Two people were arrested after City of Vancouver staff descended on an entrenched encampment in the Downtown Eastside Wednesday, removing dozens of tents and shelters in a move criticized by some as a waste of time and “oppression.”

The city insists the sweep of about 80 tents remaining on East Hastings Street between Main and Carrall streets was needed due to a deterioration in public safety and an increase in fires. Some who work in the troubled neighbourhood were happy to see it, while others said the campers will inevitably return.

With dozens of uniformed police officers standing by, city engineering staff loaded rented moving vans and sanitation trucks with tents, tarps and people’s belongings. Dozens of black plastic bins, typically used for garbage or compost and labelled “personal storage,” littered the sidewalks.

By noon, the sidewalks on the 100-block of Hastings were mostly clear and a street-cleaning truck sat at the corner of Main Street waiting to power wash what was left behind.

By 2 p.m., police and city workers slowly moved along a two-block stretch of East Hastings, pushing back a crowd pressed up against barricades. The police used megaphones and called on the crowd to “keep moving back.”

Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin said “two people were arrested for assault.”

Visintin said the two were not camp residents and that they were “part of the protesters.”

Garbage trucks and rented moving vans pulled up at the corner of Carrall and Hastings streets as police moved the barricades west from Main. Less than a dozen tents or shelters remained on the sidewalks, most people having packed up and left as city crews cleared the next block.

A small crowd gathered behind the barricades at one corner and about a dozen sanitation workers shovelled abandoned belongings and garbage into bins that were dumped into garbage trucks while two dozen VPD officers lined the sidewalk.

Across the street, crews pulled black plastic garbage bins out of the back of a van and helped load them with people’s belongings. Sanitation crews scribbled the owner’s name on top of the bin in black marker before loading it into one of the half dozen moving vans parked in the street.

Just before 3 p.m. the city’s cleanup of tents had ended.

About 140 police and city staff took part in the removal.

The city said early Wednesday that it planned to remove an estimated 80 tents and structures remaining in the area.

Authorities have raised concerns about fire and other safety concerns, including a rise in the sexual assault of women in the encampment.

City crews had removed more than 600 tents and structures over the past eight months since Vancouver fire Chief Karen Fry’s order to clear the encampment and tried to work co-operatively with residents to move them indoors.

In recent weeks, however, remaining residents have been “unco-operative,” Sim said during a news conference at city hall.

“Every day, we’re hearing new and sometimes horrific stories (of) theft, vandalism, senseless acts of violence, violence against women and more specifically, violence against Indigenous women,” Sim said.

Sim later said in a news release that as of 6 p.m., eight people living in the encampment have requested shelter and have been accommodated.

“Shelter space availability is fluid in nature and we will continue to work with government partners to identify additional capacity and make them available to those sheltering along East Hastings,” Sim said.

For people who must remove their structures and have indicated that they do not have housing and want shelter, the city said it will continue efforts to connect them with available beds.

Jody Peterson had all her possessions — three small backpacks, a sleeping bag and a tent — on the sidewalk just off the intersection of East Hastings and Columbia Street. She had been living in the area for the past eight months and was among those being forced to relocate.

“Where are we supposed to go?” she said. “They are not offering us housing.”

Peterson said she is in the Downtown Eastside because everyone else is, and will probably try to find a place to set up her tent in the same area. She said she didn’t see anyone resisting the move.

Near Hastings and Main, staff at a Chinatown market viewed efforts by the city to clean up the streets and move tents and people out as a positive.

“We all agree they need help — but what is the balance? How much do you sacrifice of the needs of residents, seniors, businesses, shoppers and tourists?” asked a staff member who asked not to be identified.

She said problems for the shop have escalated in the past two years. People don’t shoplift, they steal openly. And if they can’t steal, they vandalize, she said.

She said there are safety concerns, and left-over needles, other drug paraphernalia and human waste are regularly left in the alley behind the store. A fire was recently set nearby.

The problems have gotten so bad, she said, that the 20-year-old business is now on a short-term lease and is contemplating moving — as have businesses such as Starbucks.

“We need a safe neighbourhood,” she said.

Although they were not offering housing, the city urged people to use the shelter spaces for now, with a pledge to try to find them housing later.

The city’s homelessness services outreach team will “remain connected with people from the encampment zone with whom they have been working and support them with access to shelter and housing as it becomes available,” said the city.

Wade Woodward had his belongings packed up and was waiting to see what would happen, as police moved into another section of East Hastings to make way for city workers to clear sidewalks.

Woodward, who has lived on the streets for 30 years, said the police and city workers are wasting their time and money.

“They know as well as we do we’re just going to come back,” he said.

By 2 p.m., Woodward had still not moved his belongings off the sidewalk, but as city crews and police reached him, he started rolling his belongings.

He said he planned to be back, sleeping on the street, as early as Wednesday night.

He said he has been offered an SRO but he’d rather be outside because of the bedbugs, cockroaches and rats in the rooms. The answer is proper housing or even a designated place to put their tents, he said.

Mohammed, who works at a smoke shop along the stretch of East Hastings blocked by police, said it was good that the streets were getting cleaned, but didn’t think it would change much.

“They’ll be back,” he said about people camping on the sidewalks.

Ida Manuel beat her drum in the intersection of East Hastings and Columbia. She’s angry and shouted at the police officers at barricades.

“It’s business as usual. … I am standing alone in tears,” she shouted. A handful of people joined her and chanted: “Shame on Canada! Shame on Canada!”

Others yelled: “F— the police! F— the police!”

In an interview, Manuel pointed to the police presence. “They don’t come in to support. Look, their arms are crossed, guns at their hips. This is oppression,” said Manuel, who is unhoused.

She lives in a vehicle now but has been in an SRO, which she said was unbearable, and also in CRAB Park, all in the Downtown Eastside.

Of the city’s decision to move people off the Hastings, she said: “Of course I am enraged.”

Jason Rondeau, who has been living in a tent with his girlfriend for several months, said he felt “way safer” on the streets than in a shelter.

“I got my community that looks after me,” he said. “If there’s trouble here, I just move to another place. I can’t even do that in a shelter. The SROs aren’t that much better. It’s just a long-term shelter is basically what that is.”

The city said it appreciates the co-operation and understanding of the community during this time, “as we work towards a compassionate resolution” that reflects the city’s commitment to public safety.

City manager Paul Mochrie said some 90 of the camp residents had moved into housing and another 160 accepted either shelter spaces or referrals to other agencies over the past eight months.

Of the remaining people in the encampment, many had refused help in relocation so the city knows that they are likely to move elsewhere. Mochrie acknowledged that the city would be pressed to find shelter space for everyone there if they asked for it.

“We know that the requirement to move around with one’s shelter and belongings is an immense hardship,” Mochrie said.

However, he maintained that the entrenched encampment had become untenable and staff have tried to work “with compassion” to help people move inside.

“Today’s action is not a solution to homelessness,” Mochrie said.

Earlier Wednesday, the city came under fire because the traffic cameras that show that part of East Hastings were turned off.

In an email, city spokesperson Godfrey Tait said the feed for Main and Hastings was down from approximately 9 to 9:45 a.m. due to a staff error.

“We acknowledge and apologize that this was very unfortunate given today’s work in the East Hastings encampment,” he said. “The camera feed is now working as it should.”

More than 400 outdoor fires on East Hastings have occurred over the last eight months. Four people have already been injured this year, according to the city.

Vancouver police also reported a nine-per-cent increase in assaults in the Downtown Eastside since last August when the encampment began, with that area accounting for 28 per cent of all assaults.

The letter said advocates have confirmed that shelters in the Downtown Eastside have been asked to hold beds “in order to facilitate ongoing evictions,” leaving those spaces unavailable to others “who are currently outside and may wish to access” them.