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Vancouver police and the city’s mayor are denying unhoused people are being told to move ahead of FIFA, despite a homeless man’s claim he was told he would no longer be able to sleep under the Cambie bridge – because it was within the two-kilometre “beautification zone” around BC Place.
Although the city of Vancouver has billed the upcoming FIFA World Cup as an inclusive event, Wayne Bouchier told Global News that not everyone is feeling welcome.
“Every city in this world has homeless, you can’t just force homeless people away from the place you want to have, like, a certain aesthetic appeal to it,” Bouchier said in an interview.
Until earlier this year, Bouchier, who survives on a disability pension, and his dog ‘Chewy’, had been camping under the north end of the Cambie bridge.
The Indigenous veteran who had previously lived in the former CRAB Park encampment and at times, in an RV, said the site was central to the services he needed.
“This is the place I had to be because my doctors are on the west, all my food and resources are on the east,” Bouchier said, adding it was close to a public washroom in Coopers’ Park, where there was access to water during the summer.
After several months of taking down his tent and packing up his belongings every morning to comply with Vancouver’s overnight sheltering bylaw, Bouchier said daily enforcement by the city and police changed in February.
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The VPD, he claims, had a heavier presence and police officers would be the ones waking him up, while city workers mentioned a two-kilometre radius around BC Place stadium.
“A no-go zone for anybody who was tenting or drug using or anything that doesn’t fit FIFA standards,” recalled Bouchier.
Both city workers and police, he said, told him the area under the bridge would be off limits during FIFA because it was within the two kilometres.
“First, the city would tell us, but then when the VPD officers come back to you know, just make sure were cleared out, they’d inform us that we’d have to move away from this area because eventually FIFA’s going to come,” Bouchier told Global News.
“We got to get this area cleared out in order for them to meet their standard, whatever, beautification.”
“The VPD is not telling homeless people to move out of the two-kilometre zone around the dome,” said Sgt. Adam Donaldson.
Vancouver police said in terms of enforcement, FIFA’s two-kilometre controlled area or “beautification zone” means nothing, and there is no change in policy for front-line officers.
“As long as any unhoused people or homeless people are abiding by existing city of Vancouver bylaws or they’re not on private property, they’ll be able to continue as they were throughout the event,” Donaldson said in an interview Thursday.
The VPD also said there’s been no change to how officers support city staff and park rangers in enforcing overnight sheltering bylaws, and police would only ask people to move if they were obstructing something or for public safety reasons.
Mayor Ken Sim was unavailable for an interview Thursday and his office told Global News it was unable to comment on this specific case in question.
In an interview on Sunday April 26, Sim said, regardless of FIFA, the city has always had a plan to make sure vulnerable residents are treated with care and empathy.
“Because they’re going through challenging times and so that won’t change,” the mayor said. “What will look a little different is in certain areas there will be, you know, street beautification, so more let’s say, trash removal and you know, sprucing up.”
In a statement provided by his office Thursday, Sim said throughout the World Cup, the city will continue its ongoing daily work across Vancouver to keep parks and sidewalks in compliance with bylaws to ensure all public spaces are safe and accessible.
“This work requires individuals to remove structures and pack up belongings that impact public access or safety,” said the mayor’s statement. “The City has no plans to ask residents to leave their neighbourhoods within the 2km controlled area surrounding BC Place.”
The City of Vancouver refused to do an interview Thursday, claiming, “We don’t have a spokesperson available.”
Bouchier and his dog are now staying in a private single-room occupancy (SRO) building, while the tents in the area he once called home are cleared out.
“FIFA, they want the world to come here and show the world – they don’t want the world to see the dirty laundry of the country,” Bouchier said. “You’re not going to be beautifying the city if you keep sweeping things under the rug.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
