Stop the Sweeps: let’s show up for our unhoused neighbors!

It’s cold and wet again, and the City of Vancouver is making its seasonal concentrated effort to force unhoused residents out of their homes and chosen shelters. Stop the Sweeps is fundraising for supplies to help residents replace belongings and shelters that are confiscated and trashed by city employees.

In addition to closing Vancouver’s only legal daytime sheltering area in CRAB Park, park rangers, sanitation workers, and police are continuing to crack down on people who shelter on sidewalks, in parks, and in other public spaces. During these street and park sweeps, residents who are just trying to keep themselves safe lose not only their shelters, but also precious possessions, personal documents and identification, prescriptions, medications, and life-saving supplies.

The leadership of the City of Vancouver is obsessed with looking like a city without a housing crisis. As the city prepares to spend millions to host FIFA in 2026, government officials’ drive to harass unhoused people to the point of oblivion will only worsen. When tents become more visible as rain and cold weather increase, the City falls back on their usual strategy: evict, evict, evict.

Over and over, unhoused residents have said that shelters are not an acceptable form of temporary housing because of their myriad restrictions and shortfalls. Additionally, housing options themselves come with a host of issues: a lack of tenancy rights, heavy surveillance, bugs, and mould, just to name some. It is not uncommon for formerly unhoused residents to end up evicted and back in the same situation they began in.

As is typical, city officials refuse to acknowledge that people who form communities sheltering outside are there because it is where they currently feel the safest. Stop the Sweeps wants to provide unhoused residents with the means to keep themselves safe in the ways that they specifically say they want.

Below are sample prices of commonly requested items:

3-person tents: $60 each

4 person tent: $90 each

Sleeping bag: $60 each

Thermal socks: $10 per pack

Tarps: $30 each