Vancouver Downtown Eastside Discussion

[Locked In]

I noticed the Globe has several articles, videos, and photos on a dedicated Downtown Eastside page: "Canada's Slum: The Fix": http://www.theglobeandmail.com/thefix/
I couldn't find a general thread on the DTES, so I thought I'd post here. Here's one article discussing how much money is poured into Canada's most notorious neighborhood:

The money pit
A Globe and Mail investigation shows for the first time how much public and private money has been spent on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside since 2000: $1.4-billion. What has all that money accomplished? Limited progress at best. As Robert Matas reports, many people believe the area is worse than ever



ROBERT MATAS
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
February 13, 2009 at 11:59 PM EST


VANCOUVER — It has been nearly a decade since three levels of government signed a landmark agreement designed to transform Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside, but the neighbourhood remains a vortex that sucks in junkies, the mentally ill and other desperate souls from across the country.

With a year remaining in the agreement — and the 2010 Olympics about to put Vancouver in the world's spotlight — a Globe and Mail investigation has for the first time tallied how much public and private money has been poured into Canada's worst slum.

The result: More than $1.4-billion later, the Downtown Eastside is hardly better off.

An open-air drug market still thrives five minutes from a police station. The bathrooms of decrepit hotels still serve as shooting galleries for addicts. Prostitutes still offer their bodies from the curbside. Drug pushers still prey on the mentally diminished, multiplying the misery.

If there has been progress, it has been scant. The rash of drug overdoses that killed more than 1,000 people in the 1990s has dissipated, but the legion of addicts remains. HIV/AIDS is no longer epidemic, but residents' health remains abysmal.

[...]

Source: Robert Matas, Globe and Mail

[Locked In]

Wish upon a czar for the Downtown Eastside
Our nation's slum should be diverse and welcoming

GARY MASON, From Saturday's Globe and Mail
February 13, 2009 at 8:16 PM EST

VANCOUVER — The greatest legacy of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will be the incentive it gave politicians to do something about homelessness. But any hopes that the Games would spur civic leaders to finally address the systemic problems of the anguished Downtown Eastside have all but vanished.

This is too bad because the time has long since passed to end the suffering there, to halt bad policies that serve only to perpetuate the abuse and despair found around virtually every corner. And if fixing the problems there means confronting and ultimately ignoring the stale and often self-preserving dogma of the poverty industry that has bloomed in the area, so be it.

[...]

Source: GARY MASON, Globe and Mail

[leftside]

Those are some of the best articles I have read on the DTES

[Pinion]

"But consider the response of West Vancouver Mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, when asked whether her municipality would take some Downtown Eastside addicts. She said West Vancouver is doing its part already, helping fund a youth safe house, a shelter and a planned addiction-recovery house.

All three are in North Vancouver."

What the hell? West Van is funding stuff in North Van (near my condo, which is just as far from West Van as DTES)? Nice scam.

[agrant]

"They come from all over Canada, other parts of B.C., other neighbourhoods of Vancouver, drawn by the weather, the cheap housing, the soup kitchens and, in many cases, the drugs. The area is a magnet, and it's time to take it apart."

<<< I totally agree with this.

[Distill3d]

Originally Posted by agrant

"They come from all over Canada, other parts of B.C., other neighbourhoods of Vancouver, drawn by the weather, the cheap housing, the soup kitchens and, in many cases, the drugs. The area is a magnet, and it's time to take it apart."

<<< I totally agree with this.

i agree, but what do we do to take it apart? we can't just put all the mentally unstable, drug addicted homeless people on a bus to Chilliwack and tell them not to come back. then Chilliwack cries fowl.

we need a long term solution. the problem is all the good ideas get shot down. like, why don't we have the DTES turned into a red light district? why aren't we building transitional housing projects in the DTES (and i don't mean renovating old hotels, i mean new complexes)? all this money is being spent on the wrong things.

[Yume-sama]

Build it and they will come, this works for more than just tourists. Look at San Francisco for example, they lead North America in their social programs, and have the absolute WORST (and frightening...) problem of homelessness in North America, filled with people who are just trying to get a free ride out of the compassionate white Liberal. Anyways, DTES is doomed, I really don't think it is capable of being turned in to a vibrant "nice" area, and the more and more social programs and housing we build, the worse our problem will get. Vancouver is already probably TOO compassionate, way more so than most Canadian cities, and it's not a coincidence we have such problems.

I admire anybody whose job it is to clean up the place. They have their work cut out for them!

[Distill3d]

^they certainly do!

i think that the build it and they will come mentality is similar to the NIMBY mentality. if we can build it, make it work, and prove that it is a viable solution to a major problem, than the more that come, the more that can be fixed. of course, there would need to be steps put in place to prevent homelessness.

we could always take a cue from Portland and the strategies to end homelessness they've implemented.

[mr.x]

B.C. architect building toward a solution for everyone

WENDY STUECK
From Monday's Globe and Mail

February 15, 2009 at 10:40 PM EST

VANCOUVER — Gregory Henriquez is a Vancouver architect and author of Towards an Ethical Architecture. He designed the Woodward's building, a mixed-income development in the Downtown Eastside. The project is a bold experiment: When it opens later this year, the development will see wealthy condo dwellers living cheek by jowl with the poor, who occupy 200 subsidized units. [...]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ry/thefix/home

[Distill3d]

Downtown Eastside residents fear they'll be jailed during Games
Some people can't afford to pay fines given during ticketing sweep for civil disorder
Mary Frances Hill, Vancouver Sun; With files from Graeme Wood
Published: Monday, February 16, 2009
William Dawson owes more than $200 for crossing the street, a debt he's vowing to fight.

The 48-year-old East Hastings resident is a schizophrenic who lives on disability pay. He said Sunday he can't afford to pay two jaywalking tickets he was issued in December and January, and he feels the police targeted him as a resident of the Downtown Eastside.

His predicament is a common one for residents of the neighbourhood, according to advocates for the Downtown Eastside's poor.

A group including the Pivot Legal Society, the Carnegie Community Action Project and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, brought home the point as they gathered at Pigeon Park on East Hastings on Sunday.

[...]

[email protected]

http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/...a-4ae0663f6150

oddly (sadly??), i found this article under "Entertainment" on Google News.

[Locked In]

Housing advocate accused of diverting provincial funds

Provincial government files suit saying Downtown Eastside housing society misrepresented finances and allowed ineligible tenants to jump queue

Robert Matas

Vancouver — From Friday's Globe and Mail Published on Thursday, Mar. 25, 2010 9:16PM EDT Last updated on Saturday, Mar. 27, 2010 4:37PM EDT

The B.C. government says subsidies for housing in the city's poorest neighbourhood have been diverted to cover the administrative costs of an outspoken advocacy group, the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, and to help pay rent for ineligible tenants in subsidized housing in the community.

In an unprecedented lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday, the province's rental housing association and housing management commission has asked the court to appoint a receiver to manage three housing towers run by the Downtown Eastside Residents Housing Society: the 110-unit Pendera Place on Pender Street West, the 90-unit Tellier Towers on East Hastings and the 86-unit Solheim Place on Union Street.

The provincial housing agency alleges the DERA housing society and its executive director Kim Kerr negligently misrepresented the finances of the social housing towers to the provincial government, failed to pay property taxes and failed to use subsidies provided by BC Housing to pay rent for the units.

[...]

Source: Globe and Mail

[WarrenC12]

^^^^^^^

Great juxtaposition with the fear-mongering article one post up.

There has long been an industry that survives on the poor people of the DTES, and despite their claims, has no desire to help people out of their situation. Many of the Olympic protesters embodied this. The numbers of "groups" down there is staggering.

Which is not to take away from the good done by Union Gospel Mission and others like the Guru Nanak free kitchens. I'm not religious in any way, but I certainly support many faith-based groups way ahead of these so-called advocates for the poor.

[Phil McAvity]

The poverty industry will continue as long as there is a market for it. As well-intentioned as government may be, it cannot fix or change human nature, barring some miraculous scientific cure for addiction. The only changes I can see are moving the problems further east as the western part of the DTES becomes increasingly gentrified.

[TwoFace]

Interesting thread and I’m glad to see it in this Forum.
Last week I was doing some street photography, and they had a "free food" day at Victory Square.

The reality of it is, that with the hundreds waiting in line for a hot-dog, very few looked like your typical stereotype DTES slum resident, but people like me and most likely you.
There is a very fine line today between making ends meet and going over the edge.

[nova9]

And if you think the impoverished are just those that you see in on the streets, you should really take a look at the days when the mobile food bank is operating out of the new Mount Pleasant Community centre, the line ups are long and filled with mostly parents and their children. It is utterly heartbreaking.

We get this image that is dominated by the DTEs but the DTES is a 2 fold problem, poverty and addiction and often times, I feel, the solutions try to address both. What about those that are just impoverished?

[flight_from_kamakura]

i really wonder what people without education and basic social skills do. like no joke, it's easy to be all right wing and crazy when you have a job and a sense of entitlement coming out of college (or parallely, one of these "ive worked since i was 10" types), but once you lose that job at the insurance company or the real estate office or whatever, assuming you don't start blaming people here and there (the government, the ethnics, the lazy whites, etc), you really do learn a thing or two. and then imagine having kids on top of it!

personally, i'm lucky enough not to have to worry all that much (for the moment), but it's really not hard to get the need for social housing, support services, social assistance, etc. - quite apart from the accumulated knowledge of the 3/4 of a century of public policy that got us here (and that the blitherers love to hate).

my two bits at 2am.

[trofirhen]

Before going to live overseas back in the late 90's, I was in a personal situation that required me to stay on in Vancouver for a few months. As a recent graduate with a "soft" university degree in a sluggish economy, and no job prospects, I had to find somewhere cheap to live, and I wound up in one of the better residences on Water Street for six months. It was an eye-opener; tough, yes, but an experience for which I am grateful.

Many of the people in the DTES (and elsewhere to a lesser degree) are "unemployable," having a mild handicap of some sort. Many are addicts, but many are not, and none of them like lining up in the shivering rain for a daily meal at the foodbank or the church. I had to do that, too, on certain days.

These people will always be with us, and telling them to go get a job is futile and insensitive. Nothing regarding this will change until mainstream social values change, and middle-to-high-income earners are willing to part with a slightly higher per centage of their salaries into taxes specifically targeted for social housing, care, and counselling not only for drug addicts, but for handicapped people who fall between the cracks.

Vancouver is regarded as one of the top five cities in the world for quality of life, and it is partly that which makes participating in this forum so exciting. But there's only so much money to go around for infrastructure, art galleries, education, and the care of poor people who live in shocking misery.

The tough part is sorting out priorities - how much for new skytrain lines, etc etc etc. All very vital and necessary to the functioning of the city, but no more important than the basic well-being of the small percentage who cannot break out of the ugly poverty circle.

[SFUVancouver]

^ Very well said.

Thank you.

[Coral Builder]

Excuse me, but as a fellow contributor I just wanted to weigh in. It is all fine and dandy to discuss government priorities, lord knows this is of paramount importance to our current society. After all, the poor and the addicted deserve our respect and our help as fellow humans and fellow Canadians. But money, that's a different story. The trouble with giving money to bleeding hearts is that all it seems to accomplish is dependency, and worse, multiplication. Like junkies with habits, poor poeple are not helped by supporting their debilitations. Somehow this basic piece of common sense evades us, when dicussing the merits of taxation, of which I am a proponent, and social welfare states, of which I am not. The truth in my mind is that even handicapped poeple are often best served by testing themselves to find out what they can contribute, as opposed to how much pity they can conjure. My own brother was at one point in his life, an "unemployable" schizophenic drug addict, whose self-worth he blamed on his lack of support from me and the rest of my family. NO matter how hard we tried to help, the disease and his perception of us got worse and worse, because the pity and dependance eroded his self-worth and etched the word "victim" on his soul. The hardest thing for us to do was to cut him off, despite his pleading, and force him to come face to face with himself, and life on his own terms. I am so pleased to report that he has since began taking his medication on his own, quit his drug habit, and is graduating a college program this June. Not only that, but since then we have re-connected, and I now have a brother again, one I can talk to and more importantly that talks to and trusts me again. I'm not saying everyone is the same as my brother, but I'm absolutely certain that government could never do a better job than family at taking care of these poeple, and I can attest to the only strategy that worked for ours.

[flight_from_kamakura]

actually, it is fundamentally all about dollars. on the macro point: the hard reality is that economy is relative, and that stability is the a priori to economy. as we've become better at running governments and economies, we've come to a very widely-held consensus about the optimal character, complexion and direction of public spending. some places with excessive democracy (per schumpeter) have problems - hardcore boom-bust cycles, high levels of violent crime, vast wealth disparities - similar to places with deficits of democracy. we're lucky enough to have pursued a more enlightened course.

on the micro point: in vancouver, over the past couple decades, we (all political parties and most stakeholders) have made a series of collective decisions about the dtes (ratified by voters), the parameters of which require certain arrangements and spending decisions. so quite literally, unless you can bring something more to the discussion than just personal beliefs about human nature and gripes about the shiftless downtrodden, there isn't much to add. remember that the ship is run by professionals, highly trained and experienced, in government, in the bureaucracy, in the public health community, and overseeing budgetary decisions. everyone has an opinion, but some opinions are more valid than others.

all this is quite apart from the fact that there really are some hardluck cases, and that not all folks down in the dtes are drug-addled leeches, out to fleece you and the system.