The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) along with people who lived at the former CRAB Park homeless camp and on East Hastings Street sidewalks have filed a lawsuit against the City of Vancouver to challenge the daytime ban on outdoor sheltering.
Currently, people sheltering in public areas such as a park have to dismantle their tent by 8 a.m., pack up their belongings and leave, according to a B.C. Court of Appeal decision in 2009.
“Every person needs access to adequate shelter during the day as well as at night,” said lawyer Tim Dickson in a news release issued Thursday.
Dickson, acting on behalf of the plaintiffs, said given the chronic shortage of housing and shelter space, the prohibition on daytime sheltering in public spaces denies unhoused people “their basic right to shelter and imposes on them severe, needless suffering.”
“This case aims to affirm the basic constitutional right to shelter during the day as well as night and to uphold the safety and dignity of unhoused residents of Vancouver,” he said in the release.
'More vulnerable to dangers'
The legal challenge is aimed at city and park board bylaws, including the streets bylaw, which prohibits sheltering at any time on city streets and sidewalks. This is the bylaw that continues to be in force in the city-led operation to keep people from sheltering on East Hastings Street.
Under the parks bylaw, the general manager has the discretion to exempt designated areas in parks from the bylaw. Which is what occurred in April 2022 at CRAB Park.
In the fall of 2024, the general manager rescinded the order, leading to a park ranger-police operation to move people out of the designated area and offer them shelter. The remaining residents left Nov. 7, 2024.
“For people with mental and physical disabilities, it is simply impossible to set up and take down their shelter day in, day out, and then carry all of the things they need for their survival around with them throughout the day,” the release said.
“Women and gender-diverse people are made more vulnerable to dangers like gender-based violence when subjected to a daytime sheltering ban. This violates their equality rights under section 15 of the Charter.”
The plaintiffs named in the civil claim are Lindsay (Zee) Roy, a former lifeguard and educational assistant; Brittany Littlejohn, a mother and overdose prevention worker; and Jason Rondeau, a former electroplater.
'A great community'
BIV met Rondeau on April 5, 2023, when the city ramped up its efforts to clear people from sidewalks on East Hastings Street.
At the time, he was packing up his tent outside the Lux Hotel on East Hastings before it could be removed by city crews. He said he had lived on the strip for about a year after being evicted from a single-room-occupancy (SRO) hotel.
He wasn’t offered shelter, he said, before pointing to spots along the strip where he had pitched his tent.
“I've been over there, and over there and over here, just moving around kind of thing because this isn't the first time they told us to get our shit and move,” he said. “They just tell us — go, leave.”
He said he would wait a couple of days before returning to the sidewalk, just like he and others have done after previous sweeps. He said he felt safer on the street than he did in a hotel, which are often in poor condition and unsafe.
“I’ve got my friends on one side and friends on the other side who look out for my stuff, and I look out for their stuff,” he said, as the police line moved closer to his spot on the sidewalk. “It's a great community, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it.”
Gave birth to three children
The civil claim says Roy suffers from a back injury and has not been able to find a place she can afford since 2023. She has lived occasionally in shelters, but mostly in a tent in parks and on the streets.
The claim states Roy has had her tent and other possessions seized by city and park board bylaw enforcement on multiple occasions. Littlejohn had lived in the designated daytime sheltering at CRAB Park from May 2022 to June 2024.
Littlejohn gave birth to three of her children in the years she lived in CRAB Park.
“Access to community, to essential belongings, and to a consistent, predictable place to sleep during the day or night was particularly critical to Ms. Littlejohn’s physical and mental well-being in those circumstances,” the claim said.
In or around June 27, 2024, Littlejohn left CRAB Park by ambulance to give birth to her youngest child.
“While she was in the hospital, parks board employees removed Ms. Littlejohn’s tent, bed, and all of her possessions from the park, including the clothes she had purchased for her newborn,” the claim said.
“When she returned to the park, she was informed that she was no longer permitted to shelter there. She was given no information on how to retrieve her belongings.”
Pause on supportive housing
Both the claim and Thursday’s media release emphasize the lack of affordable housing available for people in Metro Vancouver, where recent homeless counts continue to show an increase in unhoused citizens.
The lack of supports for people living with a mental illness or an addiction to substances also continues to be a concern raised by housing advocates, who argue governments are not adequately responding to the crises.
The claim was filed less than a week after Mayor Ken Sim announced that he will seek council approval to pause construction of "net new supportive housing."
The City of Vancouver has 21 days to respond to the claim and the allegations, which have not been proven in court.
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