Downtown Eastside

Downtown Eastside
Urban Neighborhood

View of the Downtown Eastside and Woodward's site from Harbour Centre.
Nickname(s): DTES, Skid Row
Coordinates: 49°16′50″N 123°05′0″W / 49.28056°N 123.08333°W / 49.28056; -123.08333Coordinates: 49°16′50″N 123°05′0″W / 49.28056°N 123.08333°W / 49.28056; -123.08333
Country  Canada
Province  British Columbia
City Vancouver
Population (2009/2011)
 • Total 6,000 - 8,000. 18,477 for the greater DTES area.
Time zone PST (UTC-8)
 • Summer (DST) PDT (UTC-7)

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It comprises a roughly 15-square-block area around the corner of Main and Hastings Streets, a few blocks east of the city's central business district.[1][2] This area, with a population estimated at 6,000 to 8,000, is notorious for its open-air drug market, poverty, sex trade, high rates of mental illness, and crime, but also known for its strong community resilience and history of social activism.[3]

At the turn of the century, the DTES was the political, cultural, and retail centre of the city. Over several decades, the city centre gradually shifted westwards and the DTES became a poor, although stable, neighbourhood. In the1980s, the area began a rapid decline due to several factors including an influx of hard drugs, the de-institutionalization of mentally ill individuals, policies that pushed prostitution and drug-related activity out of nearby areas, and the cessation of federal funding for social housing.

By 1997, an epidemic of HIV infection and drug overdoses in the DTES led to the declaration of a public health emergency. In recent years, the spread of infectious diseases has dramatically slowed, while the impacts of mental illness, often co-occurring with severe addiction, have reached a level that the city and police describe as a crisis. Parts of the area have begun to undergo gentrification, a trend that some see as a force for revitalization, but that others believe has led to displacement and homelessness.

Numerous efforts have been made to improve the neighbourhood, at an estimated cost of over $1.4 billion as of 2009. Services in the greater DTES area are estimated to cost $360 million per year. Opinions vary on whether any progress has been made, and some commentators believe that residents of other neighbourhoods tacitly agree to have the area serve as a de facto ghetto for the most troubled individuals in the region.

Proposals and plans for addressing the issues of the area include increasing investment in social housing, increasing capacity for treating the addicted and mentally ill, making services more distributed across the city and region instead of concentrated in the DTES, and improving co-ordination of services. However, little agreement exists between the municipal, provincial, and federal governments regarding long-term plans for the area.

Geography

A Chinese temple in the heart of East Hastings shows the diversity of the neighbourhood. The building was originally a Salvation Army Temple.

The term "Downtown Eastside" is most often used to refer to an area around 15 square blocks in size, with its epicenter at Main and Hastings Streets.[1][2] Definitions of its borders shift and vary somewhat, with one set being Carrall Street at the west, Jackson Street at the east, Pender Street at the south, and Cordova Street at the north.[4]

For some community planning and statistical purposes, the City of Vancouver uses the term "Downtown Eastside" to refer to a much larger area with considerable social and economic diversity, comprising Chinatown, Gastown, Oppenheimer Park (formerly Japantown), Strathcona, Thornton Park, and Victory Square, as well as the light industrial area to the North.[5] This area is bordered by Richards Street to the west, Clark Drive to the east, Waterfront Road and Water Street to the north and various streets to the south including Malkin Street/Prior Avenue. In this article, this wider area encompassing the DTES is referred to as the "greater DTES area".

The greater DTES area includes some popular tourist areas and 20% of the city's heritage buildings.[6] Its parks include Oppenheimer Park, CRAB Park, and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

History

The corner of Hastings and Main, c. 1912

After the Great Vancouver Fire of 1866 destroyed most of Vancouver's buildings, residents rebuilt their town at the edge of Burrard Inlet, between Cambie and Carrall Streets. This townsite now forms Gastown and part of the DTES.[7] At the turn of the century, the DTES was the heart of the city, containing city hall, the courthouse, banks, the main shopping district, and the Carnegie Library.[7] Travellers connecting between Pacific steamships and the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway used its hundreds of hotels and rooming houses.[8] Large Japanese and Chinese communities settled in the adjacent communities of Japantown and Chinatown.

During the Depression, hundreds of men arrived in Vancouver in search of work. Most of them later returned to their hometowns, except workers who had been injured or those who were sick or elderly.[7] These men remained in the DTES area – at the time known as Skid Road – which was a non-judgemental, affordable place to live. Among them, drinking was a common pastime.[7][9] In addition to being a major cultural and entertainment district, Hastings Street was also a centre for beer parlours and brothels.[10]

In the 1950s, the city centre continued its shift westward when the interurban rail line, whose main depot was at Carrall and Hastings, closed.[11] Theatres and shops moved towards Granville and Robson Streets.[12] As tourist traffic declined, the neighbourhood's hotels became run-down and were gradually converted to low-income residential housing, a use which persists to this day.[7] By 1965, the area was known for prostitution and for having a relatively high proportion of poor single men, many of whom were alcoholic, disabled, or pensioners.[7]

1980s

Carnegie Community Centre at the corner of Main and Hastings.
“ When we deinstitutionalized, we promised [mentally ill] people that we would put them into the community and give them the support they needed. But we lied. I think it's one of the worst things we ever did. ”
— Senator Larry Campbell, former mayor of Vancouver, [13]

In the early 1980s, the DTES was an edgy but still relatively calm place to live. The neighbourhood began a marked shift before Expo 86, when over 600 tenants were evicted from DTES hotels to make room for tourists.[14] With Expo 86 also came an influx of high-purity cocaine and heroin.[15] In efforts to clean up other areas of the city, police cracked down on the cocaine market and street prostitution, but these activities resurfaced in the DTES.[15][16] Within the DTES, police officers gave up on arresting the huge numbers of individual drug users, and chose to focus their efforts on dealers instead.[17]

Meanwhile, the provincial government policy adopted a policy of de-institutionalization of the mentally ill, leading to the mass discharge of Riverview Hospital's patients with the promise that they would be integrated them into the community.[18] Between 1985 and 1999, the number of patient-days of care provided by B.C. psychiatric hospitals declined by nearly 65%.[13] Many of the de-institutionalized mentally ill moved to the DTES, attracted by the accepting culture and low-cost housing, but floundered without adequate treatment and support and soon became addicted to the neighbourhoods's readily-available drugs.[19][20][21]

Between 1980 and 2002, more than 60 women went missing from the DTES, most of them sex workers. Robert Pickton was charged with the murders of 26 of these women and convicted on six counts in 2007. He claimed to have murdered 49 women.[22] As of 2009, an estimated 39 women were still missing from the Downtown Eastside.[23]

1990s to present

“ On its core blocks, dozens of people are shuffling or staggering, flinching with cocaine tics, scratching scabs. Except for the young women dressed to lure customers for sex, many are in dirt-streaked clothing that hangs from their emaciated frames. Drugs and cash are openly exchanged. The alleys are worse. ”
—  Donald G. McNeil Jr. , 2011, [24]

In the 1990s, the situation in the DTES deteriorated further on several fronts. Woodward's, an anchor store in the 100-block of West Hastings street, closed in 1993 with devastating impact on the formerly bustling retail district.[25] Meanwhile, a crisis in housing and homelessness was emerging.

Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the supply of low-income housing shrank in both the DTES and in other parts of the city, partly because of conversion into more expensive condominiums or hotels.[13] In 1993, the federal government stopped funding social housing, and the rate of building social housing in B.C. dropped by two-thirds despite rising demand for it.[13] By 1995, reports had begun to emerge of homeless people sleeping in parks, alleyways, and abandoned buildings.[13] Cuts to the provincial welfare program in 2002 caused further hardship for the poor and homeless.[26] Citywide, the number of homeless people climbed from 630 in 2002 to 1,300 in 2005.[26]

Without the presence of a viable retail economy, a drug economy proliferated, with an accompanying increase in crime,[12] while police presence actually decreased.[27] Around 1995, crack cocaine arrived in Vancouver.[28] In 1997 the local health authority declared a public health emergency in the DTES: Rates of HIV infection, spread by needle-sharing amongst drug users, were worse than anywhere in the world outside Sub-Saharan Africa and more than 1000 people had died of drug overdoses.[29][30] Efforts to reduce drug-related deaths in the DTES included the opening of a needle exchange in 1989,[31] the opening of North America's first legal safe injection site in 2003, and treatment with anti-retroviral drugs.[32] Rates of HIV infection dropped from 8.1 cases per 100 person-years in 1997 to 0.37 cases per 100 person-years by 2011.[33] By 2015, the 40-block area surrounding the safe injection site had also seen a 35% decline in overdose deaths.[29]

In the 21st century, considerable investment was made in DTES services and infrastructure, including the redevelopment of the Woodward's Building and the acquisition of 13 hotels by the provincial government for conversion to social housing. In 2009, the The Globe and Mail estimated that governments and the private sector had spent more than $1.4 billion since 2000 on projects aimed at resolving the area's many problems.[34] Opinions vary on whether the area has improved: A 2014 National Post article said, "For all the money and attention here, there is little success at either getting the area’s shattered populace back on their feet, or cleaning up the neighbourhood into something resembling a healthy community."[35] Also in 2014, B.C. housing minister Rich Coleman said, "I’ll go down for a walk in the Downtown Eastside, night time or day time, and it’s dramatically different than it was. It’s incredibly better than it was five, six years ago."[36]

Demographics

Mosaic sidewalk art on East Hastings Street

There are no government-defined boundaries or official population figures for the DTES. The DTES population has been estimated at 6,000[34] and 8,000,[10] however the geographic boundaries associated with these estimates was not provided.

Official figures are available for the greater DTES area, which was home to an estimated 18,477 people in 2011.[37] In comparison to the city of Vancouver overall, the greater DTES had a higher proportion of males (60% vs. 50%), had half as many children and youth, had slightly fewer immigrants, and had more Aboriginals (10% vs. 2%).[37] Approximately 10% of the city's Aboriginal population lives in the area.

A 2009 demographic profile by the Globe and Mail focused on an area of just over 30 city blocks in and around the DTES: It indicated that 14% of the residents were of Aboriginal descent, and 9% were status Indians.[3] The average household size was 1.3 residents; 82% of the population lived alone. Children and teenagers made up 7% of the population, compared to 25% for Canada overall.[3]

Culture

DTES residents say the area has a strong sense of community, and connection to "a rich and authentic cultural heritage."[38] They describe their neighbours as being accepting, with empathy for people with addictions and health issues.[38] Volunteerism, social justice advocacy, and involvement in the arts are strong.[38] In 2010, Sam Sullivan, former mayor of Vancouver, said that in the DTES, "Behind the visible people who clearly have a lot of troubles, there’s a community. Some very intelligent people say this is the cultural heart of the city."[2]

In 2010, the V6A postal area, which includes most of the DTES, had the second-highest concentration of artists in the city.[37] Artists made up 4.4% of the labour force, compared to 2.3% in the city as a whole.[37] The greater DTES area is the location of several annual arts and culture festivals, art galleries, artist-run centres and studios.

Current issues

Addiction and mental illness

A man rests on the sidewalk near Hastings and Gore

The DTES population suffers from very high rates of addiction and mental illness. In 2007, Vancouver Coastal Health estimated that 2,100 DTES residents "exhibit behaviour that is outside the norm" and require more support in the areas of health and addiction services.[21] According to the Vancouver Police Department in 2008, up to 500 of these individuals were "chronically mentally ill with disabling addictions, extreme behaviours, no permanent housing and regular police contact."[21] As of 2009, the DTES was home to an estimated 1,800 to 3,600 individuals who were considered to be at "extremely high health risk" due to severe addiction and/or mental illness, equivalent to 60% of the population in this category for the entire Vancouver Coastal Health region, which serves 1 million people.[39]

A 2016 study of the 323 most chronic offenders in the DTES found that 99% had at least one mental disorder, and more than 80% also had substance abuse issues.[40] Between 60% and 70% of mentally ill patients treated at St. Paul's hospital, the hospital closest to the DTES, are estimated to have multiple addictions.[21] Possible explanations for the high level of co-occurrence between addiction and mental illness in the DTES include the vulnerability of the mentally ill to drug dealers, and a recent rise in the use of illegal amphetamines such as crystal methamphetamine, which can cause permanent psychosis.[41]

Drug use

A 2010 BBC article described the DTES as "home to one of the worst drug problems in North America."[42] In 2011, crack cocaine was the most commonly used illicit drug in Vancouver, followed by injected prescription opioids (such as fentanyl and OxyContin), heroin, crystal methamphetamine (usually injected rather than smoked), and cocaine (also usually injected).[33]

In 2003, the DTES was home to an estimated 4,700 injection drug users.[37] Most either live in unstable housing or are homelesss;[37] approximately 20% are sex workers.[33] In 2006, DTES residents incurred half of the deaths from illegal drug overdoses in the entire province.[43]

Between 1996 and 2011, there have been large fluctuations in drug usage, with the most recent trend being an overall decline in illicit drug use between 2007 and 2011.[33] However, between 2010 and 2014, hospitalizations related to addictions increased by 89% at St. Paul's Hospital, the closest hospital to the DTES.[30]

Mental illness

The Vancouver Police Department reported in 2008 that in its district that includes the Downtown Eastside, mental health was a factor in 42% of all incidents police were involved in.[21] The police department has noted that its officers are often forced to act as front-line mental health workers, due to the lack of more appropriate supports for this population.[21]

In 2013, the city and police department reported that in the previous three years, there had been a 43% increase in people with severe mental illness and/or addiction in the emergency department of St. Paul's Hospital. Violent incidents involving mentally ill people, and apprehensions under the Mental Health Act, had also increased.[44] Mayor Gregor Robertson described the mental health crisis as "on par with, if not more serious than" the DTES HIV/AIDS epidemic that had led to a declaration of a public health emergency in 1997.[44]

Prostitution

“ In my 12 years of work as a physician in the DTES, I never met a female patient who had not been sexually abused as a child or adolescent, nor a male who had not suffered some form of severe trauma... Addictions are attempts to escape pain. ”
—  Gabor Maté, [45]

Most of Vancouver's 1,000 to 1,500 sex workers work in the DTES, often in the streets.[27] They call the neighbourhood, and contiguous industrial areas near Vancouver's port, the "low track", where they typically earn $5 to $20 for a date.[27][46] Most use prostitution to support their drug addictions;[47] up to two thirds say they have been physically or sexually assaulted while working.[27] Sex workers, particularly women with children, find it difficult to find housing that they can afford, and often have difficulty leaving prostitution because of criminal records or addictions that make it harder to find jobs.[27]

Although Aboriginals make up only 2% of Vancouver's general population, approximately 40% of Vancouver's street sex workers are Aboriginal.[37] In one 2005 study, 52% of the prostitutes surveyed in Vancouver were Aboriginal, 96% reported been sexually abused in childhood, and 81% reported childhood physical abuse. Some researchers and Aboriginal advocacy groups have linked the overrepresentation of Aboriginals in Vancouver's sex trade to Canada's colonial history, and in particular to the residential schools that previous generations of indigenous Canadians were forced to attend.[48]

Crime

Vancouver police making an arrest in a DTES alley.

As of 2006, reported crime rates in the DTES were higher than in the rest of the city, due mostly to assaults, robberies and public intoxication.[49] Although the DTES is home to 3% of Vancouver's population, it was the location of 16% of the city's reported sexual assaults in 2012.[37] In 2008, it was the location of 34.5% of all reported serious assaults and 22.6% of all robberies in the city.[27] These figures may be an underestimate, as marginalized populations such as DTES residents tend to be less likely to report crime.[37]

In addition to reported crime, the DTES has highly visible street disorder and open drug use and drug dealing. Some government social workers have refused to enter certain SROs out of concern for their own safety, despite being mandated to monitor children who live there.[50] Tourists are often encouraged to avoid the area.[27] Many storefronts are vacant; high crime rates deter legitimate businesses from opening or staying in the area and affordable property insurance can be impossible to obtain.[27][51]

Poverty

Hotel Empress at 235 East Hastings is one of the many single-room occupancy hotels in the area. In the fall of 2006, residents were issued eviction notices.[52]

The greater DTES area is significantly poorer than the rest of Vancouver, with a median income of $13,691 vs. $47,229 for the city as a whole.[37] Approximately half of the greater DTES population is low-income, and approximately a third depends on income assistance (welfare).[37] The base income assistance rate for single adults who are considered "employable" is $375 per month for shelter and $235 per month for all other expenses.[37]

In addition to issues with addictions and mental illness, DTES residents often have difficulty finding employment due to mental and physical disabilities and lack of education and skills.[27] According to a 2009 survey of the 30 blocks in and around the DTES, 62% of the residents over the age of 15 were not considered participants in the labour force, compared to 33% in Vancouver as a whole.[3]

The DTES is often referred to as "Canada's poorest postal code", although this is not the case.[53][54][55]

Housing

Both homelessness and substandard housing are major issues in the DTES, that confound the neighbourhood's problems with addiction and mental illness. In 2012, there were 846 homeless people in the greater DTES area, including 171 who were on the street rather than in shelters.[37] The DTES homeless made up approximately half of the city's total homeless population, a third of whom are Aboriginal.

The area is known for its single room occupancy hotels (SROs),[56] which provide low-cost rooms without private kitchens or bathrooms. Although conditions in SROs vary considerably, they have become notorious for their squalor and chaos. Many are over 100 years old and in extreme disrepair with shortages of basic necessities such as heat and functioning plumbing. In 2007, it was reported that four out of five rooms had bed bugs, cockroaches, and fire code violations.[8] Even at their best, the lack of living space in SROs leads to tenants spending more time in the public spaces of the DTES, including its street-based drug scene.[33]

Local advocacy groups have battled what are known as slum landlords, who have been accused of failing to fix dangerous problems[57][58] and contributing to the growing problem of area homelessness by illegally evicting tenants. In recent years, the city has been slow to force SRO owners to make major repairs, stating that some repairs would be so expensive that owners could not afford to make them without raising rents.[59]

Health

Studies in 2009 and 2010 estimated that between 17% and 30% of DTES injection drug users population were HIV positive,[33] and studies from 2005 and 2007 estimated the prevalence of Hepatitis C infection in this population at up to 90%. A 2015 study of DTES SRO residents found that they were eight times more likely to die than the national average, mostly due to psychosis and Hepatitis-C-related liver dysfunction.[60] (According to the same study, only one third of participants with psychosis and no participants with active Hepatitis-C were receiving treatment.)[60] The DTES also has higher rates of tuberculosis and syphilis than the rest of the province,[27] and injection drug users are susceptible to other infections such as endocarditis.[61]

Migration patterns

“ You just keep dumping money in, building social housing and filling it up with people from all around the region and the country … they all get chemically dependent, and it’s just more sales for the drug dealers. ”
— Philip Owen, former Vancouver mayor, [35]
“ The Downtown Eastside, really, has become the last place where everybody runs to from across Canada. It’s the last, best place for people who are the most marginalized people in the country. ”
— Karen Ward, DTES resident, [62]

Many DTES residents would be better off living in other areas, away from the neighbourhood's predatory drug pushers and pimps.[27][35][63] Some advocates for vulnerable children and youth, and for Aboriginal women, have said that the DTES is not an appropriate place for members of these populations to live.[50][64] However, DTES residents often have difficulty transitioning away from the neighbourhood. Vancouver Coastal Health, in its 2015 strategy report, said "A common barrier that prevents mentally ill and addicted people from living outside of the DTES is a lack of appropriate services and supports, and too often clients who do secure housing outside the neighbourhood return to the DTES regularly because of the lack of supports found in other communities."[65]

Ernie Crey, president of the Aboriginal Life In Vancouver Enhancement Society, said in 2014, "We’ve made it Fortress Downtown Eastside; easy to get in, exceptionally hard to get out of."[35] Other DTES residents say that the sense of community and acceptance that they have found in the DTES has made it a unique place of healing for them.[63]

The DTES also has a history of attracting migrants with mental health and addiction issues from across B.C. and Canada, with many drawn by its drug market, affordable housing, and services.[21][26][45][65] Between 1991 and 2007, the DTES population increased by 140%.[26] A 2016 study found that 52% of DTES residents who experience chronic homelessness and serious mental-health issues had migrated from outside Vancouver in the previous 10 years, a proportion that has tripled in the last decade.[66] The same study found that once in the DTES, the conditions of the migrants worsened.[66] A 2013 study of tenants of DTES SROs found that while 93% of those surveyed were born in Canada, only 13% were born in Vancouver.[56]

Housing availability and affordability

As the DTES has many low-income adults who live alone and are at risk of homelessness, trends in housing options for low-income adults are of central importance to the neighbourhood.

In recent years, the number of units designed for low-income singles has increased slightly: In the downtown area (Burrard Street to Clark Drive) there were 11,371 units in 1993 and 12,126 units in 2013.[67] The number of privately-owned SROs declined during this time by 3283 units, while the number of social housing units increased by 4038 units.[67] In 2014, a further 300 privately-owned SRO units were lost.[68]

However, rents in many of those units have risen. Rents in social housing units for low-income singles are fixed at the shelter component of welfare rates, but rents in privately-owned SROs can vary. In 2013, 24% of privately-owned SROs rented at the welfare shelter rate, down from 60% in 2007.[68] Due to rising rents and often-decrepit conditions in the area's 4,484 privately-owned SROs, many DTES activists have called for governments to replace them by building a further 5,000 social housing units for low-income singles.[69]

Gentrification controversy

A protestor's sign during a march for housing

The DTES is just three blocks from Vancouver's central business district, the most expensive commercial estate in the city.[70] Since the mid-2000s, new development has pushed eastward and into the DTES, bringing a mixture of market-rate housing (primarily condos), social housing, office spaces, restaurants, and shops.[71] To a lesser extent, development has also accelerated at the west, south, and north edges of the DTES. Prices at the newer retail establishments are typically far higher than low-income residents can afford.[71]

The city requires new large housing developments in the DTES to set aside 20% of their units for social housing.[71] As of 2014, in a section of Hastings Street from Carrall Street to Heatley Avenue, at least 60% of units must be dedicated to social housing and the rest must be rental units.[72] Rents in least one third of new social housing units are required to be at the shelter component of welfare rates.[72]

The position of the city and the provincial government is that new developments improve the quality of life and provide new social housing.[71] Local community groups are sharply divided on the issue, which has been marked by occasional violence against new businesses and housing developments.[69] The Carnegie Community Action Project, representing low-income DTES residents, is opposed to the addition of market housing and upscale businesses in the belief that they will drive up prices and displace low-income residents. Property values in the DTES area increased by 303% between 2001 and 2013.[73] The Strathcona Revitalization Committee, representing a family-oriented neighbourhood adjacent to the DTES, favors new market housing as a way to encourage a stronger retail environment and a stabilizing street presence.[38]

Early 20th-century buildings on East Hastings St

Location of services controversy

The DTES is the site of many service offerings including health care, free meals and clothing, harm reduction for drug users, housing assistance, health care, employment preparation, adult education, children's programs, emergency housing, arts and recreation, and legal advocacy. Proponents of the high level of services say that it is necessary to meet the complex needs of the DTES population.[36]

Although many of these services do help the individuals involved, their location has been criticized for attracting vulnerable people to an area where drugs, crime, and disorder are entrenched. No other Canadian city has concentrated services to this degree in one small area.[36]

Very often, proposals to add services for the addicted and/or mentally ill to other neighbourhoods or other municipalities in the region are met with Nimbyism even when residents selected for such projects would be low-risk individuals.[74] Some commentators have suggested that Vancouver residents tacitly agree to have the DTES act as a de facto ghetto for the most troubled individuals in the city.[27][75]

Former Vancouver mayors Philip Owen, Larry Campbell and Mike Harcourt have called for services and social housing to be spread out across the city and region.[35][36][76] Vancouver Coastal Health, in its 2015 strategy report, said that it "remains dedicated to fully supporting clients who wish to remain in the DTES", but that it also favors increased housing and support options outside the area.[65]

The City's 30-year plan is to locate two-thirds of new social housing in the DTES area, partly due to the wishes of the DTES residents it surveyed, and partly due to opposition to social housing in other neighbourhoods.[36] However, the Strathcona Business Improvement Association and some other DTES community groups have expressed the view that "Years of experience in other urban centres make it clear that maintaining the DTES as a high or special needs social housing enclave, over the long term will not help to stabilize either the community or the city as a whole."[51]

Costs

Several overlapping sets of data exist on costs related to the DTES:

Proposals and plans

Housing and municipal planning

“ Any discussion of improving the continuum of care for addiction must include housing as a basic component, particularly for the most vulnerable individuals coping with homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. ”
—  B.C. Medical Association, [43]

There is widespread agreement that stable, good-quality housing is a necessity if drug addicts and the mentally ill are to make any kind of recovery.[43] Many people with severe addiction and/or mental illness require supportive housing.[63]

Although housing and homelessness are often perceived as being municipal issues, social housing is traditionally funded primarily by senior levels of government, which receive 92% of tax revenue in Canada. Libby Davies, a former DTES activist and Member of Parliament, called for a National Housing Strategy in 2009, saying that Canada is the world's only industrialized country with no national housing plan.[63]

SRO preservation

Despite the well-known problems with SROs, the city has implemented a bylaw to discourage their redevelopment, as for many people they are the last-available option before homelessness.[77] Vacancy rates in privately-owned SROs decreased from 14% in 1992 to 5% in 2013.[68] Advocates for SRO tenants argue that the city's bylaw does not go far enough, as it does not prevent rent increases that can make SROs unaffordable for the poorest residents.[77]

Long-term municipal plan

In 2014, the City of Vancouver approved a 30-year plan for the greater DTES area, chiefly addressing housing and other land-use issues. It does not propose solutions to the neighbourhood's drug problems; an article in the National Post described it as a "221-page document that expertly skirted around any mention of the Downtown Eastside as a failed community in need of a drastic turnaround."[35]

The plan sets out a goal of having 4,400 units of social housing added to the greater DTES area, 3,350 units of social housing added elsewhere in the city, and 1,900 units of new supportive housing scattered throughout the city.[6][78] The cost of implementing the plan is estimated at $1 billion, of which $220-million would be paid by the city, $300-million by developers, and more than $500-million from the provincial and/or national governments.[78] The provincial government, which recently invested $300 million in social housing in Vancouver, said that it will not be funding the proposed housing expansion, and that its housing strategy had shifted towards other models such as rent assistance rather than construction.[79]

Drug use and mental illness

Efforts to reduce the supply of drugs, through the National Anti-Drug Strategy, have had minimal impact on the easy availability or low prices of illicit drugs in Vancouver.[33] By former mayor Mike Harcourt's estimate, police intercept only 2% of the drugs that enter Vancouver.[80] A large-scale police crackdown on DTES drug users in 2003 made no difference except to displace drug use to adjacent neighbourhoods.[81]

In 2001, the city adopted a Four Pillars drug strategy consisting of four equally-important "pillars": Prevention, treatment, enforcement, and harm reduction. Advocates of the Four Pillars strategy say that the 36 recommendations associated with the policy have only been partly implemented, with prevention, treatment, and harm reduction all being underfunded.[30] A 2016 study of youth who used illicit drugs in Vancouver indicated that 28% had tried unsuccessfully to access addiction treatment in the previous 6 months, with the lack of success mostly due to being placed on waiting lists.[82]

The Vancouver Police Department, B.C. Medical Association, and City of Vancouver have asked the province to urgently increase capacity for treating addiction and mental illness.[21][43] The BCMA set a goal in 2009 that detoxification be available on demand, with no waiting period, by 2012.[43] In 2013, the province agreed to spend an additional $20 million to address mental illness and addiction in Vancouver.[83] The expansions covered by the new funding would address some of the city's requests but not others, such as the creation of 300 new long-term health care beds for the most severely mentally ill.[83]

Co-ordination of services and planning

Although there is widespread agreement in principle that a co-ordinated approach is necessary to improve conditions for DTES residents, the three levels of government have not agreed on any overall long-term plan for the DTES, and there is no overall co-ordination of services for the area.[27][35] Services are typically delivered from the perspective of a single discipline (such as police or medical), or a particular agency's mandate, with little communication between the service providers who are working with a given individual, even though DTES residents often have a complex combination of needs and great difficulty navigating the system.[27]

In 2009, the Vancouver Police Department released a report called Project Lockstep: A United Effort to Save Lives in the Downtown Eastside, which proposed the creation of a steering committee made up of senior city and provincial stakeholders. The steering committee would be mandated to improve collaboration between service providers to enable a client-centric rather than discipline-centric model.[27] The report recommends prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable individuals in the neighbourhood, saying that having them get the assistance they require is "a necessary condition for other neighbourhood improvement initiatives to succeed."[27]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Canada's Olympic city has notorious skid row". NBC News. 1 January 2010. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Bishop, Greg (4 February 2010). "In the Shadow of the Olympics". New York Times. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Patrick Brethour (13 February 2009). "Exclusive demographic picture: A comparison of key statistics in the DTES, Vancouver, B.C. and Canada". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  4. ↑ "Downtown Eastside". Scout Magazine. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "2005/06 Downtown Eastside Community Monitoring Report" (PDF). 10th Edition. City of Vancouver. Spring 2007. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
  6. 1 2 "Downtown Eastside Plan" (PDF). City of Vancouver. 15 March 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Campbell, chapter 1
  8. 1 2 Paulsen, Monte (29 May 2007). "Vancouver's SROs: 'Zero Vacancy'". The Tyee. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  9. ↑ "Demolish City's Skid Road, Murder Protest Demands". Vancouver Sun, 6 April 1962. p.1
  10. 1 2 Douglas, chapter 1
  11. ↑ Mackie, John (18 October 2008). "Carrall Street: Home to some of Vancouver's coolest bars, a stone's throw away from crackheads". The National Post. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  12. 1 2 Douglas, Introduction
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Campbell, chapter 6
  14. ↑ Lawrence, Grant (27 April 2016). "Expo 86: A Troubled Legacy". Vancouver Westender. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  15. 1 2 Campbell, chapter 3
  16. ↑ Campbell, chapter 10
  17. ↑ Campbell, chapter 13
  18. ↑ "Sanctuary of hope?", Vancouver Courier, 5 March 2008, retrieved 18 October 2012
  19. ↑ Campbell, Larry, Boyd, Neil, and Cutbert, Lori (2009). A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and the Fight for its Future. Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-55365-298-4.
  20. ↑ Patterson, Michelle (Summer 2007). "The Faces of Homelessness Across BC" (PDF). Visions (Vancouver: BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information) 4 (1): 7–8.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Wilson-Bates, Fiona (January 2008). "Lost in Transition: How a Lack of Capacity in the Mental Health System is Failing Vancouver’s Mentally Ill and Draining Police Res" (PDF). Vancouver Police Department. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  22. ↑ Fong, Petti (17 December 2002). "Robert Pickton: Missing women inquiry concludes bias against victims led to police failures". Toronto Star. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  23. ↑ Elien, Shadi (13 February 2009). "Women's Memorial March to take place on Valentine's Day". Georgia Straight. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  24. ↑ McNeil, Donald G., Jr. (7 February 2011). "An H.I.V. Strategy Invites Addicts In". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  25. ↑ Campbell, chapter 5"
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 Campbell, chapter 16
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Vancouver Police Department (4 February 2009). "Project Lockstep: A United Effort to Save Lives in the Downtown Eastside" (PDF). Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  28. ↑ "Campbell, chapter 6"
  29. 1 2 MacQueen, Ken (20 July 2015). "The science is in. And Insite works.". Maclean's. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  30. 1 2 3 Katic, Gordon and Sam Fenn (5 September 2014). "A Tyee Series Vancouver's Addiction Ambitions, Revisited". The Tyee. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  31. ↑ http://www.ccsa.ca/Resource%20Library/ccsa-010055-2004.pdf
  32. ↑ Campbell, chapter 7
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Drug Situation in Vancouver, 2nd Edition" (PDF). British Columbia Centre of Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Urban Health Research Initiative of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  34. 1 2 Matas, Robert (13 February 2009). "The Money Pit". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  35. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hopper, Tristin (14 November 2014). "Vancouver’s ‘gulag’: Canada’s poorest neighbourhood refuses to get better despite $1M a day in social spending". National Post. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  36. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Culbert, Lori and Peter McMartin, (27 June 2014). "Downtown Eastside: 260 agencies, housing sites crowd Downtown Eastside". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  37. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Downtown Eastside Local Area Profile 2013" (PDF). City of Vancouver.
  38. 1 2 3 4 "Vancouver Downtown Eastside Putting it All Together: Plans Policies, Programs, Projects, and Proposals: A Synthesis" (PDF). Building Community Society of Greater Vancouver. July 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  39. ↑ Regional Mental Health & Addiction Program (November 2013). "Improving health outcomes, housing and safety: Addressing the needs of individuals with severe addiction and mental illness" (PDF). Vancouver Coastal Health. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  40. 1 2 Woo, Andrea (6 Jan 2016). "Vancouver subset struggling to escape corrections system’s ‘revolving door,’ study says". The Globe and Mail.
  41. ↑ Luk, Vivian (13 October 2013). "How drugs, lack of safe housing fuel Vancouver’s mental-health crisis". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  42. ↑ Mirchandani, Rajesh (10 February 2010). "Vancouver: 'Drug Central' of North America". BBC. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  43. 1 2 3 4 5 "Stepping Forward – Improving Addiction Care in British Columbia" (PDF). British Columbia Medical Association. March 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  44. 1 2 Cole, Yolande (13 September 2013). "Vancouver police and mayor issue recommendations to address mental health "crisis"". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  45. 1 2 Maté, Gabor (24 January 2016). "Opinion: Health-care system poorly understands our addicts and mentally ill". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  46. ↑ Hutchinson, Brian (16 March 2012). "Years after Pickton's arrest, the killings have stopped in the Downtown Eastside, the violence has not". The National Post. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  47. ↑ Keller, James (6 September 2012). "Prostitutes' only relief, inquiry hears, is self-medication with drugs". Maclean's. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  48. ↑ Alarcon, Krystal (4 Mar 2013). "Angel's Story: Trapped in a Violent World". The Tyee. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  49. ↑ Rossi, Cheryl (28 February 2014). "Downtown Eastside: The neighbourhood at a glance". Vancouver Courier. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  50. 1 2 Turpel-Lafond, Mary Ellen (May 2015). "Paige’s Story Abuse, IndIfference and a Young LIfe DIscarded" (PDF). B.C. Representative for Children and Youth. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  51. 1 2 Strathcona Business Improvement Association, Ray-Cam Community Association, and Inner City Safety Society (2012). "Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: A Community in Need of Balance" (PDF). Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  52. ↑ "Council defers vote on redevelopment," Metro News, 20 October 2006.
  53. ↑ "Canada's poorest postal code in for an Olympic clean-up?". The Globe and Mail. 15 August 2008. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  54. ↑ "Vancouver myth busters". Vancouver Sun. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  55. ↑ Is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside really "Canada's poorest postal code"? Vancouver Sun Community Blogs
  56. 1 2 Lupick, Travis (10 August 2013). "Study finds steep drug and mental health challenges for Downtown Eastside single-occupancy tenants". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  57. ↑ Pete McMartin, "Slumlords evade real justice", Vancouver Courier (2007)
  58. ↑ Pete McMartin, "Rich slumlords keep tenants in squalor", The Vancouver Sun (2007)
  59. ↑ "Kerry Jang on city's broken-down SROs: 'There's only so much we can do'". CBC News. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  60. 1 2 Mercier, Stephanie. "Vancouver's Downtown Eastside residents dying at 8 times the national average" (10 September 2015). CBC News. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  61. 1 2 3 4 Evan Wood, PhD, Thomas Kerr, PhD, Patricia M. Spittal, PhD, Mark W. Tyndall, ScD, MD, Michael V. O’Shaughnessy, PhD, Martin T. Schechter, MD, PhD. The health care and fiscal costs of the illicit drug use epidemic: The impact of conventional drug control strategies. BCMJ, Vol. 45, No. 3, April, 2003, page(s) 128-134.
  62. ↑ Lupick, Travis (9 April 2014). "Downtown Eastside residents fear dispersal due to Local Area Plan". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  63. 1 2 3 4 Campbell, chapter 17
  64. ↑ Benoit, Ceclia and Dena Carroll (1 March 2001). "Marginalized Voices From The Downtown Eastside: Aboriginal Women Speak About Their Health Experiences" (PDF). The National Network on Environments and Women's Health, York University. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  65. 1 2 3 "Downtown Eastside Second Generation Health System Stra" (PDF). Vancouver Coastal Health. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  66. 1 2 Woo, Andrea (7 January 2016). "Half of Downtown Eastside's homeless residents came from other areas: study". CBC News. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  67. 1 2 "Housing & Homelessness Strategy Targets 2012-2014 2012 Report Card" (PDF). City of Vancouver. 12 February 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  68. 1 2 3 "2015 Report on Homelessness and Related Actions on SROs" (PDF). City of Vancouver. 15 July 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  69. 1 2 Kane, Laura (26 May 2013). "Vancouver’s vision for Downtown Eastside stokes anti-gentrification protests". Toronto Star. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  70. ↑ Douglas, Stan (2002). "Introduction". Every Building on 100 West Hastings. Vancouver: Contemporary Art Gallery and Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 1-55152-135-0.
  71. 1 2 3 4 "Vancouver's Downtown Eastside feeling gentrification squeeze". CBC News. The Canadian Press. 26 December 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  72. 1 2 Robinson, Matthew (15 March 2014). "Vancouver's $1-billion Downtown Eastside plan approved by council". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  73. ↑ "Downtown Eastside Social Impact Assessment - Draft Report" (PDF). City of Vancouver. 15 February 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  74. ↑ Ludvigsen, Mykle (Summer 2005). "Not in My Backyard: Nimby alive and well in Vancouver" (PDF). Visions (Vancouver: BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information) 2 (6): 15–16.
  75. ↑ McMartin, Pete (27 June 2014). "Pete McMartin: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is a ghetto made by outsider". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  76. ↑ Mackie, John (6 March 2014). "The Battle of Hastings: Notorious Vancouver street in for big changes — and conflicts". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  77. 1 2 Lee, Jeff (21 July 2015). "Vancouver introduces harsh SRO rules to dissuade owners from 'renovicting'". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  78. 1 2 Dhillon, Sunny (27 February 2014). "Vancouver reveals $1-billion plan for Downtown Eastside revival". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  79. ↑ Mackie, John (26 February 2014). "City unveils $1-billion plan for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  80. ↑ Ken Cameron, Mike Harcourt (2009). City Making in Paradise: Nine Decisions that Saved Vancouver. D & M Publishers. p. 198.
  81. ↑ Wood E, Spittal PM, Small W, et al. Displacement of Canada’s largest public illicit drug market in response to a police crackdown. CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2004;170(10):1551-1556. doi:10.1503/cmaj.1031928.
  82. ↑ Kora DeBeck, Thomas Kerr, Seonaid Nolan, Huiru Dong, Julio Montaner, Evan Wood (6 January 2016). "Inability to access addiction treatment predicts injection initiation among street-involved youth in a Canadian setting". Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 11 (1). doi:10.1186/s13011-015-0046-x.
  83. 1 2 Luk, Vivian (19 November 2013). "B.C. investing $20 million to help mentally ill drug addicts in Vancouver". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 18 April 2016.

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