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Wikipedia

Downtown Eastside

April 08, 2023

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues, including disproportionately high levels of drug use, homelessness, poverty, crime, mental illness and sex work. It is also known for its strong community resilience, history of social activism, and artistic contributions.

Downtown Eastside
Neighbourhood
View of the Downtown Eastside and Woodward's site at dusk from Harbour Centre in summer 2018.
Nicknames: 
DTES, Skid Row
Downtown Eastside
Coordinates: 49°16′53″N 123°05′59″W / 49.28139°N 123.09972°W / 49.28139; -123.09972Coordinates: 49°16′53″N 123°05′59″W / 49.28139°N 123.09972°W / 49.28139; -123.09972
CountryCanada
Province British Columbia
CityVancouver
Government
 • MPJenny Kwan
 • MLAMelanie Mark
Population
 (2011)
 • Total18,477 for the greater DTES area
 • Estimate 
(2009)
6,000 – 8,000 for the DTES
Time zoneUTC-8 (PST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (PDT)
Postal code
V6A
Area codes604, 778, 236, 672

Around the beginning of the 20th century, the DTES was Vancouver's political, cultural and retail centre. Over several decades, the city centre gradually shifted westwards, and the DTES became a poor neighbourhood,[1] although relatively stable. In the 1980s, the area began a rapid decline due to several factors, including an influx of hard drugs, policies that pushed sex work 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. As of 2018, critical issues include opioid overdoses, especially those involving the drug fentanyl; decrepit and squalid housing; a shortage of low-cost rental housing; and mental illness, which often co-occurs with addiction.

The population of the DTES is estimated to be around 7,000 people. Compared to the city, the DTES has a higher proportion of males and adults who live alone. It also has significantly more Indigenous Canadians, disproportionately affected by the neighbourhood's social problems.[2][3][4] The neighbourhood has a history of attracting individuals with mental health and addiction issues, many of whom are drawn to its drug market and low-barrier services. Residents experience Canada's highest rate of death from encounters with police,[5] and many vulnerable members of the community have low trust in the police.

Since Vancouver's real-estate boom began in the early 21st century, the area has been increasingly experiencing gentrification. Some see gentrification as a force for revitalization, while others believe it has led to higher displacement and homelessness. Numerous efforts have been made to improve the DTES 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.[6] Commentators from across the political spectrum have said that little progress has been made in resolving the issues of the neighbourhood as a whole, although there are individual success stories. Proposals for addressing the issues of the area include increasing investment in social housing, increasing capacity for treating people with addictions and mental illness, making services more evenly distributed across the city and region instead of concentrated in the DTES, and improving coordination of services. However, little agreement exists between the municipal, provincial and federal governments regarding long-term plans for the area.

Geography

 
The DTES and its surrounding neighbourhoods
 
View of the Downtown Eastside and Woodward's site from Harbour Centre in 2007

The term "Downtown Eastside" is most often used to refer to an area 10[7] to 50[8] blocks in size, a few blocks east of the city's Downtown central business district. The neighbourhood is centred around the intersection of Main Street and Hastings Street, where residents have gathered for over a hundred years to connect.[9] This intersection is also the home of the Carnegie Community Centre. The area around Hastings and Main is where the neighbourhood's social issues are most visible,[10] described in the Vancouver Sun in 2006 as "four blocks of hell."[11]

Some indications of the borders of the DTES, which shift and are poorly defined,[12] are as follows:

  • A 2016 analysis of crime in the DTES by The Georgia Straight focused on an area that consisted of a six-block length of Hastings and Cordova Streets, between Cambie Street and Jackson Avenue.[13]
  • The City of Vancouver describes a "Community-based Development Area", where places important to low-income residents are concentrated. This area includes Hastings Street from Abbott Street to Heatley Avenue, and the blocks surrounding Oppenheimer Park.[14]
  • By some definitions, the DTES extends along Main Street to beyond Terminal Avenue, and the DTES also includes a strip of land adjacent to Vancouver's port.[12]

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, including Chinatown, Gastown, Strathcona, the Victory Square area, and the light industrial area to the north. This area, referred to in this article as the greater DTES 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 Avenue and Prior Street.[15] The greater DTES area includes some popular tourist areas and nearly 20% of Vancouver's heritage buildings. [16]

Strathcona in the 1890s included the entire DTES. By 1994 Strathcona's northern boundary was generally considered to be the alley between East Pender and East Hastings streets,[17] though some place it at Railway Street, including DTES east of Gore Avenue.[18]

History

 
The corner of Hastings and Main, c. 1912
 
Lotus Light Lei Zang Si Temple, a Chinese Buddhist temple in the heart of East Hastings, is part of the diversity of the neighbourhood.

The DTES forms part of the traditional territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam First Nations.[19] European settlement of the area began in the mid-19th century, and most early buildings were destroyed in the Great Vancouver Fire of 1886.[1] Residents rebuilt their town at the edge of Burrard Inlet, between Cambie and Carrall streets, a townsite that now forms Gastown and part of the DTES.[1] 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.[1] Travellers connecting between Pacific steamships and the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway used its hundreds of hotels and rooming houses.[20] Large Japanese and Chinese immigrant communities settled in Japantown, which lies within the DTES, and in nearby Chinatown, respectively.[21]

During the Depression, hundreds of men arrived in Vancouver searching for work. Most of them later returned to their hometowns, except workers who had been injured or those who were sick or elderly.[1] These men remained in the DTES area – at the time known as Skid Road – which became a non-judgemental, affordable place to live as the main downtown area of Vancouver began to shift westward. Among them, drinking was a common pastime.[1][22] In addition to being a central cultural and entertainment district, Hastings Street was also a centre for beer parlours and brothels.[23]

In 1942, the neighbourhood lost its entire ethnic Japanese population, estimated at 8,000 to 10,000, due to the Canadian government's internment of these people. After the war, most did not return to the once-thriving Japantown community.[24]

In the 1950s, the city centre continued its shift westward after the interurban rail line closed; its main depot was at Carrall and Hastings.[25] Theatres and shops moved towards Granville and Robson streets.[26] As tourist traffic declined, the neighbourhood's hotels became run-down and were gradually converted to single room occupancy (SRO) housing, a use which persists to this day.[1] By 1965, the area was known for prostitution and for having a relatively high proportion of poor, single men, many of whom were alcoholics, disabled, or pensioners.[1]

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, [27]

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 an estimated 800 to 1,000 tenants were evicted from DTES residential hotels to make room for tourists.[28] With the increased tourist traffic of Expo 86, dealers introduced an influx of high-purity cocaine and heroin.[29] 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.[29][30] 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.[31]

Meanwhile, the provincial government 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 into the community.[27] Between 1985 and 1999, the number of patient-days of care provided by B.C. psychiatric hospitals declined by nearly 65%.[27] Many of the de-institutionalized mentally ill moved to the DTES, attracted by the accepting culture and low-cost housing, but they floundered without adequate treatment and support and soon became addicted to the neighbourhood's readily available drugs.[32][33]

Between 1980 and 2002, more than 60 women went missing from the DTES, most of them sex workers. A large number of missing women are missing and murdered Indigenous women.[34] Robert Pickton, who had a farm east of the city where he held "raves", was charged with the murders of 26 of these women and convicted on six counts in 2007. He claimed to have murdered 49 women.[35] As of 2009, an estimated 39 women were still missing from the Downtown Eastside.[36]

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.

— The New York Times, 2011, [37]
 
Downtown Eastside Justice for All Network asking the government and media to address persistent issues in the Downtown Eastside before the 2010 Olympics .

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 effect on the formerly bustling retail district.[38] 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 the conversion of buildings into more expensive condominiums or hotels.[27] 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.[27] By 1995, reports had begun to emerge of homeless people sleeping in parks, alleyways, and abandoned buildings.[27] Cuts to the provincial welfare program in 2002 caused further hardship for the poor and homeless.[27] Citywide, homeless people climbed from 630 in 2002 to 1,300 in 2005.[27]

Without a viable retail economy, a drug economy proliferated, with an accompanying increase in crime,[26] while police presence decreased.[39] Crack cocaine arrived in Vancouver in 1995,[27] and crystal methamphetamine started to appear in the DTES in 2003.[31] 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.[40][41] Efforts to reduce drug-related deaths in the DTES included the opening of a needle exchange in 1989,[42] the opening of North America's first legal safe injection site in 2003, and treatment with anti-retroviral drugs for HIV.[43] A shift among users from injected cocaine to crack cocaine use may have also slowed the spread of disease.[44] 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.[45]

In the 21st century, considerable investment was made in DTES services and infrastructure, including the Woodward's Building redevelopment and the acquisition of 23 SRO hotels by the provincial government for conversion to social housing.[46] In 2009, 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.[47]

Opinions vary on whether the area has improved: A 2014 article in the National Post 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."[48] Former NDP premier Mike Harcourt described the current reality of the neighbourhood as "100-per-cent failure."[49] 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."[6]

Demographics

 
Demonstrators at a march for women's housing, part of the long history of social activism in the DTES

There are no official population figures for the DTES. Estimates have ranged from 6,000[47] to 8,000;[23] the geographic boundaries associated with these figures was not provided.

Official figures are available for the greater DTES area, which was home to an estimated 18,477 people in 2011.[50] In comparison to the city of Vancouver overall, the greater DTES had a higher proportion of males (60% vs. 50%), more seniors (22% vs 13%), fewer children and youth (10% vs 18%), slightly fewer immigrants, and more Indigenous Canadians (10% vs. 2%).[51]

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 Indigenous descent.[52] The average household size was 1.3 residents; 82% of the population lived alone. Children and teenagers made up 7% of the people, compared to 25% of Canada overall.[52]

A population that is frequently studied is tenants of single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels in the greater DTES area. According to a 2013 survey, this population is 77% male, with a median age of 44. Indigenous people make up 28% of the population, and Europeans 59%.[53]

Migration patterns

The DTES has a history of attracting migrants with mental health and addiction issues across B.C. and Canada, with many drawn by its drug market, affordable housing, and services.[54][55][56][57] Between 1991 and 2007, the DTES population increased by 140%.[55]

A 2016 study found that 52% of those DTES residents who experience chronic homelessness and serious mental health issues had migrated from outside Vancouver in the previous 10 years. This proportion of the population has tripled in the last decade.[58] The same study found that once migrants had settled in the DTES, their conditions worsened.[58] 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.[59] Vancouver Coastal Health estimates that half of the population that uses its health services in the DTES are long-term residents and that there is a population turnover of 15 to 20% each year.[58]

Culture

 
Mosaic sidewalk art on East Hastings Street

Although many outsiders fear the DTES,[60] its residents take pride in their neighbourhood and describe it as having multiple positive assets.[21] DTES residents say the area has a strong sense of community and cultural heritage.[61] They describe their neighbours as accepting and empathizing with people with addictions and health issues.[61] According to the city government, Hastings Street is valued by SRO residents as "a place to meet friends, get support, access services and feel like they belong."[62]

The area has had a robust tradition of advocacy for its marginalized residents since at least the 1970s when the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) was formed.[63] Over the years, the DTES community has consistently resisted many attempts to "clean up" the neighbourhood by dispersing its close-knit residents.[64] Successful resident-led initiatives to improve conditions in the DTES include the transformation of the then-closed Carnegie Library into a community centre in 1980,[63] the opening of an unlicensed supervised injection site in 2003, which led to the founding of Insite;[65] improvements to Oppenheimer Park,[66] and the creation of CRAB Park.

In 2010, the V6A postal area, which includes most of the DTES, had the second-highest concentration of artists in the city.[67] Artists made up 4.4% of the labour force, compared to 2.3% in the city as a whole.[67] The Downtown Eastside Artists' Collective was formed by Trey Helten, manager of the Overdose Prevention Society.[68] The greater DTES area is the location of several art galleries, artist-run centres and studios.[69] Prominent local artists include poet Henry Doyle,[70] artist Marcel Mousseau,[71] and poet Bud Osborn.[72]

Notable annual events include the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival,[73] which showcases the art, culture, and history of the neighbourhood, and the Powell Street Festival in Oppenheimer Park, which celebrates Japanese-Canadian arts and culture. The Smilin' Buddha Cabaret operated at 109 East Hastings Street from 1952 to the late 1980s as a symbol of "cultural vitality," reflecting shifts in the neighbourhood itself.[74] City Opera of Vancouver, the Dancing on the Edge Festival, and other artists regularly perform in DTES venues such as the Carnegie Centre, the Firehall Arts Centre, and the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at the Woodward's site. The musical composition "100 Block Rock," featuring 11 tracks, was released in 2020.[75] In 2010, Sam Sullivan, former mayor of Vancouver, said that in the DTES, "Behind the visible people who have a lot of troubles, there's a community. Some very intelligent people say this is the city's cultural heart."[76]

Current issues

Addiction and mental illness

The DTES population suffers very high rates of mental illness and addiction. 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.[77] According to the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) in 2008, up to 500 of these individuals were "chronically mentally ill with disabling addictions, extreme behaviours, no permanent housing and regular police contact."[78] 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 1 million people in the Vancouver Coastal Health region.[79]

A 2013 study of SRO tenants in the greater DTES found that 95.2% had some form of substance dependence, and 74.4% had a mental illness, including 47.4% with psychosis.[53] Only one-third of individuals with psychosis received treatment, and among those with concurrent addiction, the proportion receiving treatment was even lower.[53] 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.[80] Between 60% and 70% of mentally ill patients treated at St. Paul's Hospital, the hospital closest to the DTES, is estimated to have multiple addictions.[81] 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 crystal methamphetamine use, which can cause permanent psychosis.[31][82]

Substance use

 
A woman going through drug withdrawal, seen on Hastings Street

A 2010 BBC article described the DTES as "home to one of the worst drug problems in North America."[83] In 2011, crack cocaine was the most commonly used illicit hard 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).[45] Alcoholism, especially when it involves the use of highly toxic isopropyl alcohol, is a significant source of harm to residents of the DTES.[56]

In 2016, a board member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users said that in the previous year, Vancouver's supply of heroin had virtually disappeared and been replaced by fentanyl, which is cheaper and more potent.[84] At the end of 2014, the DTES saw a dramatic rise in fentanyl overdoses. In 2016 the surge in drug overdose deaths led to the declaration of a public health emergency across the province.[85]

In a 2008 survey of SRO residents in the greater DTES, 32% self-reported as being addicted to drugs, 20% were addicted to alcohol, 52% smoked cigarettes regularly, and 51% smoked marijuana.[86] In 2003, the DTES was home to an estimated 4,700 injection drug users.[87] Most live in unstable housing or are homeless,[87] and approximately 20% are sex workers.[45] In 2006, DTES residents incurred half of the deaths from illegal drug overdoses in the entire province.[88] 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.[45] However, between 2010 and 2014, hospitalizations related to addictions increased by 89% at St. Paul's Hospital.[41]

According to a 2008 survey of greater DTES area SROs, tenants who used drugs estimated the cost of their habits at $30 per day, on average.[86] Some spend hundreds of dollars per day on drugs.[89][90] Police attribute much of the property crime in Vancouver to chronic repeat offenders who steal to support their drug habits.[89]

Mental illness

The VPD reported in 2008 that in its district, which includes the Downtown Eastside, mental health was a factor in 42% of all incidents in which police were involved.[91] The police department says its officers are often forced to act as front-line mental health workers due to lacking more appropriate support for this population.[92]

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. In Vancouver, apprehensions under the Mental Health Act rose by 16% between 2010 and 2012, and there was also an increase in the number of violent incidents involving mentally ill people.[93] 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.[93]

Overdose crisis

The overdose deaths in BC between 2003 and 2018 are up over 725%, and overdose deaths of minors 10–18 years old are up 260% in 10 years. Fraser and Vancouver Coastal Health Authority have had the highest number of illicit drug toxicity deaths (188 and 164 deaths, respectively) in 2019, making up 65% of all such deaths during this period. 2019: Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has the highest rate of illicit drug toxicity deaths (27 deaths per 100,000 individuals).[94]

In a report presented to the City Council of Vancouver by Mayor Kennedy Stewart on 20 December 2018 regarding the opioid crisis, he stated:[95]

As of December 16, 2018, an estimated 353 overdose deaths have occurred in Vancouver in 2018, which is almost on par with the 369 overdose deaths in 2017, despite the extensive harm reduction investments in Vancouver. Vancouver continues to have the highest death rates per capita in BC, with 58 deaths per 100,000 people this year. Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services are responding to 103 overdose-related emergency calls per week, slightly down from the 2017 average of 119 calls per week. The decreased rate in overdose deaths and calls could be attributed to the increase in overdose prevention and response interventions across Vancouver, emphasizing the Downtown Eastside. Regardless, Vancouver continues to be the city most impacted by the overdose crisis in Canada. From January to June 2018, BC had 754 opioid-related deaths – the country's highest. Vancouver also has more overdose deaths per capita than all of BC, with 30 deaths per 100,000 people between January and June 2018.

— Kennedy Stewart
 
An emergency opioid overdose kit, containing a single dose of naloxone, needle, and syringe.

Statistics indicate that illicit drug toxicity deaths have increased in BC, with 1,547 and 981 deaths in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Between January and September 2020, BC has seen the number of overdose deaths jump to 1,202, with a record high of 183 illicit drug-related deaths reported in June of this year. The Vancouver Coastal Health jurisdiction has seen 37 deaths per 100,000 people between January and October 2020.[96]

Sex work

See also: Prostitution in Canada

In my 12 years 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 the pain.

— Gabor Maté, [57]

Vancouver has an estimated 1,000 street-based sex workers[97]. According to the police, most of them work in the DTES.[98] They call the neighbourhood and contiguous industrial areas near Vancouver's port these outdoor workers, previously referred to using the more stigmatizing language including "low track" workers,[99] where they typically earn $5 to $20 for a date.[100] Most are survival sex workers who use sex work to support their substance use;[101] up to two-thirds say they have been physically or sexually assaulted while working.[100] Sex workers, particularly women with children, find it difficult to find housing that they can afford, and often have difficulty leaving the industry because of criminal records or addictions that make it harder to find jobs.[100]

Although Indigenous Canadians makeup only 2% of Vancouver's population, approximately 40% of Vancouver's street-based sex workers are Indigenous.[102] In one 2005 study, 52% of the sex workers surveyed in Vancouver were Indigenous, 96% reported having been sexually abused in childhood, and 81% reported childhood physical abuse. Some researchers and Indigenous advocacy groups have attributed the over-representation of Indigenous people in Vancouver's sex trade to transgenerational trauma, linking it to Canada's colonial history and in particular, to the cultural and individual damage caused by the residential schools, which previous generations of indigenous Canadians were forced to attend.[103]

Displacement

After the displacements that occurred on Dupont and Davie Street, Vancouver's outdoor sex workers were pushed to the streets of the Downtown Eastside. Here they are facing more violence than ever before. Neighbourhood harassment, policing, and developmental changes contribute to these conditions. Throughout all of the areas where sex work has been present, the city has been critiqued for backing up property owners to harass workers collectively.[104] In the Downtown Eastside, these behaviours have continued to persist. A study published in 2017 containing interviews with thirty-three sex workers addressed concerns with changes in construction, surveillance, and security measures that have pushed workers into isolated areas where they are at greater risk of harm. The growth of new businesses in the area has also required workers to develop good relations to prevent frequent police calls.[105] These conditions have also forced workers to rush or forgo screening and negotiation processes that increase the risk of bad dates and STI contractions. This disproportionately impacted the safety of oppressed communities such as indigenous, substance-dependent and transgender workers who are often restricted to this area.[106] Over the years, this has also contributed to the many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) cases, including those involved in the mass killings by serial killer Robert Pickton.[107]

Crime and public disorder

 
Peoples' Pigeon Park, near Hastings and Carrall Streets

Reported crime rates in the DTES are higher than in the rest of the city, with most crimes being assaults, robberies, and/or public intoxication.[108] Although it is home to 3% of Vancouver's population, the DTES was the location of 16% of the city's reported sexual assaults in 2012.[102] In 2008, it was the location of 34.5% of all reported serious assaults and 22.6% of all robberies in the city.[109]

These figures may be an underestimate, as marginalized populations such as DTES residents tend to be less likely to report crime.[102] Many residents are survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system or experience transgenerational trauma as a result of Residential Schools, and are further traumatized by excessive policing.[110]

The figures do not indicate how many of the reported crimes were committed by DTES residents; some residents and business owners believe that visitors from other neighbourhoods are responsible for a significant proportion of serious crimes.[13] According to police, DTES women say that what they fear most are "predatory drug dealers who conduct their business with violence, torture, and terror."[111]

In addition to reported crime, the DTES has the highly visible street disorder, which The New York Times described as "a shock even to someone familiar with the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1980s or the Tenderloin in San Francisco."[37] Some government social workers have refused to enter certain SROs out of concern for their safety, despite being mandated to monitor children who live there.[112] Tourists are often encouraged to avoid the DTES,[113]. However, they are seldom victims of crime.[114] High crime rates and difficulties in obtaining affordable property insurance deter legitimate businesses from opening or staying in the area, resulting in many vacant storefronts.[115][116]

Poverty

 
The Hotel Empress at 235 East Hastings was built in 1912–1913. Like many SROs in the DTES, it was originally designed for tourists and business travellers and was converted to residential use in the 20th century.[117]

The greater DTES area is significantly poorer than the rest of Vancouver, with a median income of $13,691 versus $47,229 for the city as a whole.[118] 53% of the greater DTES population is low-income, compared to 13.6% of the population of Metro Vancouver.[119] In the V6A postal area, whose boundaries are similar to the greater DTES area, 6,339 residents received some form of social assistance in 2013.[120] Of these, 3,193 were considered disabled and 1,461 were considered "employable". The base welfare rate for single adults who are considered employable is $610 per month: $375 per month for shelter and $235 ($335 since July 2017) per month for all other expenses.[120] Advocates for low-income DTES residents say this amount, which has not increased since 2007, is not enough to live on.[121][122] In 1981, the base welfare rate was equivalent to $970 per month after adjustment for inflation.[122]

Some DTES residents supplement their incomes through the informal economy, through volunteer work which can yield stipends,[120] or through criminal activity or sex work.[123] A 2008 survey of SRO residents found that the average tenant income from all sources, including the informal economy, was $1,109 per month.[86]

In addition to addiction and mental illness issues, DTES residents often have difficulty finding employment due to mental and physical disabilities and a lack of education and skills.[124] 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.[52]

The DTES is often referred to as "Canada's poorest postal code," although this is not the case.[125]

Housing

See also: Homelessness in Vancouver

Both homelessness and substandard housing are major issues in the DTES that compound 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 not in some form of shelter.[126] The DTES homeless made up approximately half of the city's total homeless population,[121] over a third of whom are Indigenous.[127]

Thousands of DTES residents live in SROs, which provide low-cost rooms without private kitchens or bathrooms,[59] 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 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.[20] Even at their best, the SROs lack living space, resulting in tenants spending more time in the public areas of the DTES, including its street-based drug scene.[45]

SRO landlords have often been called "slumlords" for failing to fix problems and illegally evicting tenants.[128][129] The city has often been slow to force SRO owners to make significant repairs, saying that owners could not afford to make them without raising rents.[130]

Housing availability and affordability

Any discussion of improving the continuum of care for addiction must include housing as an essential component, particularly for the most vulnerable individuals coping with homelessness, addiction, and mental illness.

— B.C. Medical Association, [88]

The City refers to the housing and homelessness situation in the DTES as a "crisis".[131] There is wide support amongst governments, experts, and community groups on a Housing First model, which prioritizes stable, quality housing as a precursor to other interventions for the homeless, those who use drugs, or those with mental illness.[88] Many people with severe addiction and/or mental illness require supportive housing.[132]

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. Although SROs have well-known problems, each SRO resident who loses their room and ends up on the street costs the provincial government approximately $30,000 to $40,000 per year in additional services.[133]

 
A protestor's character during a march for housing

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.[134] The number of privately owned SROs declined during this time by 3283 units, while the number of social housing units increased by 4038 units.[134] In 2014, 300 privately owned SRO units were lost.[135]

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 base welfare shelter rate of $375 per month, down from 60% in 2007.[135] According to one advocacy group, the average lowest rent in privately owned hotels in the greater DTES area was $517 per month in 2015, and no vacant rooms were rented at less than $425 per month.[136]

The city has implemented a bylaw to discourage the redevelopment of SROs.[137] Advocates for SRO tenants argue that the city's bylaw does not go far enough, as it does not prevent rent increases.[137] The city says that only the province, not the city, has the jurisdiction to control rents and that the province should raise welfare rates.[138]

Since 2007, the provincial government has acquired 23 privately owned SRO hotels in the greater DTES area, containing 1,500 units. It undertook extensive renovations in 13 buildings for $143.3  million, of which $29.1  the federal government paid million.[46] Due to rising rents and often-decrepit conditions in the area's remaining 4,484 privately owned SROs, DTES activists have called for governments to replace them with a further 5,000 social housing units for low-income singles.[139]

Health and well-being

A 2013 study of SRO residents in the greater DTES area found that 18.4% were HIV positive and 70.3% were positive for hepatitis C.[53] Few of those infected with hepatitis C receive treatment.[53][140] The DTES population also has higher rates of tuberculosis and syphilis than the rest of the province,[141] and injection drug users are susceptible to other infections such as endocarditis.[142] Indigenous people are at the greatest risk from the disease.[143]

Amongst the most vulnerable DTES residents, common issues with psychosocial well-being include low self-worth, lack of personal safety, lack of respect from others, social isolation, and low education levels.[143][144] Many have lost custody of their children.[145] A 2000 report from the Vancouver Native Health Society Medical Clinic said, "Many individuals are survivors of severe childhood trauma. Negative experiences such as family violence, parental substance abuse, sexual and emotional abuse, suicide, divorce, and residential school atrocities are the norm."[143] Many DTES residents are too unstable to keep appointments or reliably take medication.[144]

Life expectancy in the greater DTES area is 79.9 years, a significant improvement since the mid-1990s.[44] Some of the increase may, however, be explained by the migration of healthier residents to the neighbourhoods surrounding the DTES.[44] 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.[140]

Costs

 
The crowded sidewalk of Hastings Street, near Main Street

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

  • DTES-specific costs: Of the estimated $360 million per year to operate 260 social services and housing sites in the greater DTES area, three-quarters of the spending is funded by governments, and the rest by private donors.[6] This figure includes operating costs of a range of organizations, including neighbourhood health care services, but does not include standard city operations, the capital costs of building social housing or other infrastructure, or hospital costs.[6]
  • Wider-area costs related to issues concentrated in the DTES: In the closest hospital to the DTES, Saint Paul's, injection drug use leads to approximately 15% of admissions.[142] The annual cost of ambulances responding to overdoses in Vancouver is $500,000,[142] and the cost of police response to calls involving mental health problems is estimated to be $9 million per year.[92]
  • Costs per individual: For each untreated drug addict, the costs to society, including crime, judicial costs, and health care, are estimated to be at least $45,000 annually.[146] The government-paid lifetime healthcare cost per HIV-infected injection drug user is estimated at $150,000.[142] A 2008 study estimated that each homeless person in B.C. costs $55,000 per year in government-paid costs related to healthcare, corrections, and social services, whereas providing housing and support would cost $37,000 per year.[55] Costs per individual vary widely: A 2016 study found that 107 chronic offenders in the DTES incur public service costs of $247,000 per person per year.[80]

Law enforcement

For the police, success is measured in how well the drugs are kept corralled on Hastings between Cambie and Main, where they can expect the fewest complaints. Arrests are infrequent, and when they occur, they are counterproductive... Like a hydra, direct enforcement paradoxically crowds the streets with the incarcerated dealers multiplying replacements.

— Reid Shier, former DTES art gallery director/curator, [26]

In comparison to other Canadian cities, the VPD is generally considered to be progressive in dealing with drugs and sex work,[147] emphasizing harm reduction over law enforcement.

The VPD engages in the controversial practice known as "carding," or "street checks," in which police stop and question individuals whom they suspect of being involved in criminal or suspicious activity. In Vancouver, 15% of street checks are on Indigenous people, representing just 2% of the general population, and 5% of reviews are on Black people, representing less than 1%. Some civil rights groups believe the VPD's practices constitute racial profiling and result in excessive harassment and violence against Indigenous and Black residents.[148]

Since the 1980s, the VPD has ignored drug use in the DTES, as the sheer volume of users makes it unfeasible to arrest all of them.[31] A large-scale police crackdown on DTES drug users in 2003 made no difference except to displace drug use to adjacent neighbourhoods.[149] To encourage people to call for help when a drug user is overdosing, paramedics rather than police respond to 911 calls about overdose deaths, except in cases where public safety is at risk.[31]

Nationwide efforts to reduce the supply of drugs through law enforcement have had minimal impact on the easy availability or low prices of illicit drugs in Vancouver.[45] By former mayor Mike Harcourt's estimate, police intercept only 2% of the drugs that enter the city.[150] Vancouver police guidelines on dealing with sex workers emphasize focusing on addressing violence, human trafficking, and involvement of youth or gangs in prostitution, whereas sex involving consenting adults is not an enforcement priority.[147][151]

Relations between police and DTES women were strained by police shortcomings that allowed serial killer Robert Pickton to prey on the community for years before he was arrested in 2002; the VPD apologized in 2010 for its failures in apprehending him.[152] In 2003, the Pivot Legal Society filed 50 complaints from DTES residents alleging police misconduct.[153] An investigation by the RCMP, in which several VPD officers and the police chief failed to co-operate, found that 14 of those allegations were substantiated.[153] In 2007, Pivot agreed to withdraw its remaining complaints, following apologies and changes to VPD policies and procedures.[further explanation needed][154]

In 2008, the VPD implemented a crackdown on minor offences, such as illegal vending on sidewalks and jaywalking. The ticketing blitz was stopped after objections from community groups. Residents with unpaid tickets – particularly women and sex workers – would be less afraid to approach the police to report serious safety concerns.[155]

In 2010, police launched an initiative to combat violence against DTES women that resulted in the convictions of several violent offenders.[156] However, the level of trust toward police remains low.[152] According to some DTES activists, "gentrification/condos and police brutality," rather than drugs, are the two worst problems in the neighbourhood.[157]

Controversies

Concentration of services controversy

You 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, [48]

The Downtown Eastside 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, [158]

It's the NIMBYism of the other 23 communities in the city that is the Downtown Eastside's greatest problem. And the city needs to work to put significantly more services in different communities.

— Scott Clark, Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement Society, [159]

The DTES is the site of many service offerings, including social housing, health care, free meals and clothing, harm reduction for drug users, housing assistance, employment preparation, adult education, children's programs, emergency housing, arts and recreation, and legal advocacy.[6] In 2014, the Vancouver Sun reported that there were 260 social services and housing sites in the greater DTES area, spending $360 million per year.[6] No other Canadian city has concentrated services to this degree in one small area.[6]

Proponents of the high level of services say that it is necessary to meet the complex needs of the DTES population.[6] For some residents, the sense of community and acceptance that they find in the DTES makes it a unique place of healing for them.[132]

Locating many services in the DTES has also been criticized for attracting vulnerable people to an area where drugs, crime, and disorder are entrenched. Some advocates for vulnerable populations believe that many DTES residents would have a better quality of life and improved chances of health if they could separate from the neighbourhood's predatory drug pushers and pimps.[48][112][132][160]

During the city's 2014 planning process for the greater DTES, two-thirds of those who participated said they wanted to stay in the area.[6] But a 2008 survey of SRO tenants had indicated that 70% wanted to leave the DTES.[86] The city's 30-year plan is for two-thirds of the city's future social housing to be located in the greater DTES area.[6]

Views on services in other neighbourhoods

Vancouver Coastal Health says that the lack of appropriate care for complex social and health issues outside of the DTES often does not allow people "the choice to remain in their home community where their natural support systems exist... A common barrier that prevents mentally ill and addicted people from living outside of the DTES is a lack of appropriate services and support. Too often, clients who secure housing outside the neighbourhood return to the DTES regularly because of the lack of support in other communities."[56]

Proposals to add social housing and services for those with addiction and/or mental health issues to other Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods are often met with Nimbyism, even when residents selected for such projects would be low-risk individuals.[161] A 2012 poll of Metro Vancouver residents found that although nine out of 10 of those surveyed wanted the homeless to have access to services they need, 54% believed that "housing in their community should be there for the people who can afford it."[162] 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.[159]

Gentrification controversy

This community could be wiped off the face of the map. The neighbourhood's character has changed in the last three or four years. Affordable rentals are a thing of the past.

— Harold Lavender, DTES resident, [163]

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.

— Strathcona Business Improvement Association, Ray-Cam Community Association, and Inner City Safety Society, [116]
See also: Gentrification of Vancouver

The DTES lies a few blocks east of the city's most expensive commercial real estate. BC Partners for

Mental Health and

Addictions Information[26] Since the mid-2000s, new development in the DTES has brought a mixture of market-rate housing (primarily condominiums), social housing, office spaces, restaurants, and shops.[164] Property values in the DTES area increased by 303% between 2001 and 2013.[165] Prices at the newer retail establishments are often far higher than low-income residents can afford.[164]

The city promotes mixed-income housing, and requires new large housing developments in the DTES to set aside 20% of their units for social housing.[164] 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.[166] Rents in at least one-third of new social housing units are not permitted to exceed the shelter component of welfare rates.[166]

Proponents say that new developments revitalize the area, improve the quality of life, provide new social housing, and encourage a stronger retail environment and a stabilizing street presence.[61][164] They emphasize that their goal is for the DTES to include a mixture of income levels and avoid the problems associated with concentrated poverty, not to become an expensive yuppie-oriented neighbourhood like nearby Yaletown.[61][167][168]

Others oppose the addition of market housing and upscale businesses to the DTES, in the belief that these changes will drive up prices, displace low-income residents, and make poor people feel less at home.[61][169] Protests against new businesses and housing developments have occasionally turned violent.[139]

Strategies

Housing strategies

 
The Ovaltine Cafe at 251 E. Hastings has served the neighbourhood since the 1940s.[170] The upper portion of the building is an SRO hotel.

Although housing and homelessness are often perceived as municipal issues, social housing is traditionally funded primarily by senior levels of government, which receive 92% of tax revenue in Canada.[55] 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.[132]

In 2014, the City of Vancouver approved a 30-year plan for the greater DTES area. It 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.[171][172] 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.[172] The provincial government, which recently invested $300 million in social housing in Vancouver, said it will not fund the proposed housing expansion and that its housing strategy had shifted towards other models such as rent assistance rather than construction.[173]

Addiction and mental illness strategies

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 partially implemented, with prevention, treatment, and harm reduction all being underfunded.[41] Across Canada, 94% of drug strategy dollars are spent on enforcement.[142] The city's 2014 Local Area Plan for the DTES 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."[48]

The VPD, B.C. Medical Association and the City of Vancouver have asked the province to urgently increase capacity for treating addiction and mental illness.[81][88] In 2009, the BCMA asked that detoxification be available on demand, with no waiting period, by 2012.[88] 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 primarily due to being placed on waiting lists.[174]

After the city and police department described an emerging mental health crisis in Vancouver in 2013, the province implemented three of their five recommendations within a year, including new Assertive Community Treatment teams and a nine-bed urgent care facility at St. Paul's Hospital.[175] In response to a recommendation that the province adds 300 new long-term health care beds for the most severely mentally ill, provincial Health Minister Terry Lake said that more research was needed to determine whether these beds were urgently needed.[175] As of 2015, the province had opened or committed to only 50 new beds.[176]

Co-ordination of services

Although DTES residents often have a complex combination of needs, 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.[177] Despite widespread agreement in principle that a coordinated 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.[48]

In 2009, the VPD proposed creating a steering committee of senior city and provincial stakeholders, which would be mandated to improve collaboration between service providers to enable a client-centric rather than a discipline-centric model.[178] 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."[177]

In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Coordinated Community Response Network was formed to distribute funds, resources, and support in the neighbourhood.[179] The network consists of a coordinated effort of over 50 social service and frontline organizations and groups.

Notable activists

Portrayals in media

Films set in the Downtown Eastside include On the Corner, The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park, and Luk'Luk'I. The Matthew Good album Vancouver was inspired by the Downtown Eastside.[181]

References

Citations

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Sources

  • Campbell, Larry; Boyd, Neil; Cutbert, Lori (2009). A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and the Fight for its Future. Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books. ISBN 978-1-55365-298-4.
  • City of Vancouver (2013). "Downtown Eastside Local Area Profile 2013" (PDF).
  • City of Vancouver (15 March 2014). "Downtown Eastside Plan" (PDF). Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  • Cran, Brad; Jerome, Gillian (2008). Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press and Pivot Legal Society. ISBN 978-1-55152-238-8.
  • Douglas, Stan (2002). Every Building on 100 West Hastings. Vancouver: Contemporary Art Gallery and Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 978-1-55152-135-0.
  • Vancouver Police Department (4 February 2009). Project Lockstep: A United Effort to Save Lives in the Downtown Eastside (PDF) (Report). Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  • 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 Resources (PDF) (Report). Vancouver Police Department. Retrieved 10 April 2016.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Downtown Eastside.
  • Map and Local Area Plan for the greater DTES – City of Vancouver
  • Through a Blue Lens, a documentary shot in the DTES that follows interactions between police officers and drug addicts

April 08, 2023
downtown, eastside, dtes, neighbourhood, vancouver, british, columbia, canada, city, oldest, neighbourhoods, dtes, site, complex, social, issues, including, disproportionately, high, levels, drug, homelessness, poverty, crime, mental, illness, work, also, know. The Downtown Eastside DTES is a neighbourhood in Vancouver British Columbia Canada One of the city s oldest neighbourhoods the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues including disproportionately high levels of drug use homelessness poverty crime mental illness and sex work It is also known for its strong community resilience history of social activism and artistic contributions Downtown EastsideNeighbourhoodView of the Downtown Eastside and Woodward s site at dusk from Harbour Centre in summer 2018 Nicknames DTES Skid RowDowntown EastsideCoordinates 49 16 53 N 123 05 59 W 49 28139 N 123 09972 W 49 28139 123 09972 Coordinates 49 16 53 N 123 05 59 W 49 28139 N 123 09972 W 49 28139 123 09972CountryCanadaProvince British ColumbiaCityVancouverGovernment MPJenny Kwan MLAMelanie MarkPopulation 2011 Total18 477 for the greater DTES area Estimate 2009 6 000 8 000 for the DTESTime zoneUTC 8 PST Summer DST UTC 7 PDT Postal codeV6AArea codes604 778 236 672Around the beginning of the 20th century the DTES was Vancouver s political cultural and retail centre Over several decades the city centre gradually shifted westwards and the DTES became a poor neighbourhood 1 although relatively stable In the 1980s the area began a rapid decline due to several factors including an influx of hard drugs policies that pushed sex work 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 As of 2018 critical issues include opioid overdoses especially those involving the drug fentanyl decrepit and squalid housing a shortage of low cost rental housing and mental illness which often co occurs with addiction The population of the DTES is estimated to be around 7 000 people Compared to the city the DTES has a higher proportion of males and adults who live alone It also has significantly more Indigenous Canadians disproportionately affected by the neighbourhood s social problems 2 3 4 The neighbourhood has a history of attracting individuals with mental health and addiction issues many of whom are drawn to its drug market and low barrier services Residents experience Canada s highest rate of death from encounters with police 5 and many vulnerable members of the community have low trust in the police Since Vancouver s real estate boom began in the early 21st century the area has been increasingly experiencing gentrification Some see gentrification as a force for revitalization while others believe it has led to higher displacement and homelessness Numerous efforts have been made to improve the DTES 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 6 Commentators from across the political spectrum have said that little progress has been made in resolving the issues of the neighbourhood as a whole although there are individual success stories Proposals for addressing the issues of the area include increasing investment in social housing increasing capacity for treating people with addictions and mental illness making services more evenly distributed across the city and region instead of concentrated in the DTES and improving coordination of services However little agreement exists between the municipal provincial and federal governments regarding long term plans for the area Contents 1 Geography 2 History 2 1 1980s 2 2 1990s to present 3 Demographics 3 1 Migration patterns 4 Culture 5 Current issues 5 1 Addiction and mental illness 5 1 1 Substance use 5 1 2 Mental illness 5 1 3 Overdose crisis 5 2 Sex work 5 2 1 Displacement 5 3 Crime and public disorder 5 4 Poverty 5 5 Housing 5 5 1 Housing availability and affordability 5 6 Health and well being 5 7 Costs 6 Law enforcement 7 Controversies 7 1 Concentration of services controversy 7 1 1 Views on services in other neighbourhoods 7 2 Gentrification controversy 8 Strategies 8 1 Housing strategies 8 2 Addiction and mental illness strategies 8 3 Co ordination of services 9 Notable activists 10 Portrayals in media 11 References 11 1 Citations 11 2 Sources 12 External linksGeography Edit The DTES and its surrounding neighbourhoods View of the Downtown Eastside and Woodward s site from Harbour Centre in 2007 The term Downtown Eastside is most often used to refer to an area 10 7 to 50 8 blocks in size a few blocks east of the city s Downtown central business district The neighbourhood is centred around the intersection of Main Street and Hastings Street where residents have gathered for over a hundred years to connect 9 This intersection is also the home of the Carnegie Community Centre The area around Hastings and Main is where the neighbourhood s social issues are most visible 10 described in the Vancouver Sun in 2006 as four blocks of hell 11 Some indications of the borders of the DTES which shift and are poorly defined 12 are as follows A 2016 analysis of crime in the DTES by The Georgia Straight focused on an area that consisted of a six block length of Hastings and Cordova Streets between Cambie Street and Jackson Avenue 13 The City of Vancouver describes a Community based Development Area where places important to low income residents are concentrated This area includes Hastings Street from Abbott Street to Heatley Avenue and the blocks surrounding Oppenheimer Park 14 By some definitions the DTES extends along Main Street to beyond Terminal Avenue and the DTES also includes a strip of land adjacent to Vancouver s port 12 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 including Chinatown Gastown Strathcona the Victory Square area and the light industrial area to the north This area referred to in this article as the greater DTES 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 Avenue and Prior Street 15 The greater DTES area includes some popular tourist areas and nearly 20 of Vancouver s heritage buildings 16 Strathcona in the 1890s included the entire DTES By 1994 Strathcona s northern boundary was generally considered to be the alley between East Pender and East Hastings streets 17 though some place it at Railway Street including DTES east of Gore Avenue 18 History Edit The corner of Hastings and Main c 1912 Lotus Light Lei Zang Si Temple a Chinese Buddhist temple in the heart of East Hastings is part of the diversity of the neighbourhood The DTES forms part of the traditional territories of the Squamish Tsleil Waututh and Musqueam First Nations 19 European settlement of the area began in the mid 19th century and most early buildings were destroyed in the Great Vancouver Fire of 1886 1 Residents rebuilt their town at the edge of Burrard Inlet between Cambie and Carrall streets a townsite that now forms Gastown and part of the DTES 1 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 1 Travellers connecting between Pacific steamships and the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway used its hundreds of hotels and rooming houses 20 Large Japanese and Chinese immigrant communities settled in Japantown which lies within the DTES and in nearby Chinatown respectively 21 During the Depression hundreds of men arrived in Vancouver searching for work Most of them later returned to their hometowns except workers who had been injured or those who were sick or elderly 1 These men remained in the DTES area at the time known as Skid Road which became a non judgemental affordable place to live as the main downtown area of Vancouver began to shift westward Among them drinking was a common pastime 1 22 In addition to being a central cultural and entertainment district Hastings Street was also a centre for beer parlours and brothels 23 In 1942 the neighbourhood lost its entire ethnic Japanese population estimated at 8 000 to 10 000 due to the Canadian government s internment of these people After the war most did not return to the once thriving Japantown community 24 In the 1950s the city centre continued its shift westward after the interurban rail line closed its main depot was at Carrall and Hastings 25 Theatres and shops moved towards Granville and Robson streets 26 As tourist traffic declined the neighbourhood s hotels became run down and were gradually converted to single room occupancy SRO housing a use which persists to this day 1 By 1965 the area was known for prostitution and for having a relatively high proportion of poor single men many of whom were alcoholics disabled or pensioners 1 1980s Edit 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 27 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 an estimated 800 to 1 000 tenants were evicted from DTES residential hotels to make room for tourists 28 With the increased tourist traffic of Expo 86 dealers introduced an influx of high purity cocaine and heroin 29 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 29 30 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 31 Meanwhile the provincial government 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 into the community 27 Between 1985 and 1999 the number of patient days of care provided by B C psychiatric hospitals declined by nearly 65 27 Many of the de institutionalized mentally ill moved to the DTES attracted by the accepting culture and low cost housing but they floundered without adequate treatment and support and soon became addicted to the neighbourhood s readily available drugs 32 33 Between 1980 and 2002 more than 60 women went missing from the DTES most of them sex workers A large number of missing women are missing and murdered Indigenous women 34 Robert Pickton who had a farm east of the city where he held raves was charged with the murders of 26 of these women and convicted on six counts in 2007 He claimed to have murdered 49 women 35 As of 2009 an estimated 39 women were still missing from the Downtown Eastside 36 1990s to present Edit 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 The New York Times 2011 37 Downtown Eastside Justice for All Network asking the government and media to address persistent issues in the Downtown Eastside before the 2010 Olympics 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 effect on the formerly bustling retail district 38 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 the conversion of buildings into more expensive condominiums or hotels 27 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 27 By 1995 reports had begun to emerge of homeless people sleeping in parks alleyways and abandoned buildings 27 Cuts to the provincial welfare program in 2002 caused further hardship for the poor and homeless 27 Citywide homeless people climbed from 630 in 2002 to 1 300 in 2005 27 Without a viable retail economy a drug economy proliferated with an accompanying increase in crime 26 while police presence decreased 39 Crack cocaine arrived in Vancouver in 1995 27 and crystal methamphetamine started to appear in the DTES in 2003 31 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 40 41 Efforts to reduce drug related deaths in the DTES included the opening of a needle exchange in 1989 42 the opening of North America s first legal safe injection site in 2003 and treatment with anti retroviral drugs for HIV 43 A shift among users from injected cocaine to crack cocaine use may have also slowed the spread of disease 44 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 45 In the 21st century considerable investment was made in DTES services and infrastructure including the Woodward s Building redevelopment and the acquisition of 23 SRO hotels by the provincial government for conversion to social housing 46 In 2009 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 47 Opinions vary on whether the area has improved A 2014 article in the National Post 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 48 Former NDP premier Mike Harcourt described the current reality of the neighbourhood as 100 per cent failure 49 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 6 Demographics Edit Demonstrators at a march for women s housing part of the long history of social activism in the DTES There are no official population figures for the DTES Estimates have ranged from 6 000 47 to 8 000 23 the geographic boundaries associated with these figures was not provided Official figures are available for the greater DTES area which was home to an estimated 18 477 people in 2011 50 In comparison to the city of Vancouver overall the greater DTES had a higher proportion of males 60 vs 50 more seniors 22 vs 13 fewer children and youth 10 vs 18 slightly fewer immigrants and more Indigenous Canadians 10 vs 2 51 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 Indigenous descent 52 The average household size was 1 3 residents 82 of the population lived alone Children and teenagers made up 7 of the people compared to 25 of Canada overall 52 A population that is frequently studied is tenants of single room occupancy SRO hotels in the greater DTES area According to a 2013 survey this population is 77 male with a median age of 44 Indigenous people make up 28 of the population and Europeans 59 53 Migration patterns Edit The DTES has a history of attracting migrants with mental health and addiction issues across B C and Canada with many drawn by its drug market affordable housing and services 54 55 56 57 Between 1991 and 2007 the DTES population increased by 140 55 A 2016 study found that 52 of those DTES residents who experience chronic homelessness and serious mental health issues had migrated from outside Vancouver in the previous 10 years This proportion of the population has tripled in the last decade 58 The same study found that once migrants had settled in the DTES their conditions worsened 58 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 59 Vancouver Coastal Health estimates that half of the population that uses its health services in the DTES are long term residents and that there is a population turnover of 15 to 20 each year 58 Culture Edit Mosaic sidewalk art on East Hastings Street Although many outsiders fear the DTES 60 its residents take pride in their neighbourhood and describe it as having multiple positive assets 21 DTES residents say the area has a strong sense of community and cultural heritage 61 They describe their neighbours as accepting and empathizing with people with addictions and health issues 61 According to the city government Hastings Street is valued by SRO residents as a place to meet friends get support access services and feel like they belong 62 The area has had a robust tradition of advocacy for its marginalized residents since at least the 1970s when the Downtown Eastside Residents Association DERA was formed 63 Over the years the DTES community has consistently resisted many attempts to clean up the neighbourhood by dispersing its close knit residents 64 Successful resident led initiatives to improve conditions in the DTES include the transformation of the then closed Carnegie Library into a community centre in 1980 63 the opening of an unlicensed supervised injection site in 2003 which led to the founding of Insite 65 improvements to Oppenheimer Park 66 and the creation of CRAB Park In 2010 the V6A postal area which includes most of the DTES had the second highest concentration of artists in the city 67 Artists made up 4 4 of the labour force compared to 2 3 in the city as a whole 67 The Downtown Eastside Artists Collective was formed by Trey Helten manager of the Overdose Prevention Society 68 The greater DTES area is the location of several art galleries artist run centres and studios 69 Prominent local artists include poet Henry Doyle 70 artist Marcel Mousseau 71 and poet Bud Osborn 72 Notable annual events include the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival 73 which showcases the art culture and history of the neighbourhood and the Powell Street Festival in Oppenheimer Park which celebrates Japanese Canadian arts and culture The Smilin Buddha Cabaret operated at 109 East Hastings Street from 1952 to the late 1980s as a symbol of cultural vitality reflecting shifts in the neighbourhood itself 74 City Opera of Vancouver the Dancing on the Edge Festival and other artists regularly perform in DTES venues such as the Carnegie Centre the Firehall Arts Centre and the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at the Woodward s site The musical composition 100 Block Rock featuring 11 tracks was released in 2020 75 In 2010 Sam Sullivan former mayor of Vancouver said that in the DTES Behind the visible people who have a lot of troubles there s a community Some very intelligent people say this is the city s cultural heart 76 Current issues EditAddiction and mental illness Edit The DTES population suffers very high rates of mental illness and addiction 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 77 According to the Vancouver Police Department VPD in 2008 up to 500 of these individuals were chronically mentally ill with disabling addictions extreme behaviours no permanent housing and regular police contact 78 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 1 million people in the Vancouver Coastal Health region 79 A 2013 study of SRO tenants in the greater DTES found that 95 2 had some form of substance dependence and 74 4 had a mental illness including 47 4 with psychosis 53 Only one third of individuals with psychosis received treatment and among those with concurrent addiction the proportion receiving treatment was even lower 53 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 80 Between 60 and 70 of mentally ill patients treated at St Paul s Hospital the hospital closest to the DTES is estimated to have multiple addictions 81 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 crystal methamphetamine use which can cause permanent psychosis 31 82 Substance use Edit A woman going through drug withdrawal seen on Hastings Street A 2010 BBC article described the DTES as home to one of the worst drug problems in North America 83 In 2011 crack cocaine was the most commonly used illicit hard 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 45 Alcoholism especially when it involves the use of highly toxic isopropyl alcohol is a significant source of harm to residents of the DTES 56 In 2016 a board member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users said that in the previous year Vancouver s supply of heroin had virtually disappeared and been replaced by fentanyl which is cheaper and more potent 84 At the end of 2014 the DTES saw a dramatic rise in fentanyl overdoses In 2016 the surge in drug overdose deaths led to the declaration of a public health emergency across the province 85 In a 2008 survey of SRO residents in the greater DTES 32 self reported as being addicted to drugs 20 were addicted to alcohol 52 smoked cigarettes regularly and 51 smoked marijuana 86 In 2003 the DTES was home to an estimated 4 700 injection drug users 87 Most live in unstable housing or are homeless 87 and approximately 20 are sex workers 45 In 2006 DTES residents incurred half of the deaths from illegal drug overdoses in the entire province 88 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 45 However between 2010 and 2014 hospitalizations related to addictions increased by 89 at St Paul s Hospital 41 According to a 2008 survey of greater DTES area SROs tenants who used drugs estimated the cost of their habits at 30 per day on average 86 Some spend hundreds of dollars per day on drugs 89 90 Police attribute much of the property crime in Vancouver to chronic repeat offenders who steal to support their drug habits 89 Mental illness Edit The VPD reported in 2008 that in its district which includes the Downtown Eastside mental health was a factor in 42 of all incidents in which police were involved 91 The police department says its officers are often forced to act as front line mental health workers due to lacking more appropriate support for this population 92 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 In Vancouver apprehensions under the Mental Health Act rose by 16 between 2010 and 2012 and there was also an increase in the number of violent incidents involving mentally ill people 93 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 93 Overdose crisis Edit This section needs expansion You can help by adding to it February 2019 The overdose deaths in BC between 2003 and 2018 are up over 725 and overdose deaths of minors 10 18 years old are up 260 in 10 years Fraser and Vancouver Coastal Health Authority have had the highest number of illicit drug toxicity deaths 188 and 164 deaths respectively in 2019 making up 65 of all such deaths during this period 2019 Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has the highest rate of illicit drug toxicity deaths 27 deaths per 100 000 individuals 94 In a report presented to the City Council of Vancouver by Mayor Kennedy Stewart on 20 December 2018 regarding the opioid crisis he stated 95 As of December 16 2018 an estimated 353 overdose deaths have occurred in Vancouver in 2018 which is almost on par with the 369 overdose deaths in 2017 despite the extensive harm reduction investments in Vancouver Vancouver continues to have the highest death rates per capita in BC with 58 deaths per 100 000 people this year Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services are responding to 103 overdose related emergency calls per week slightly down from the 2017 average of 119 calls per week The decreased rate in overdose deaths and calls could be attributed to the increase in overdose prevention and response interventions across Vancouver emphasizing the Downtown Eastside Regardless Vancouver continues to be the city most impacted by the overdose crisis in Canada From January to June 2018 BC had 754 opioid related deaths the country s highest Vancouver also has more overdose deaths per capita than all of BC with 30 deaths per 100 000 people between January and June 2018 Kennedy Stewart An emergency opioid overdose kit containing a single dose of naloxone needle and syringe Statistics indicate that illicit drug toxicity deaths have increased in BC with 1 547 and 981 deaths in 2018 and 2019 respectively Between January and September 2020 BC has seen the number of overdose deaths jump to 1 202 with a record high of 183 illicit drug related deaths reported in June of this year The Vancouver Coastal Health jurisdiction has seen 37 deaths per 100 000 people between January and October 2020 96 Sex work Edit See also Prostitution in Canada In my 12 years 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 the pain Gabor Mate 57 Vancouver has an estimated 1 000 street based sex workers 97 According to the police most of them work in the DTES 98 They call the neighbourhood and contiguous industrial areas near Vancouver s port these outdoor workers previously referred to using the more stigmatizing language including low track workers 99 where they typically earn 5 to 20 for a date 100 Most are survival sex workers who use sex work to support their substance use 101 up to two thirds say they have been physically or sexually assaulted while working 100 Sex workers particularly women with children find it difficult to find housing that they can afford and often have difficulty leaving the industry because of criminal records or addictions that make it harder to find jobs 100 Although Indigenous Canadians makeup only 2 of Vancouver s population approximately 40 of Vancouver s street based sex workers are Indigenous 102 In one 2005 study 52 of the sex workers surveyed in Vancouver were Indigenous 96 reported having been sexually abused in childhood and 81 reported childhood physical abuse Some researchers and Indigenous advocacy groups have attributed the over representation of Indigenous people in Vancouver s sex trade to transgenerational trauma linking it to Canada s colonial history and in particular to the cultural and individual damage caused by the residential schools which previous generations of indigenous Canadians were forced to attend 103 Displacement Edit After the displacements that occurred on Dupont and Davie Street Vancouver s outdoor sex workers were pushed to the streets of the Downtown Eastside Here they are facing more violence than ever before Neighbourhood harassment policing and developmental changes contribute to these conditions Throughout all of the areas where sex work has been present the city has been critiqued for backing up property owners to harass workers collectively 104 In the Downtown Eastside these behaviours have continued to persist A study published in 2017 containing interviews with thirty three sex workers addressed concerns with changes in construction surveillance and security measures that have pushed workers into isolated areas where they are at greater risk of harm The growth of new businesses in the area has also required workers to develop good relations to prevent frequent police calls 105 These conditions have also forced workers to rush or forgo screening and negotiation processes that increase the risk of bad dates and STI contractions This disproportionately impacted the safety of oppressed communities such as indigenous substance dependent and transgender workers who are often restricted to this area 106 Over the years this has also contributed to the many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls MMIWG cases including those involved in the mass killings by serial killer Robert Pickton 107 Crime and public disorder Edit Peoples Pigeon Park near Hastings and Carrall Streets Reported crime rates in the DTES are higher than in the rest of the city with most crimes being assaults robberies and or public intoxication 108 Although it is home to 3 of Vancouver s population the DTES was the location of 16 of the city s reported sexual assaults in 2012 102 In 2008 it was the location of 34 5 of all reported serious assaults and 22 6 of all robberies in the city 109 These figures may be an underestimate as marginalized populations such as DTES residents tend to be less likely to report crime 102 Many residents are survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system or experience transgenerational trauma as a result of Residential Schools and are further traumatized by excessive policing 110 The figures do not indicate how many of the reported crimes were committed by DTES residents some residents and business owners believe that visitors from other neighbourhoods are responsible for a significant proportion of serious crimes 13 According to police DTES women say that what they fear most are predatory drug dealers who conduct their business with violence torture and terror 111 In addition to reported crime the DTES has the highly visible street disorder which The New York Times described as a shock even to someone familiar with the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1980s or the Tenderloin in San Francisco 37 Some government social workers have refused to enter certain SROs out of concern for their safety despite being mandated to monitor children who live there 112 Tourists are often encouraged to avoid the DTES 113 However they are seldom victims of crime 114 High crime rates and difficulties in obtaining affordable property insurance deter legitimate businesses from opening or staying in the area resulting in many vacant storefronts 115 116 Poverty Edit The Hotel Empress at 235 East Hastings was built in 1912 1913 Like many SROs in the DTES it was originally designed for tourists and business travellers and was converted to residential use in the 20th century 117 The greater DTES area is significantly poorer than the rest of Vancouver with a median income of 13 691 versus 47 229 for the city as a whole 118 53 of the greater DTES population is low income compared to 13 6 of the population of Metro Vancouver 119 In the V6A postal area whose boundaries are similar to the greater DTES area 6 339 residents received some form of social assistance in 2013 120 Of these 3 193 were considered disabled and 1 461 were considered employable The base welfare rate for single adults who are considered employable is 610 per month 375 per month for shelter and 235 335 since July 2017 per month for all other expenses 120 Advocates for low income DTES residents say this amount which has not increased since 2007 is not enough to live on 121 122 In 1981 the base welfare rate was equivalent to 970 per month after adjustment for inflation 122 Some DTES residents supplement their incomes through the informal economy through volunteer work which can yield stipends 120 or through criminal activity or sex work 123 A 2008 survey of SRO residents found that the average tenant income from all sources including the informal economy was 1 109 per month 86 In addition to addiction and mental illness issues DTES residents often have difficulty finding employment due to mental and physical disabilities and a lack of education and skills 124 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 52 The DTES is often referred to as Canada s poorest postal code although this is not the case 125 Housing Edit See also Homelessness in Vancouver Both homelessness and substandard housing are major issues in the DTES that compound 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 not in some form of shelter 126 The DTES homeless made up approximately half of the city s total homeless population 121 over a third of whom are Indigenous 127 Thousands of DTES residents live in SROs which provide low cost rooms without private kitchens or bathrooms 59 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 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 20 Even at their best the SROs lack living space resulting in tenants spending more time in the public areas of the DTES including its street based drug scene 45 SRO landlords have often been called slumlords for failing to fix problems and illegally evicting tenants 128 129 The city has often been slow to force SRO owners to make significant repairs saying that owners could not afford to make them without raising rents 130 Housing availability and affordability Edit Any discussion of improving the continuum of care for addiction must include housing as an essential component particularly for the most vulnerable individuals coping with homelessness addiction and mental illness B C Medical Association 88 The City refers to the housing and homelessness situation in the DTES as a crisis 131 There is wide support amongst governments experts and community groups on a Housing First model which prioritizes stable quality housing as a precursor to other interventions for the homeless those who use drugs or those with mental illness 88 Many people with severe addiction and or mental illness require supportive housing 132 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 Although SROs have well known problems each SRO resident who loses their room and ends up on the street costs the provincial government approximately 30 000 to 40 000 per year in additional services 133 A protestor s character during a march for housing 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 134 The number of privately owned SROs declined during this time by 3283 units while the number of social housing units increased by 4038 units 134 In 2014 300 privately owned SRO units were lost 135 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 base welfare shelter rate of 375 per month down from 60 in 2007 135 According to one advocacy group the average lowest rent in privately owned hotels in the greater DTES area was 517 per month in 2015 and no vacant rooms were rented at less than 425 per month 136 The city has implemented a bylaw to discourage the redevelopment of SROs 137 Advocates for SRO tenants argue that the city s bylaw does not go far enough as it does not prevent rent increases 137 The city says that only the province not the city has the jurisdiction to control rents and that the province should raise welfare rates 138 Since 2007 the provincial government has acquired 23 privately owned SRO hotels in the greater DTES area containing 1 500 units It undertook extensive renovations in 13 buildings for 143 3 million of which 29 1 the federal government paid million 46 Due to rising rents and often decrepit conditions in the area s remaining 4 484 privately owned SROs DTES activists have called for governments to replace them with a further 5 000 social housing units for low income singles 139 Health and well being Edit A 2013 study of SRO residents in the greater DTES area found that 18 4 were HIV positive and 70 3 were positive for hepatitis C 53 Few of those infected with hepatitis C receive treatment 53 140 The DTES population also has higher rates of tuberculosis and syphilis than the rest of the province 141 and injection drug users are susceptible to other infections such as endocarditis 142 Indigenous people are at the greatest risk from the disease 143 Amongst the most vulnerable DTES residents common issues with psychosocial well being include low self worth lack of personal safety lack of respect from others social isolation and low education levels 143 144 Many have lost custody of their children 145 A 2000 report from the Vancouver Native Health Society Medical Clinic said Many individuals are survivors of severe childhood trauma Negative experiences such as family violence parental substance abuse sexual and emotional abuse suicide divorce and residential school atrocities are the norm 143 Many DTES residents are too unstable to keep appointments or reliably take medication 144 Life expectancy in the greater DTES area is 79 9 years a significant improvement since the mid 1990s 44 Some of the increase may however be explained by the migration of healthier residents to the neighbourhoods surrounding the DTES 44 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 140 Costs Edit The crowded sidewalk of Hastings Street near Main Street Several overlapping sets of data exist on costs related to the DTES DTES specific costs Of the estimated 360 million per year to operate 260 social services and housing sites in the greater DTES area three quarters of the spending is funded by governments and the rest by private donors 6 This figure includes operating costs of a range of organizations including neighbourhood health care services but does not include standard city operations the capital costs of building social housing or other infrastructure or hospital costs 6 Wider area costs related to issues concentrated in the DTES In the closest hospital to the DTES Saint Paul s injection drug use leads to approximately 15 of admissions 142 The annual cost of ambulances responding to overdoses in Vancouver is 500 000 142 and the cost of police response to calls involving mental health problems is estimated to be 9 million per year 92 Costs per individual For each untreated drug addict the costs to society including crime judicial costs and health care are estimated to be at least 45 000 annually 146 The government paid lifetime healthcare cost per HIV infected injection drug user is estimated at 150 000 142 A 2008 study estimated that each homeless person in B C costs 55 000 per year in government paid costs related to healthcare corrections and social services whereas providing housing and support would cost 37 000 per year 55 Costs per individual vary widely A 2016 study found that 107 chronic offenders in the DTES incur public service costs of 247 000 per person per year 80 Law enforcement EditFor the police success is measured in how well the drugs are kept corralled on Hastings between Cambie and Main where they can expect the fewest complaints Arrests are infrequent and when they occur they are counterproductive Like a hydra direct enforcement paradoxically crowds the streets with the incarcerated dealers multiplying replacements Reid Shier former DTES art gallery director curator 26 In comparison to other Canadian cities the VPD is generally considered to be progressive in dealing with drugs and sex work 147 emphasizing harm reduction over law enforcement The VPD engages in the controversial practice known as carding or street checks in which police stop and question individuals whom they suspect of being involved in criminal or suspicious activity In Vancouver 15 of street checks are on Indigenous people representing just 2 of the general population and 5 of reviews are on Black people representing less than 1 Some civil rights groups believe the VPD s practices constitute racial profiling and result in excessive harassment and violence against Indigenous and Black residents 148 Since the 1980s the VPD has ignored drug use in the DTES as the sheer volume of users makes it unfeasible to arrest all of them 31 A large scale police crackdown on DTES drug users in 2003 made no difference except to displace drug use to adjacent neighbourhoods 149 To encourage people to call for help when a drug user is overdosing paramedics rather than police respond to 911 calls about overdose deaths except in cases where public safety is at risk 31 Nationwide efforts to reduce the supply of drugs through law enforcement have had minimal impact on the easy availability or low prices of illicit drugs in Vancouver 45 By former mayor Mike Harcourt s estimate police intercept only 2 of the drugs that enter the city 150 Vancouver police guidelines on dealing with sex workers emphasize focusing on addressing violence human trafficking and involvement of youth or gangs in prostitution whereas sex involving consenting adults is not an enforcement priority 147 151 Relations between police and DTES women were strained by police shortcomings that allowed serial killer Robert Pickton to prey on the community for years before he was arrested in 2002 the VPD apologized in 2010 for its failures in apprehending him 152 In 2003 the Pivot Legal Society filed 50 complaints from DTES residents alleging police misconduct 153 An investigation by the RCMP in which several VPD officers and the police chief failed to co operate found that 14 of those allegations were substantiated 153 In 2007 Pivot agreed to withdraw its remaining complaints following apologies and changes to VPD policies and procedures further explanation needed 154 In 2008 the VPD implemented a crackdown on minor offences such as illegal vending on sidewalks and jaywalking The ticketing blitz was stopped after objections from community groups Residents with unpaid tickets particularly women and sex workers would be less afraid to approach the police to report serious safety concerns 155 In 2010 police launched an initiative to combat violence against DTES women that resulted in the convictions of several violent offenders 156 However the level of trust toward police remains low 152 According to some DTES activists gentrification condos and police brutality rather than drugs are the two worst problems in the neighbourhood 157 Controversies EditConcentration of services controversy Edit You 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 48 The Downtown Eastside 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 158 It s the NIMBYism of the other 23 communities in the city that is the Downtown Eastside s greatest problem And the city needs to work to put significantly more services in different communities Scott Clark Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement Society 159 The DTES is the site of many service offerings including social housing health care free meals and clothing harm reduction for drug users housing assistance employment preparation adult education children s programs emergency housing arts and recreation and legal advocacy 6 In 2014 the Vancouver Sun reported that there were 260 social services and housing sites in the greater DTES area spending 360 million per year 6 No other Canadian city has concentrated services to this degree in one small area 6 Proponents of the high level of services say that it is necessary to meet the complex needs of the DTES population 6 For some residents the sense of community and acceptance that they find in the DTES makes it a unique place of healing for them 132 Locating many services in the DTES has also been criticized for attracting vulnerable people to an area where drugs crime and disorder are entrenched Some advocates for vulnerable populations believe that many DTES residents would have a better quality of life and improved chances of health if they could separate from the neighbourhood s predatory drug pushers and pimps 48 112 132 160 During the city s 2014 planning process for the greater DTES two thirds of those who participated said they wanted to stay in the area 6 But a 2008 survey of SRO tenants had indicated that 70 wanted to leave the DTES 86 The city s 30 year plan is for two thirds of the city s future social housing to be located in the greater DTES area 6 Views on services in other neighbourhoods Edit Vancouver Coastal Health says that the lack of appropriate care for complex social and health issues outside of the DTES often does not allow people the choice to remain in their home community where their natural support systems exist A common barrier that prevents mentally ill and addicted people from living outside of the DTES is a lack of appropriate services and support Too often clients who secure housing outside the neighbourhood return to the DTES regularly because of the lack of support in other communities 56 Proposals to add social housing and services for those with addiction and or mental health issues to other Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods are often met with Nimbyism even when residents selected for such projects would be low risk individuals 161 A 2012 poll of Metro Vancouver residents found that although nine out of 10 of those surveyed wanted the homeless to have access to services they need 54 believed that housing in their community should be there for the people who can afford it 162 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 159 Gentrification controversy Edit This community could be wiped off the face of the map The neighbourhood s character has changed in the last three or four years Affordable rentals are a thing of the past Harold Lavender DTES resident 163 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 Strathcona Business Improvement Association Ray Cam Community Association and Inner City Safety Society 116 See also Gentrification of Vancouver The DTES lies a few blocks east of the city s most expensive commercial real estate BC Partners forMental Health andAddictions Information 26 Since the mid 2000s new development in the DTES has brought a mixture of market rate housing primarily condominiums social housing office spaces restaurants and shops 164 Property values in the DTES area increased by 303 between 2001 and 2013 165 Prices at the newer retail establishments are often far higher than low income residents can afford 164 The city promotes mixed income housing and requires new large housing developments in the DTES to set aside 20 of their units for social housing 164 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 166 Rents in at least one third of new social housing units are not permitted to exceed the shelter component of welfare rates 166 Proponents say that new developments revitalize the area improve the quality of life provide new social housing and encourage a stronger retail environment and a stabilizing street presence 61 164 They emphasize that their goal is for the DTES to include a mixture of income levels and avoid the problems associated with concentrated poverty not to become an expensive yuppie oriented neighbourhood like nearby Yaletown 61 167 168 Others oppose the addition of market housing and upscale businesses to the DTES in the belief that these changes will drive up prices displace low income residents and make poor people feel less at home 61 169 Protests against new businesses and housing developments have occasionally turned violent 139 Strategies EditHousing strategies Edit The Ovaltine Cafe at 251 E Hastings has served the neighbourhood since the 1940s 170 The upper portion of the building is an SRO hotel Although housing and homelessness are often perceived as municipal issues social housing is traditionally funded primarily by senior levels of government which receive 92 of tax revenue in Canada 55 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 132 In 2014 the City of Vancouver approved a 30 year plan for the greater DTES area It 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 171 172 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 172 The provincial government which recently invested 300 million in social housing in Vancouver said it will not fund the proposed housing expansion and that its housing strategy had shifted towards other models such as rent assistance rather than construction 173 Addiction and mental illness strategies Edit 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 partially implemented with prevention treatment and harm reduction all being underfunded 41 Across Canada 94 of drug strategy dollars are spent on enforcement 142 The city s 2014 Local Area Plan for the DTES 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 48 The VPD B C Medical Association and the City of Vancouver have asked the province to urgently increase capacity for treating addiction and mental illness 81 88 In 2009 the BCMA asked that detoxification be available on demand with no waiting period by 2012 88 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 primarily due to being placed on waiting lists 174 After the city and police department described an emerging mental health crisis in Vancouver in 2013 the province implemented three of their five recommendations within a year including new Assertive Community Treatment teams and a nine bed urgent care facility at St Paul s Hospital 175 In response to a recommendation that the province adds 300 new long term health care beds for the most severely mentally ill provincial Health Minister Terry Lake said that more research was needed to determine whether these beds were urgently needed 175 As of 2015 the province had opened or committed to only 50 new beds 176 Co ordination of services Edit Although DTES residents often have a complex combination of needs 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 177 Despite widespread agreement in principle that a coordinated 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 48 In 2009 the VPD proposed creating a steering committee of senior city and provincial stakeholders which would be mandated to improve collaboration between service providers to enable a client centric rather than a discipline centric model 178 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 177 In 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic a Coordinated Community Response Network was formed to distribute funds resources and support in the neighbourhood 179 The network consists of a coordinated effort of over 50 social service and frontline organizations and groups Notable activists EditShirley Chan a prominent community activist and co founder of the Strathcona Property Owners and Tenants Association SPOTA has worked for decades to revitalize Chinatown and preserve historical sites in the neighbourhood from development 180 Bruce Eriksen Bud Osborn amp Ann Livingston co founders of Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users VANDU Portrayals in media EditFilms set in the Downtown Eastside include On the Corner The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park and Luk Luk I The Matthew Good album Vancouver was inspired by the Downtown Eastside 181 References EditCitations Edit a b c d e f g h Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 1 Nagy Melanie 27 May 2021 SisterSpace Canada s first and only overdose prevention site for women is saving lives CTV News Archived from the original on 28 May 2021 Retrieved 6 November 2021 Mauboules Celine 7 October 2020 Homelessness amp Supportive Housing Strategy PDF Report City of Vancouver p 28 Aboriginal Health amp Safety WISH Drop In Centre Society Retrieved 6 November 2021 Brend Yvette 5 April 2018 B C has country s highest rate of police involved deaths groundbreaking CBC data reveals CBC News CBC News a b c d e f g h i j Culbert Lori McMartin Peter 27 June 2014 Downtown Eastside 260 agencies housing sites crowd Downtown Eastside Vancouver Sun Retrieved 6 April 2016 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint url status link Matas Robert 13 March 2009 B C Premier s Olympic plan worries activists The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 6 June 2016 Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 Preface Walling Savannah Take a Walk on the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival Retrieved 16 November 2021 Gee Marcus 9 November 2018 What I saw in a day on the Downtown Eastside shocked me The Globe and Mail Retrieved 17 November 2021 Steffenhagen Janet 8 December 2006 Our four blocks of hell Vancouver Sun a b Asfour John Mikhail Gardiner Elee Kraljii eds 2012 Introduction V6A Writing from Vancouver s Downtown Eastside Vancouver Arsenal Pulp Press ISBN 9781551524634 a b Lupick Travis 2 October 2016 10 years of police data reveals how gentrification has affected crime in the Downtown Eastside The Georgia Straight Retrieved 19 October 2016 City of Vancouver 2014 pp 55 56 City of Vancouver 2014 p 18 City of Vancouver 2013 p 80 Atkin John 1994 Introduction Strathcona Vancouver s First Neighbourhood first ed Vancouver Whitecap Books Ltd pp 1 3 ISBN 978 1 55110 255 9 Strathcona North of Hastings Heritage Vancouver Retrieved 20 August 2016 City of Vancouver 2014 p 58 a b Paulsen Monte 29 May 2007 Vancouver s SROs Zero Vacancy The Tyee Vancouver Retrieved 6 April 2016 a b City of Vancouver 2014 p 17 Demolish City s Skid Road Murder Protest Demands Vancouver Sun 6 April 1962 p 1 a b Douglas 2002 chapter 1 Mackie John 19 February 2014 Japantown Vancouver s lost neighbourhood Vancouver Sun Retrieved 13 August 2016 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 Toronto Retrieved 21 April 2016 a b c d Douglas 2002 Introduction a b c d e f g h i Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 6 Baker Rafferty 4 May 2016 Expo 86 evictions remembering the fair s dark side CBC News Toronto Retrieved 9 May 2016 a b Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 3 Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 10 a b c d e Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 13 Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 p 157 Patterson Michelle Summer 2007 The Faces of Homelessness Across BC PDF Visions 4 1 7 8 Feb 14th Annual Womens Memorial March 14 Feb Annual Womens Memorial March Retrieved 28 July 2021 Fong Petti 17 December 2002 Robert Pickton Missing women inquiry concludes bias against victims led to police failures Toronto Star Retrieved 5 April 2016 Elien Shadi 13 February 2009 Women s Memorial March to take place on Valentine s Day The Georgia Straight Vancouver Retrieved 27 November 2009 a b McNeil Donald G Jr 7 February 2011 An H I V Strategy Invites Addicts In The New York Times Retrieved 18 April 2016 Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 5 Vancouver Police Department 2009 pp 26 27 MacQueen Ken 20 July 2015 The science is in And Insite works Maclean s Toronto Retrieved 4 April 2016 a b c Katic Gordon Fenn Sam 5 September 2014 Vancouver s Addiction Ambitions Revisited The Tyee Vancouver Retrieved 15 April 2016 Point for point Canada s needle exchange programs CBC News Toronto 27 October 2004 Retrieved 6 June 2016 Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 7 a b c MacQueen Ken 15 October 2012 Vancouver s Downtown Eastside gets a new lease on life Maclean s Toronto Retrieved 11 May 2016 a b c d e f Drug Situation in Vancouver 2nd Edition PDF British Columbia Centre of Excellence in HIV AIDS 2nd ed Urban Health Research Initiative of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV AIDS Retrieved 4 April 2016 a b Morton Brian 28 February 2015 Downtown Eastside tenants love their renovated SRO suite Vancouver Sun Retrieved 11 May 2016 a b Matas Robert 13 February 2009 The Money Pit The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 3 September 2015 a b c d e 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 Toronto Retrieved 6 April 2016 Quinn Stephen 14 March 2014 Downtown Eastside redevelopment debate is the same old game The Globe and Mail Retrieved 25 August 2016 City of Vancouver 2013 p 6 City of Vancouver 2013 p 10 a b c Brethour Patrick 13 February 2009 Exclusive demographic picture A comparison of key statistics in the DTES Vancouver B C and Canada The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 3 September 2015 a b c d e Vila Rodriguez Fidel Panenka William J 1 December 2003 The Hotel Study Multimorbidity in a Community Sample Living in Marginal Housing The American Journal of Psychiatry 170 12 1413 1422 doi 10 1176 appi ajp 2013 12111439 PMID 23929175 Vancouver Police Department 2009 pp 28 29 a b c d Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 16 a b c Downtown Eastside Second Generation Health System Strategy PDF Vancouver Coastal Health 24 February 2015 Retrieved 8 April 2016 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link permanent dead link a b Mate Gabor 24 January 2016 Opinion Health care system poorly understands our addicts and mentally ill Vancouver Sun Retrieved 12 April 2016 a b c Woo Andrea 7 January 2016 Half of Downtown Eastside s homeless residents came from other areas study CBC News Toronto Retrieved 5 April 2016 a b Lupick Travis 10 August 2013 Study finds steep drug and mental health challenges for Downtown Eastside single occupancy tenants The Georgia Straight Vancouver Retrieved 5 April 2016 Cran amp Jerome 2008 p 31 a b c d e 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 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link City of Vancouver 2014 p 50 a b Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 2 Cran amp Jerome 2008 p 11 Cran amp Jerome 2008 p 27 Cran amp Jerome 2008 p 10 a b City of Vancouver 2013 pp 47 48 Denis Jen St 9 February 2021 A Family of Artists of the Downtown Eastside The Tyee Retrieved 16 November 2021 City of Vancouver 2014 pp 143 147 Cheung Christopher 11 September 2020 The Downtown Eastside There s a Heartbeat Down Here The Tyee Retrieved 16 November 2021 Lennie Linda 22 July 2021 Marcel Mousseau Made the Downtown Eastside Market a Welcoming Space The Tyee Retrieved 16 November 2021 Cole Yolande 7 May 2014 Downtown Eastside poet and activist Bud Osborn remembered as hero The Georgia Straight Retrieved 16 November 2021 Denis Jen St 26 October 2021 Storytelling Takes Centre Stage at Vancouver s Heart of the City Festival The Tyee Retrieved 20 November 2022 Dyck Bruce Daniel 23 February 2018 Three reincarnations of the Smilin Buddha Cabaret Entertainment gentrification and respectability in Vancouver s Downtown Eastside 1952 84 M A thesis Simon Fraser University Archived from the original on 16 November 2021 Retrieved 16 November 2021 via dtesresearchaccess ubc ca Hughes Josiah 5 October 2020 Artists from Vancouver s Downtown Eastside Come Together for 100 Block Rock Compilation Exclaim Retrieved 16 November 2021 Bishop Greg 4 February 2010 In the Shadow of the Olympics The New York Times Retrieved 2 April 2016 Wilson Bates 2008 p 36 Wilson Bates 2008 p 54 Regional Mental Health amp Addiction Program November 2013 Improving health outcomes housing and safety Addressing the needs of individuals with severe addiction and mental illness PDF Report Vancouver Coastal Health Retrieved 16 April 2016 a b Woo Andrea 6 January 2016 Vancouver subset struggling to escape corrections system s revolving door study says The Globe and Mail Toronto a b Wilson Bates 2008 p 22 Luk Vivian 13 October 2013 How drugs lack of safe housing fuel Vancouver s mental health crisis The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 6 April 2016 Mirchandani Rajesh 10 February 2010 Vancouver Drug Central of North America BBC News Retrieved 4 April 2016 Geordon Omand 22 May 2016 Little if any heroin left in Vancouver all fentanyl drug advocates Vancouver Sun Retrieved 24 May 2016 Ellis Erin Lindsay Bethany 14 April 2016 B C declares public health emergency after fentanyl overdoses Vancouver Sun a b c d Lewis Martha Boyes Kathleen McClanaghan Dale Copas Jason April 2008 Downtown Eastside Demographic Study of SRO and Social Housing Tenants PDF Report Vancouver Agreement Retrieved 12 May 2016 a b City of Vancouver 2013 p 91 a b c d e Stepping Forward Improving Addiction Care in British Columbia PDF Report British Columbia Medical Association March 2009 Retrieved 11 April 2016 a b Matas Robert 6 September 2012 Tackling chronic offenders key to reducing Vancouver s high crime rates The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 22 May 2016 Krishnan Manisha 8 March 2016 We Asked Drug Addicts How Much Their Habit Costs Them Vice News Retrieved 6 June 2016 Wilson Bates 2008 p 12 a b Wilson Bates 2008 p 2 a b Cole Yolande 13 September 2013 Vancouver police and mayor issue recommendations to address mental health crisis The Georgia Straight Vancouver Retrieved 5 April 2016 Ministry of Public Safety amp Solicitor General 16 August 2019 British Columbia Coroners Service Illicit Drug Toxicity Deaths in BC January 1 2009 June 30 2019 PDF Government of British Columbia Report Retrieved 9 October 2019 Stewart Mayor Kennedy 14 December 2018 Mayor s Overdose Emergency Task Force Recommendations for Immediate Action on the Overdose Crisis RTS 12926 PDF Report Vancouver City Council Retrieved 10 October 2019 Ministry of Public Safety amp Solicitor General 19 November 2020 British Columbia Coroners Service Illicit Drug Toxicity Deaths in BC January 1 2010 September 30 2020 PDF Government of British Columbia Dobell Advisory Services Inc and DCF Consulting Ltd 5 March 2007 Vancouver Homelessness Funding Model More than just a warm bed PDF Report City of Vancouver Retrieved 10 May 2016 Vancouver Police Department 2009 p 25 Hutchinson Brian 16 March 2012 Years after Pickton s arrest the killings have stopped in the Downtown Eastside the violence has not National Post Toronto Retrieved 22 April 2016 a b c Vancouver Police Department 2009 p 26 Keller James 6 September 2012 Prostitutes only relief inquiry hears is self medication with drugs Maclean s Toronto Retrieved 4 April 2016 a b c City of Vancouver 2013 p 43 Alarcon Krystal 4 March 2013 Angel s Story Trapped in a Violent World The Tyee Vancouver Retrieved 6 April 2016 Vancouver s Anti Sex Work Gentrification Projects are a Form of Imperialism The Volcano 17 May 2019 Retrieved 6 April 2021 Lyons Tara 2017 The impact of construction and gentrification on an outdoor trans sex work environment Violence displacement and policing PDF Sexualities 20 8 881 903 doi 10 1177 1363460716676990 PMC 5786169 PMID 29379380 Retrieved 6 April 2021 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint url status link Sex Workers United Against Violence Allan Sarah Bennett Darcy Chettiar Jill Jackson Grace Krusi Andrea Pacey Katrina Porth Kerry Price Mae 2020 My Work Should Not Cost Me My Life PDF The Case against Criminalizing the Purchase of Sex in Canada Retrieved 6 April 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Women working in Vancouver sex trade were seen as disposable inquiry hears NEWS 1130 www citynews1130 com Retrieved 6 April 2021 Rossi Cheryl 28 February 2014 Downtown Eastside The neighbourhood at a glance Vancouver Courier Retrieved 4 April 2016 Vancouver Police Department 2009 p 22 Martin Carol Muree Walia Harsha 4 November 2019 Red Women Rising Indigenous Women Survivors in Vancouver s Downtown Eastside open library ubc ca doi 10 14288 1 0378104 Police bust drug ring that used torture terror CTV News Toronto The Canadian Press 27 January 2011 Retrieved 6 June 2016 a b Turpel Lafond Mary Ellen May 2015 Paige s Story Abuse Indifference and a Young Life Discarded PDF Report B C Representative for Children and Youth Retrieved 24 April 2016 Vancouver Police Department 2009 p 24 Safety in Vancouver Lonely Planet Retrieved 6 June 2016 Vancouver Police Department 2009 pp 22 24 a b 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 Archived from the original PDF on 28 May 2014 Retrieved 6 April 2016 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a last1 has generic name help CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Hotel Empress Canada s Historic Places Retrieved 31 May 2016 City of Vancouver 2013 p 12 City of Vancouver 2013 p 11 a b c City of Vancouver 2013 p 13 a b Lupick Travis 6 January 2016 Downtown Eastside activists fear 2016 will see a spike in Vancouver homeless Vancouver Sun Retrieved 24 May 2016 a b Christopher Ben 10 September 2012 A Tyee Series Jean Swanson s Advocacy for Vancouver s Impoverished The Tyee Vancouver Retrieved 24 May 2016 Vancouver Police Department 2009 p 21 26 Vancouver Police Department 2009 pp 18 Skelton Chad 10 February 2010 Is Vancouver s Downtown Eastside really Canada s poorest postal code Vancouver Sun Retrieved 21 August 2016 City of Vancouver 2013 p 24 Thompson Matt Vancouver Homeless Count 2016 PDF Report City of Vancouver Retrieved 4 June 2016 Colebourn John 10 July 2016 They thought I was going to back down and leave DTES tenant s court case shines a light on practices of Sahota landlords Vancouver Sun Retrieved 16 August 2016 Cole Yolande 29 June 2011 Lawsuit launched against Downtown Eastside building owners The Georgia Straight Vancouver Retrieved 16 August 2016 Kerry Jang on city s broken down SROs There s only so much we can do CBC News Toronto 5 January 2016 Retrieved 8 April 2016 City of Vancouver 2014 p 28 a b c d Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 17 Project Report SRO Renewal Initiative PDF Report Partnerships British Columbia June 2013 Retrieved 11 May 2016 a b Housing amp Homelessness Strategy Targets 2012 2014 2012 Report Card PDF Report City of Vancouver 12 February 2013 Retrieved 3 May 2016 a b 2015 Report on Homelessness and Related Actions on SRO PDF Report City of Vancouver 15 July 2015 Retrieved 3 May 2016 Swanson Jean Chan King mong Wallstam Maria 2016 Our Homes Can t Wait CCAP s 2015 Hotel Survey and Housing Report PDF Report Carnegie Community Action Project Archived from the original PDF on 12 October 2016 Retrieved 8 May 2016 a b Lee Jeff 21 July 2015 Vancouver introduces harsh SRO rules to dissuade owners from renovicting Vancouver Sun Retrieved 7 April 2016 Murphy Meghan 24 April 2014 Renovictions on Vancouver s Downtown Eastside Aren t Stopping Anytime Soon Vice News Retrieved 24 May 2016 a b Kane Laura 26 May 2013 Vancouver s vision for Downtown Eastside stokes anti gentrification protests Toronto Star Retrieved 3 May 2016 a b Mercier Stephanie Vancouver s Downtown Eastside residents dying at 8 times the national average CBC News No 10 September 2015 Toronto Retrieved 2 May 2016 Vancouver Police Department 2009 p 17 a b c d e Wood Evan Kerr Thomas Spittal Patricia M Tyndall Mark W O shaughnessy Michael V Schechter Martin T April 2003 The health care and fiscal costs of the illicit drug use epidemic The impact of conventional drug control strategies BC Medical Journal 45 3 128 134 Retrieved 23 August 2016 a b c Adilman Steve MD Kliewer Gordon RN November 2000 Pain and wasting on Main and Hastings A perspective from the Vancouver Native Health Society Medical Clinic British Columbia Medical Journal 42 9 422 425 a b Campbell Boyd amp Cutbert 2009 chapter 4 Wilson Bates 2008 p 24 Ellis Erin 7 April 2016 Injecting common painkiller an alternative to heroin Vancouver study finds Vancouver Sun Retrieved 6 June 2016 a b Li Wanyee 5 December 2014 Vancouver police to prioritize safety over anti prostitution laws The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 12 May 2016 Prystupa Mychaylo 14 June 2018 Blacks Indigenous over represented in Vancouver police stops 10 years of data CTV News Wood Evan Spittal Patricia M Small Will Kerr Thomas Li Kathy Hogg Robert S Tyndall Mark W Montaner Julio S G Schechter Martin T 11 May 2004 Displacement of Canada s largest public illicit drug market in response to a police crackdown Canadian Medical Association Journal 170 10 1551 1556 doi 10 1503 cmaj 1031928 ISSN 0820 3946 PMC 400719 PMID 15136548 Cameron Ken Harcourt Mike 2009 City Making in Paradise Nine Decisions that Saved Vancouver D amp M Publishers p 198 Rossi Cheryl 22 March 2012 Advocates laud new Vancouver police sex work guidelines Vancouver Courier Retrieved 12 May 2016 a b Stueck Wendy 25 April 2016 SisterWatch initiative has not built trust between police DTES report The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 18 May 2016 a b Theodore Terri 17 March 2009 Allow police misconduct hearings legal group urges judge The Globe and Mail Toronto The Canadian Press Retrieved 7 June 2016 Activists reach a pact with police over Downtown Eastside issues New procedures erase the list of complaints The Province Vancouver 6 November 2007 p A7 Howell Mike 21 January 2014 Vancouver Police Department sidesteps stance on DTES jaywalkers Vancouver Courier Retrieved 12 May 2016 Project Sister Watch Vancouver Police Department Retrieved 6 June 2016 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Swanson Jean 24 October 2009 Residents suggest solutions to Downtown Eastside problems Vancouver Sun Retrieved 31 May 2016 Lupick Travis 9 April 2014 Downtown Eastside residents fear dispersal due to Local Area Plan The Georgia Straight Vancouver Retrieved 18 April 2016 a b McMartin Pete 27 June 2014 Pete McMartin Vancouver s Downtown Eastside is a ghetto made by outsider Vancouver Sun Archived from the original on 25 September 2020 Retrieved 17 June 2022 Benoit Ceclia Dena Caroll 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 Ludvigsen Mykle Summer 2005 Not in My Backyard Nimby alive and well in Vancouver PDF Visions 2 6 15 16 Woo Andrea 4 October 2012 NIMBYism based on fear of the unknown The Globe and Mail Toronto Colebourn John 20 March 2016 Low income rental units drying up in Vancouver s Downtown Eastside The Vancouver Sun Retrieved 9 May 2016 a b c d Vancouver s Downtown Eastside feeling gentrification squeeze CBC News Toronto The Canadian Press 26 December 2012 Retrieved 7 April 2016 Downtown Eastside Social Impact Assessment Draft Report PDF Report City of Vancouver 15 February 2014 Retrieved 8 April 2016 a b Robinson Matthew 15 March 2014 Vancouver s 1 billion Downtown Eastside plan approved by council Vancouver Sun Retrieved 18 April 2016 Mickleburgh Rod 14 March 2013 Mike Harcourt weighs in on delicate issues behind Pidgin protests The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 24 May 2016 Mason Gary 23 October 2008 Finally an issue that sets mayoral candidates apart The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 18 May 2016 Mackie John 6 March 2014 The Battle of Hastings Notorious Vancouver street in for big changes and conflicts Vancouver Sun Retrieved 6 April 2016 Rossi Cheryl 28 February 2014 Downtown Eastside It s just the Ovaltine Vancouver Courier Retrieved 31 May 2016 City of Vancouver 2014 p 97 a b Dhillon Sunny 27 February 2014 Vancouver reveals 1 billion plan for Downtown Eastside revival The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 18 April 2016 Mackie John 26 February 2014 City unveils 1 billion plan for Vancouver s Downtown Eastside Vancouver Sun Retrieved 18 April 2016 DeBeck Kora Kerr Thomas Nolan Seonaid Dong Huiru Montaner Julio Wood Evan 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 1 doi 10 1186 s13011 015 0046 x PMC 4702392 PMID 26733043 a b Woo Andrea 23 October 2014 A year after Vancouver declares mental health crisis cases continue to climb The Globe and Mail Toronto Retrieved 26 May 2016 Lupick Travis 19 August 2015 Vancouver hospitals predict 2015 will see emergency mental health visits surpass 10 000 The Georgia Straight Vancouver Retrieved 26 May 2016 a b Vancouver Police Department 2009 p 2 Vancouver Police Department 2009 pp 2 3 Hollingdale Hazel 16 November 2020 CCRN EVALUATION REPORT PDF Report pp 2 5 Retrieved 28 July 2021 Alexander Don 31 December 2019 Remembering the legacy of Shirley Chan Saving Vancouver s Chinatown neighbourhood doi 10 25316 IR 4290 Retrieved 16 November 2021 via DTES Research Access Portal a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Lederman Marsha 30 October 2009 Native son Good sings of Vancouver the bad The Globe and Mail Retrieved 17 November 2021 Sources Edit Campbell Larry Boyd Neil Cutbert Lori 2009 A Thousand Dreams Vancouver s Downtown Eastside and the Fight for its Future Vancouver BC Greystone Books ISBN 978 1 55365 298 4 City of Vancouver 2013 Downtown Eastside Local Area Profile 2013 PDF City of Vancouver 15 March 2014 Downtown Eastside Plan PDF Retrieved 18 April 2016 Cran Brad Jerome Gillian 2008 Hope in Shadows Stories and Photographs of Vancouver s Downtown Eastside Vancouver BC Arsenal Pulp Press and Pivot Legal Society ISBN 978 1 55152 238 8 Douglas Stan 2002 Every Building on 100 West Hastings Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery and Arsenal Pulp Press ISBN 978 1 55152 135 0 Vancouver Police Department 4 February 2009 Project Lockstep A United Effort to Save Lives in the Downtown Eastside PDF Report Retrieved 21 April 2016 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 Resources PDF Report Vancouver Police Department Retrieved 10 April 2016 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Downtown Eastside Map and Local Area Plan for the greater DTES City of Vancouver Through a Blue Lens a documentary shot in the DTES that follows interactions between police officers and drug addicts Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Downtown Eastside amp oldid 1147306942, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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