The three-month-long encampment at Oppenheimer Park is about to come down, and none too soon. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is fortunate someone hasn't died there.

The city has applied for a court injunction giving it permission to evict the dozens of homeless protesters who set up tents in the park in July. Affidavits supplied by police and fire officials paint a grim, unsettling picture of a highly combustible situation that has grown more unstable and volatile by the day. It's unimaginable the B.C. Supreme Court won't grant the city its wish to take the tents down next week.

Between July 17 and Sept. 18, there were 364 documented police calls and 170 cited incidents at the camp. A number of criminal offences have occurred on the grounds, including everything from assault with a weapon to cocaine trafficking to pointing a firearm. Known gang members, drug dealers and sex offenders are now among those residing there. There are violent confrontations every day.

Story continues below advertisement

One man living at the park called 911 to inform police he was in a "killing mode" and was going to cut his head off or kill people. Health officials have found tents containing buckets of urine and feces. Rats have been seen roaming the premises. A range of harmful drugs is openly and routinely consumed.

Once upon a time, police would have acted quickly to scatter the protesters before their camp had an opportunity to take root and grow and eventually attract the type of sketchy characters who have been drawn to Oppenheimer. But those days became a thing of the past in December, 2009. That's when the B.C. Court of Appeal sided with lower-court rulings that said a city of Victoria bylaw that prohibited the homeless from setting up camp in public parks was unconstitutional.

The courts ruled that the bylaw violated section 7 of the Constitution, which guarantees "life, liberty and security of the person." The courts said that unless a city can provide homeless people with some form of shelter, they had the right to seek that protection in a tent or some other form of cover on public space. Only when there were enough shelter beds for the entire homeless population could the Victoria's bylaw prohibiting the destitute from camping in public parks be enforced, the courts said.

Which brings us to the situation at Oppenheimer.

The reason the city and police haven't sought an injunction earlier is because lawyers advised them the courts would not likely grant an order because of the edict set out by the courts. (Yet this hasn't stopped authorities in other Canadian cities such as Edmonton from moving in to immediately halt efforts by the homeless to establish semi-permanent tent cities there). Consequently, the encampment was allowed to set in and increasingly grow more unhealthy and threatening.

Now, the city and police believe they are on firmer grounds in seeking an injunction. The mayor's office insists there are enough shelter spots for those homeless living at Oppenheimer.

But beyond that, it's abundantly evident the site has clearly become a public health and safety concern. In fact, it could be argued the matter reached a dangerous crisis point long before now but police, and a left-leaning city government that prides itself on sympathizing with the downtrodden, were reluctant to move in for legal and political reasons.

Story continues below advertisement

It remains to be seen how this ultimately plays out. Some of the protesters have said the shelters that have available space are not fit for human habitation; that a tent at Oppenheimer is better. Some people want to stay, no doubt, because of the attention this protest is attracting. That said, it will be much less fun tenting now that the fall rains have arrived. The weather the last few months has been wonderful for a camp-in. Now it becomes much less so.

It seems inevitable that one day the court's ruling on homeless encampments will produce an ugly unintended consequence. Someone is going to be killed, or die of neglect, and there will be all sorts of legitimate questions about why the city and the police allowed an untenable situation to persist as long as they did.

The city will want to point the finger at the courts, but that will likely do it little good.

The protest at Oppenheimer is a living, breathing example of just how intractable the problem of homelessness is in our society, and particularly in Vancouver. And as an issue, it becomes particularly fraught in a civic election year.