Life on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
- May 25, 2009 12:19 PM |
- By Your Voice
Submitted by David Overall
About: I recently completed a community development internship with Industry Canada in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and currently work with the Neighbourhood Housing Society in a low-income housing project.
My Take: You can learn a lot about a person by the home they maintain. One's dignity and self-respect are reflected in the conditions in which they choose to live, and my time in the Downtown Eastside has shown me that you don't need much to live well.
It doesn't matter that the housing units in my project are small and spartan — many of the residents have made the most of them, filling the walls with bookshelves and photographs. My work offers me glimpses of the lives they lead — friends sitting around a table, relaxing, talking, playing cards, laughing. Normalcy and happiness in a neighbourhood many in Vancouver have written off.
It has also shown me that some live in a close approximation to hell. Filthy floors strewn with drug paraphernalia and used needles, infested with cockroaches, with few furnishings save for a few clapped-out chairs and stained mattresses. Thankfully there are only a few units like this, nearly all belonging to our most troubled residents.
We lack the nursing staff or other care providers necessary to ensure they are better looked after, but we do what we can. There is free bug spraying, and we try to ensure they have easy access to drug rehab and other support programs. We also strive to screen out unwanted visitors, particularly the known drug dealers and other troublemakers.
My time in the Downtown Eastside has highlighted both the benefits and limitations of low-income housing. Safe, clean, affordable living space is immensely valuable — no matter how dark your past, it gives you dignity and a chance to get your life back on track. Many of our residents do just that: they attend rehab, seek out employment, and live some semblance of a normal life.
It is not a panacea, of course, and it is common to hear the taxpayer bemoan the fact their hard-earned dollars are going to house addicts who refuse to kick their habit. In a way they're right — the reality is that most of our residents will never truly recover. The damage inflicted by their addictions or the trauma of their past has permanently crippled their ability to function in modern society, and that will not change regardless of the resources available to them.
At least here, though, they are not just another bundle on the street — here they are individuals, with names and personalities and stories.
Whether products of poor decisions or cruel circumstance, these people remain exactly that: people. We are an affluent society, and providing these individuals with a basic standard of living is not too much to ask.
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Comments (23)
I never understand why the apologists for adiction and associated negative activity (crime, prostitution) give zero weight to personal responsibility.
I understand that some people have a hard life and that some are predisposed to addictions. But we fail them by thinking and speaking of this behaviour as acceptable and part of a healthy society. It is not.
Only the most mad or soft (minded) would propose that such addicted lifestyles are acceptable. Yet we have a hard time as a society agreeing on a solution.
I believe that providing temporary services (housing, medical care, etc) coupled with increased policing and targetted punishment (eg for dealing, pimping, theft) will help people end this cycle of mental, phsical and social poverty.
Anything else just perpetuates this sad state.
Nice! I can use Google StreetMap and see for myself. *sigh* technology makes me feel the despair. Check Montreal - east of St. Laurent.
It is so nice to actually have a person speak about these people as if they are human beings. Rather than the scum of the earth. Some of us have a better chance at having a good and normal life, others aren't as fortunate.
The problems are varied but often its a case of people slipping through the cracks that end them up on the streets. Why the east side streets because that is where the resources are and the saga continues on... And there is no one set of circumstances that has placed many on the streets but one thing they all have in common is fear of the streets especialy for women who are often raped and beaten. And elderly women are on the streets because they are disablied and elderly and have little money for rent. What do you do to help them or the youth? Or maybe just wait until the street does it number on them and then do some other stats on women who survive the elements and women that don't.
Congrats on your Internship and the perspective it has given you. As a long-time
Vancouver resident I have seen DTES both close
up and from afar. As a youth, it was always a
wild and wooly area full of mischief and soon
deteriorated further with the introduction of
"crack" cocaine to the point of anarchy. A
friend and I were down there last week taking
night-time photos and a I found things had
eased a bit. I was glad to see this. Home &
housing is all important in that area if we truly want to invite the world in 2010 and
not be ridiculed and ashamed at our negligence
of those not enjoying the fruits at the Banquet of Consumerism. Thanks for your insights!
Thanks David for a glimpse into the lives of folks on the margins. Well done. I must disagree however with your statement that we are an affluent nation and providing these individuals with a basic standard of living is not too much to ask. Actually, it is. It is estimated that the total cost to all levels of government serving the roughly 5000 needy individuals in the DTES is 1 million dollars per day, or 200 dollars per day per person. Dozens and dozens of non-profit social services, all clambering for the same grants and government dollars, but refusing to collaborate. Poverty pimping elevated to a well-honed profession. It just can't continue. It just can't.
Thank you, David, both your work, and for your account of your work on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Your clear-headed description of life, the possibilities, and limitations, offered by affordable housing help to introduce others to this slice of Canada. This is a part of our country that many may not otherwise experience.
The Majority of people in BC really don't care about homeless, poverty, and others. BC (Bring Cash) has become a for self only Province ever since Social Credit (now called liberals) were elected. Gordie and his one winged army of bandits and thugs even pay the homeless money to go elsewhere during the Olympics, many of which have moved to Vancouver Island. Every four years Campbell Talks the talk about the homeless and child poverty but nothing ever gets done. Most of the homeless have mental disabilities and are just shunned aside here. Poverty breeds Crime but here and there is no hope for these people. There is no legal aid for the poor anymore, no promised housing (8 years and counting). In fact besides trying to hide the homeless, there is noting else for these people. Talk, talk, talk, Welcome to Self Centered BC.
Agreed, David. Our society will be judged on how we treat our most vulnerable citizens. Sadly, we are not doing very well.
courageous action,to explore the location, and then to write so lucidly and sympathetically about it.
This piece cries out for a sequel, David. get down to the particular and write about individuals. You could do a series about the people of the downtown eastside.
In my job as an airline pilot I stopover at many large cities of the world. There are only two places that I can say I feel uncomfortable walking around in. They are Sao Paolo, Brazil and Vancouver, Canada.
Yes , Vancouver has a beautiful vista, but the area east of Granville street rivals Sao Paolo for its human despair.
The Downtown Eastside area is unique only because it has a high concentration of junkies, criminals, prostitutes and everything that goes with it...
Fix that and you will have a very nice place to raise kids
I agree with you that they are people, and should be treated as such. However, I also agree with Hu Gadarn. Looking down on these people from a position of wealth, and then sympathizing with their condition is a symptom of the problem. We categorically cannot say "oh that poor pimp, he had a bad upbringing, so now he's justified in pimping out young women". The very second someone put that pipe to their lips, or that needle to their arm, they chose their path. Other innocents get thrown into their path by circumstance, and all of a sudden there's a whole neighbourhood worth of people. If these people did appropriate time for their crimes, and had a good program to help them once out of jail, that would be a much better solution. There are warm beds, 3 square meals, and what better way to get off drugs. Jail beats the streets, and if that's what it takes to get clean, and not wreck many other lives, that's what it takes.
Beautifully said.
Housing provides for our basic dignity and security. We need more small-space units.
At the other end of the social sccale wehave gated communities, automobiles dominating our streets,roads and lifestyle with a very selfish attitude.
Why do people choose to drive through downtown streets and make so much noise,congestion, stress and filthy streets and air.?
Then in the suburbs they drive everywhere to get their stuff.
Poor planning causes this.
And why is the minimum wage still so low?
Greed is pervasive.
The rich and middle class have thier addictions as well and constantly get their fixes at the expense of everyone else.
Thank you, David, both your work, and for your account of your work on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Your clear-headed description of life, the possibilities, and limitations, offered by affordable housing help to introduce others to this slice of Canada. This is a part of our country that many may not otherwise experience.
I could not say what the best solution is for Vancouver's DTES residents. I can say though, by reading this article I begin to understand the daily struggle some people face. As someone earlier mentioned, I commend the clear headed way this article is written. Everyone faces road blocks in life, each of us struggles to surmount them thus it behooves us to err on the side of compassion rather than judgement and help those in our community we can.
The problems in the downtown eastside are getting worse, and at best, aren't getting any better. The whole social welfare project has failed miserably to produce any results, despite 100's of millions of dollars being poured into that neighborhood yearly.
the area is a disgusting cess pool, and categorizing it as a "diverse community" and calling the addicts that live on the streets there "residents" is not constructive.
there are many things wrong, first and foremost - personal responsibility. we cannot make excuses for people who refuse to take control of their own lives. There's no where on earth, where an individual has more options, treatment, rehab, housing and job start programs than right here in Vancouver. We spend more money per head of population on the DTE than anywhere else in the world. So at some point, a person has to want to be helped.
In addition, we have hundreds of different agencies all working separately, with different levels of government, and different agendas. This all needs to be co-ordinated.
Finally, the only way to fix the DTE is to regentrify it. We have to decentralize this problem, and we have to move them away from their addictions. We have to take them to rural areas where they are isolated and can learn to be human again, then they can learn to function within society and start to resume some form of a normal life, if and where possible. The reality is many of them are too far gone and beyond help.
I have been working in the DTES for about 3 years. It is a hopeless money pit. Why don't we encourage people to break the cycle? Why is it okay to teeter on the edge of self-destruction and abject poverty for the rest of your life while the pharmacists, doctors, lawyers, dealers, etc who maintain that oppressive status quo continue to get rich?
Such a hopeless money pit. Can we try a new approach?
Jay Bea writes "I have been working in the DTES for about 3 years. It is a hopeless money pit. Why don't we encourage people to break the cycle? Why is it okay to teeter on the edge of self-destruction and abject poverty for the rest of your life while the pharmacists, doctors, lawyers, dealers, etc who maintain that oppressive status quo continue to get rich?
Such a hopeless money pit. Can we try a new approach?"
thank you for exposing the truth behind what so many social welfare advocates are ignoring. This problem has become a big earner for many people, who have become part of the "social welfare industrial complex" of the DTES.
we are made to feel guilty about this, yet hundreds of millions of dollars of our hard earned tax is poured into this black hole every year, with absolutely no results.
compassion has not helped these people, they have more options than anyone else in their situation in the world. whats needed is some personal responsibility and accountability.
We can no longer be held hostage in our own city to this crime ridden, filthy corner of drug addicted vancouver.
BEEN THERE
What can I say that would make a difference? I myself have been homeless. I had a drug problem for over 30 years. Today I’m clean for seven; been there, done it all. I see the toilet we call the Downtown Eastside as nothing more than a bank machine for misguided, misplaced, misunderstood solutions.
Since I’ve turned my life around, I see the chaos continue year after year with very few results. I have friends who have been to treatment over 15 times, detox 20.
So, with all the money and support services that are available, why are there such poor results? Some people would disagree, but it starts with enforcing the law of the land, making people accountable and giving self-esteem back to those who have none.
Stop supporting addiction — free needles, crack pipes, methadone-injection sites, food money on welfare day and on and on. Those of us who have walked the walk would agree in general that these exact same services added to destroying our lives.
I’m not saying no more services at all, but in order to stop or change the problem for any one person, sometimes the solution can be as simple as hitting rock bottom, or being fed up, or finding the actual desire to change, but as long as you have a peer group that is 10,000-strong in a twelve-block-square area, the odds are stacked against you.
— editor@2010homelesschampions.ca
This is not an issue of personal morality and it never will be.
Reactionary opinions about addiction and "personal responsibility" can have no relation to social policy if it is to remain objective.
However, a society is collectively responsible to EVERY citizen.
Considering the vast amounts of money lost to government inefficiencies and questionable foreign policy (among other things), a few tax dollars spent on subsidized housing is not only a drop in the bucket, BUT a BASIC requirement of any society that holds itself to be progressive, civilized, modern, egalitarian, etc.
If you bemoan the waste of your tax dollars, perhaps you need to examine the balance sheets, and gain perspective on where your money goes. What's the ANNUAL federal expenditures on poverty and homelessness compared to the DAILY cost of the military deployment in afghanistan?
Jeremy
"This is not an issue of personal morality and it never will be.Reactionary opinions about addiction and "personal responsibility" can have no relation to social policy if it is to remain objective."
What bafflegab!!!!!
Morality has plenty to do with it. I spent my young adult years dealing drugs and stealing on Vancouver's East Side and took my little crime wave and drug habit to many other communities in Canada too.
I had access to "programs" and welfare cheques galore. Thanks to the taxpayer I was never without a free meal or a program of some sort to soothe my wounded psyche.
For me I had to repent, turn to Christ, drop all contact with my drug associates and the poverty/ victim industry. When I did that I finally got myself gainfully employed and eventually attained a post secondary eduction. Maybe this account doesn't fit with your bias, but it is what worked.....