MEDIA ADVISORY When: Monday October 16, 2023 at 8:30 AM Where: 800 Smithe Street, Vancouver, BC - Smithe Street entrance Who: Our Homes Can’t Wait (OHCW) members, Pivot Legal Society (PIVOT), and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA)

If BC is to implement provincial tenancy laws, those protections must be afforded to all renters, and courts must be attuned to the adverse impacts of carving out whole communities from tenancy rights that they are legally entitled to.

This fall PIVOT & OHCW will be at BCCA intervening in a case that will impact the applicability of RTA on people residing in non-profit, “supportive” housing. Learn more about this case by reading second part of a three-part blog series.

Pivot and OHCW will be at the BC Court of Appeal this fall intervening in an appeal of a judicial review of an RTB decision that found a tenant’s rental housing building, operated by Elizabeth Fry Society, to be transitional housing and therefore exempt from BC’s Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) – leaving the tenant without any legal protections under provincial tenancy laws We know that racialized communities, people on social assistance, sex workers, drug users and other marginalized communities, already face systemic barriers in accessing and maintaining permanent housing, and being carved out of the RTA’s protections would negatively impact housing and tenancy rights for marginalized groups

The City’s enforcement of this bylaw is constitutionally suspect, as it is being undertaken without due consideration of the human rights and social conditions of Hastings Tent City Residents.

We write as seasonal weather changes take place, to inquire about housing plans from the city, province, and federal government for people who shelter in public space, including for the residents of the Hastings Tent City. Members of Our Streets have worked with Block Stewards, leaders and organizers who reside in the Hastings Street Tent City, to develop demands that reflect their housing needs: • Hands off tent cities • A real public option for housing • Real fire safety • Make landlords fix buildings • Protect all tenants’ rights under the law • Power to the tenants • Housing now

PRESS RELEASE - Residents of the Hastings Street tent city (represented by the law firm Arvay Finlay LLP) sought a Judicial Review of the Fire Order issued by Vancouver Fire Rescue Services in late July 2022. The review of this Fire Order and the City of Vancouver’s enforcement actions highlight the gross disparities that people who rely on public space face as they seek shelter in the community now known as the Hastings Tent City.

MEDIA ADVISORY - #StopTheSweeps Denounces the Forced Decampment of Hastings Tent City and City/Police Campaign of Terror in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Hastings Tent City Residents give City of Vancouver and Vancouver Fire Rescue Services an overall "E" grade + Fact Sheet which highlight myths and misunderstandings created by City, VFRS and VPD.

When Our Streets asked questions related to what kinds of housing options will be offered to tent city residents they were met with no response. No plan has been formulated by the city other than decamping the tent city, leaving residents with no place to go and violating the city’s MOU on decampment (“Support for Unsheltered Residents – Memorandum of Understanding between City of Vancouver, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, and Provincial Government”).