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But, according to the latest count from city staff, about 60 tents remained as of late last week. About 40 residents were still working with staff trying to find suitable homes. Another 10 to 15 people had accepted offers of housing but hadn’t yet moved out of the park. About three people have homes elsewhere, but were choosing to live in the park at least temporarily, staff estimated, and roughly six tents were occupied by activists who are not homeless themselves.

Stewart signed off on the plan last month to move park residents into housing, but as of Tuesday, he said he felt progress had “stalled.”

“We had a good plan that was formulated with city staff and with B.C. Housing, but we’ve kind of hit a point where we have to make some decisions,” Stewart said. With his concerns increasing around safety in Oppenheimer, he wants to seek control of the park.

Stewart would not provide detail about what actions he would take, if given control of the park. But when asked to explain how transferring jurisdiction could improve the situation, Stewart said his office is in a better position than the park board to deal with the federal and provincial governments.

The park board, he said, have authority over the park, but not the resources to deal with the tent city. “They’re equipped very well to handle day-to-day park business. They’re not equipped or empowered to deal with massive social problems in a park.”

“What we’ve got is a city problem that’s taking place in a park. If it was in a parking lot, we would have full jurisdictional control over this, and we could pursue all options,” he said. “So this is a new way forward, in a way. I haven’t heard of this being used before.”