Downtown Eastside - DTES Issues

[WBC]

This is from my observation of one particular couple (in probably late 30s of 40s) that regularly frequents a pedestrian walkway between two buildings in Metrotown. I live in one of the buildings above the walkway and have clear view of the proceedings. I am by no means expert on the issue, these are just my observations.

- They showed up at the begging of the Summer of 2018. Typically, they call their dealer (as they have phones) who shows up with drugs usually in late afternoon. Towards the end of the day they get high and have episodes that involve hallucinating, yelling and getting paranoid (they accuse each other of stealing clothes, phones, etc. and become somewhat violent, but nothing too concerning).

- They set up a little tent and slept all Summer of 2018 in there with these episodes repeating almost every day. During the morning they would be gone and would typically return to their tent in the afternoon.

- Our strata president called the non-emerg RCMP line numerous times (30+ times by his count). RCMP showed up a few times, talked to them and essentially did nothing. Eventually RCMP got tired of it and essentially told us not to call them unless they turn violent. They also told us to talk to City of Burnaby that at that time established the homeless task force. Once you call the RCMP and if they actually show up the responding officer returns you a favour by debriefing you about the incident at 2 or 3am (this would be a passive -aggressive way of telling you not to call them again about this issue).
- We called the Burnaby homeless task force to intervene. They talked to the couple and offered them temporary shelter while they look for a permanent home for them. The couple refused the temporary shelter but were interested in the permanent home. So, they were put on the waiting list for permanent home.

- In the meantime, other homeless start to congregate in the area and we had to hire private security patrols to escort the newly arrived homeless out of our garage (as we share the garage with commercial section it is not possible to close the garage during the day). We had a few issues with car break-ins and an incident where a guy started a fire in the garage to cook food which triggered a fire alarm. Soon the local area and our garage is covered in trash, needles, feces, etc.

- Then by the early fall of 2018 they are all gone. We stop calling the private security although we still have a contract with them. From what we heard from Burnaby task force the couple in question got a permanent home and with them gone and the weather getting worse the rest of the gang was gone too.

- In 2019 and this Summer (2020) the original couple shows up sometimes (say once a week). They no longer have a tent (although at one point they got a full-sized mattress to lay on). There is far less other homeless in the immediate area and things are way better. It seems that Burnaby finding them a home helped. But it also looks like that they still like to come here from time to time to get high.

Once the homeless drug addicts show up in your area they just attract more to come. You need to deal with it, or else Gong Show will follow. Police and RCMP are in general useless for this unless they get marching orders from the city to clean up the area. You have to work with the city and probably hire private security to deal with them. As for the Strathcona Park, I would not be surprised that a lot of these folks already have a shelter in the city but chose to “vacation” in the park. If they are gone by the Fall that means they likely have a place to live. I pity the poor people in the area that have to deal with this. I saw it firsthand how quickly and bad can it get with just a handful of homeless. This must be a nightmare. What Vancouver is doing allowing this to happen for weeks and months is just shameful.