Months before the international spotlight lands on Vancouver as one of the host cities for the soccer World Cup, Jason Grund says he is already hearing concerns from people living in the Downtown Eastside about what it could mean for them.
Grund has been working in the neighbourhood, which includes a large homeless population, for the last five years, and says there is already a sense of fear among residents that they could be forced to move and have their belongings taken.
"We've had quite a few clientele come up, and ... they aren't happy that the FIFA World Cup is coming here to Vancouver," he said in an interview from Oppenheimer Park Thursday.
"One of their reasonings is they're worried that our local municipal government is going to randomly come up with allocated funds to begin the street sweeps, again."
Grund, who works with Watari Counselling and Support Services, is not alone in his concern about the potential for people experiencing homelessness to be displaced during the tournament this summer.
A coalition of about 20 groups in the area say they're worried the city isn't adequately addressing human rights implications and what they describe as "FIFA-related harms" as Vancouver prepares for the matches coming to BC Place.
The coalition, which includes the BC Civil Liberties Association and BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, says the city's draft human rights action plan makes no promises to increase supports for homeless people and leaves open the possibility for the removal of tents and structures from sidewalks and parks.
The 57-page draft report, released last week, says the city will continue to provide services during the World Cup, including "free and low-cost meals, existing homeless shelters, and social and recreational programs."
The report also says it's "important to be transparent that the city's daily public realm management and bylaw compliance work will continue across the city to ensure that parks remain usable by the whole community during the daytime and sidewalks remain safe, clean, and accessible."
Vancouver is hosting seven World Cup matches at BC Place between June 11 and July 7, with FIFA officials set to come to the city for an annual meeting in April.
The final human rights plan is scheduled to be released in May. The city did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Chantelle Spicer, co-director of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, said community groups are anticipating sweeps before and during the games.
"The city is going to want to put what it considers its best foot forward, which is not, you know, very visible expressions of legislated poverty and homelessness," she said.
Spicer said sweeps are not new and cause harm.
"Displacement pushes people to disparate parts of the city, which increases risk of overdose when you have people who are isolated," she said, adding that forcing people to move pushes them away from services they normally rely on.
Nick Wells, spokesman for the Union Gospel Mission, which is part of the coalition, said he's spoken to people who remember being moved out of the Gastown and Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods when Vancouver hosted the Olympics in 2010.
"It'd be older community members now, but (there's) still anger and it's a mistrust of police. And I think that was kind of solidified with the Hastings Street encampments," he said.
In 2023, Vancouver Police had moved into a homeless encampment with city staff, dismantling tents and structures on sidewalks and throwing out belongings.
At the time, police said the takedown was necessary due to the risk of fire.
Vancouver's draft action plan for the World Cup says the city is discussing further potential actions to mitigate risks to people experiencing homelessness "to be included as feasible" in the next iteration of the plan.
Wells said any conversation needs to include people who are directly impacted.
"It's a relatively brief moment in time, but the actions that organizers and officials take for this event can lead to long lasting effects both positive and negative," he said. "So they have a real chance to enact policies that lead to good or that can further marginalize community members."
The coalition says the plan leaves anyone who alleges human rights violations without adequate reporting pathways, pointing them instead to the complicated human rights tribunal process or telling them to call 311, the city's non-emergency hotline.
Spicer said members of the coalition met with city officials the day after the draft plan was released, but they had been trying to be involved in the planning process since 2024.
The statement from the coalition says it has not been effectively consulted with.
"We do not trust that the draft action plan tackles the FIFA-related harms that the city itself has invited by being a host city," it says.
"In the absence of a 'plan' we can rely on, we will continue to find the answers for safety, harm reduction, and care in our own communities."
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
