'Hopefully the good days are coming': Chinatown businesses optimistic after closure of high-risk encampments

Businesses in Chinatown are expressing relief after a number of "high-risk" encampments were removed from their neighbourhood.

They're hoping to see a decrease in crime in the area. .

Phong Luu owns Kim Fat Market at 99 Street and 107 Avenue.

He says his family has operated the business in Chinatown for more than 30 years.

"Ever since I was a young toddler I was in this neighbourhood. And it wasn't bad," he told CTV News Edmonton on Friday.

"Chinatown was never like this. Before we were able to walk around, seniors were walking around without fear."

He's hoping the recent encampment clearouts and a new navigation centre announced by the province earlier this week will help camp residents get help and find homes.

"They don't belong [in encampments]. They deserve better. And I want to get that clear. We feel for them."

But he says his business has been victimized countless times while the encampments were set up nearby.

Someone broke five windows at the store, resulting in a repair bill of nearly $9,000.

He said he also no longer locks the doors on his delivery vans, because they've been broken into numerous times, and he also hasn't bothered to replace the stolen radio.

Phong Luu shows the missing radio in his delivery van. (John Hanson/CTV News Edmonton)

"There's no point. Because if I fix it out of pocket and then two days later it's broken again. It's like this encampment thing. You'll never find a solution. So my solution is don't lock the door."

In 2023 the city launched a Chinatown revitalization project to bring people back to the district.

It came almost a year after 61-year-old Ban Phuc Hoang and 64-year-old Hung Trang were killed in random acts of violence in Chinatown.

Stephen Hammerschmidt of the Edmonton Chinatown Business Improvement Association says encampments have been an ongoing issue that's hampering the revitalization.

"We had a bit of a respite this summer when we had some of the encampment activity removed, and that lasted throughout the summer, we saw some very positive results of that. However, towards the fall, that started to come back in again," he said Friday.

He's hopeful the latest removal of encampments will bring some peace to the neighbourhood.

"The Herb Jamison encampment, that was a very violent encampment. There was a lot of gang activity that did happen there. There were also encampments along 106 Avenue that have been taken down. That was a little less violent, but that's really a lot where the social disorder came from."

"For the last week there have been no incidents of violence."

Regardless of the situation, Luu says he'll stay in Chinatown.

"I still believe in this community," he said.

"There's good days and bad days, and right now we're in the bad days. Hopefully the good days are coming.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nav Sangha