Three weeks after the city cleared a homeless camp along the sound wall on West Mill Plain Boulevard in Vancouver, nearby residents say they haven’t noticed people return, as feared. “There is this cloud that’s lifted. It’s gone,” said Matthew Trevino, a 42-year-old resident of the Hough neighborhood. “I couldn’t believe it happened so fast.” The city closed the sound wall to camping March 5 after almost a year of complaints from neighbors. A sound wall — built to dampen the noise from Mill Plain traffic — divided the camp from nearby homes’ backyards. Still, residents complained about homeless people wandering the neighborhood, screaming, setting fires and using drugs publicly.

With dwindling places to camp in Vancouver, city staff warned neighbors that closing the camp could lead people to camp farther into the neighborhood. In November 2023, the city declared homelessness to be a civil emergency, which enabled officials to close areas to camping where it poses a risk to public health and safety, as well as fast-track projects to solve the issue. The city used the emergency declaration to clear camps on West 16th Street and underneath the Mill Plain bridge. Those campers flocked to the sound wall. Before the city closed the sound wall camp, it spent months moving people into the city’s Safe Stays, shelters with 20 hutlike units. Out of the 52 people counted as living in the sound wall camp in October, about half moved into a Safe Stay. Ten people moved to another area, and 15 people declined shelter, Jamie Spinelli, the city’s homeless response manager, told the Vancouver City Council in late February.

Not all those who remained on the sound wall declined shelter, Spinelli said. Some moved to the sound wall after the city counted and surveyed the campers. Spinelli said she has seen a few people camping deeper in the Hough neighborhood. Some moved from the sound wall to the encampment near the Share House men’s shelter, where two rows of tents lined the sidewalk Wednesday. Other campers scattered across Vancouver to live along freeways or wander without a consistent sleeping spot. Spinelli said outreach workers have not had any difficulties finding homeless residents as they migrate to other areas. Homeless people usually camp in places where they are a bit tucked away but still visible enough for outreach and safety, which is why some stuck close to the sound wall, Spinelli said.

“We can do outreach wherever people go. But it is destabilizing toward people experiencing homelessness,” Spinelli said. “It’s a delicate balance of making sure that until we have enough shelter that not everything is off limits to camping at all times.” While people from the sound wall camp are moving on, neighbors say they’re enjoying a restored sense of peace. Trevino said his son is learning how to ride his bike again in the street after being too afraid of the camp. People are walking and running in the neighborhood more often. “Like a light switch. … I couldn’t believe it,” he said. At a community forum Monday, Trevino thanked city councilors for agreeing to close the sound wall camp. However, other neighborhoods are struggling with homeless camps as well, he said. “They have an uphill battle just like we did,” Trevino said.

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