A group of housing advocates have occupied a vacant apartment building on Imperial Street in Burnaby Saturday, escalating the battle with city hall over the issue of demovictions.
The group, Alliance Against Displacement, which has organized the Stop Demovictions Burnaby campaign, occupied the empty building at 5025 Imperial St. at 2 p.m.
Ivan Drury, a spokesperson for the group, told the NOW, the group intends to stay in the building until they're removed by police.
He said the group is calling on the city to stop demolition of buildings in the area and a moratorium on demolishing rental buildings in Burnaby.
"We have no choice but to break these laws that are hurting people and take more drastic action to try to defend people's lives against these policies," he said.
In the afternoon, Drury said the RCMP would let the group stay until the developer had an injunction to have them removed. Later, the police returned, but allowed four protestors to stay overnight. It's unclear when the police will return and when the situation will be resolved.
The group behind the campaign has put the blame on the city’s development policies and the developers for the demolition and eviction of hundreds of people and units in the area . In May, the campaign released a study that suggested nearly 1,400 people face eviction and displacement.
More to come.
