A formerly homeless man is challenging the constitutionality of three City of Vancouver bylaws that prohibit sleeping on streets or in parks and erecting a shelter on city property.

Clarence Taylor, 57, says the bylaws violate his right to life, liberty and security of person. The Pivot Legal Society is filing a lawsuit on his behalf Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court.

“We’re challenging the constitutionality of these bylaws because they increase the harm to homeless people sleeping outside,” said Pivot lawyer Scott Bernstein. “They’re going to sleep in an area that’s hidden and away and dark, so it makes them targets, it brings them out of the public space and puts their life in danger ... And the fact that they can’t shelter themselves obviously can lead to sickness and health and exposure.”

Taylor, who now lives in a subsidized B.C. Housing complex, slept on the streets and in parks from 2009 to 2011 after several years in single-rate occupancy hotels.

“Over the course of 2009, I moved to approximately 40 or 50 different places to try to sleep outside,” he stated in his affidavit.

“I tried to go to the Central City Shelter on Main and Terminal, but I didn’t feel safe there because the shelter was filled with drug users.” He said people were routinely violent, regardless of the shelter.

Throughout 2009, Taylor received eight $25 bylaw violation tickets and says he was approached by police or city engineers about 100 times for sleeping outside or having a structure — in his case, a tarp and his shopping cart of possessions — on city property.

Councillor Kerry Jang, who in the past has advocated for homeless shelters and low-income housing, says the bylaws should not be altered precisely to protect homeless people.

“Ethically I just cannot condone that. Once you allow a bylaw to allow a homeless person to sleep on the street, that means you’re absolved of any responsibility to them. And for me that’s just wrong,” he said.

Jang, who spoke to The Vancouver Sun from Hong Kong where he is meeting officials on housing issues, said the bylaws were originally intended to keep streets clear of obstructions and people from freezing to death, among other health hazards.

“It’s not whether it’s somebody’s right or not — let’s just ignore that kind of outdated question — the real task for the city is actually building housing, everything from shelters straight through to affordable home ownership to help people get off the street and help people not become homeless.”

The bylaws in question are the Street and Traffic Bylaw, Parks Control Bylaw and City Land Use Regulation Bylaw. The first states that a person cannot build, place or occupy in the street “any structure, object, or substance which is an obstruction to the free use of such street.”

The second bylaw concerns public parks and has similar wording, adding that no person can “take up a temporary abode overnight in any place on any portion of any park.”

A B.C. Supreme Court ruling from 2008 allowed homeless people in Victoria to set up “temporary abodes” like tents and large tarpaulins for shelter in public parks.

The decision, upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal in 2009, noted that in the absence of sufficient safe and secure beds for the homeless, it was unconstitutional for the city to prevent individuals from erecting some form of shelter to protect themselves from the elements.

Patrick Smith, professor of urban studies and political science at Simon Fraser University, said the bylaws are out of touch with on-the-ground realities.

“Some people would see efforts to outlaw homeless people sleeping out or sleeping rough as basically a bylaw trying to outlaw poverty, which is really kind of a legal absurdity. The idea that you’ve got people who can’t afford a place to live and you’re now going to fine them and that’s going to solve the problem — it’s kind of a silly circular argument,” he said.

“I think increasingly homeless people are pushing back. On the other end, you’ve got people saying I don’t want to take my kids to Stanley Park and find homeless people living there.”

Smith said ultimately the solution lies in changing underlying socioeconomic conditions around poverty.

creynolds@vancouversun.com