry Jang, who has housing among his responsibilities, said Sunday that staff are working on dealing with the people in the camp.
鈥淚 think the issue is really, do we have homeless people in that encampment?鈥� said Jang. 鈥淚f so, our No. 1 priority has always been to get these guys into something safe.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what our staff are trying to do,鈥� he said.
The campers said in their release that the city鈥檚 homeless count in March indicated there were 1,798 homeless people, 鈥渢he highest number ever counted.鈥�
The city counts the homeless differently, identifying 538 people 鈥� up from 154 in 2011 鈥� as having no shelter during the March count. But a further 1,260 people were identified as 鈥渟heltered homeless鈥� that were living in shelters, safe houses for youth or transition houses for women.
The Oppenheimer occupiers believe the sheltered homeless are still homeless, and they added their total to those with no shelter at all to get their own homeless total of 1,798.
While city staff were reported to have been in attendance Sunday, they were not available to the media and the police presence was limited to one car across the street.
The officer inside promised to forward a request for an interview, but there was no response by deadline.
Parks board chairman Aaron Jasper also declined to comment because he said he had not been informed about the occupation at Oppenheimer.
A call to Mayor Gregor Robertson鈥檚 office about the situation was not returned, although his office did issue a release that he was sending letters to residents along the Arbutus corridor restating his opposition to putting cargo trains back on the CPR line.
