- RAFE ARNOTT
Some people who have never been to Vancouver, Canada’s Downtown Eastside say that reports of the neighborhood must be grossly exaggerated. The district called “Canada’s poorest postal code,” a few blocks from the new Olympic Athletes’ Village, couldn’t possibly be the destitute wasteland depicted in news features and documentaries. After all, Vancouver is routinely voted the world’s best city to live in; could it really include a neighborhood rampant with homelessness and visible drug abuse, where condoms and syringes litter the pavement, and addicts lurch through the streets like zombies?
Having lived in Vancouver nearly my entire life, I can say the answer is an unwavering yes, and it’s an issue that’s become increasingly uncomfortable for city officials since Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Since winning the bid in 2003—and particularly in the last few years—the city has implemented a number of measures that seemed too closely timed to the Olympics to appear coincidental. According to the Vancouver Police Department’s 2008 annual business plan report-back, for instance, officers issued 467 tickets for violations of the Safe Streets Act last year, up from 202 in 2007, and they ticketed 439 people for panhandling, loitering, and unlicensed street vending last year, up from 247 in 2007.
“The issue is definitely that, in order to host this sporting event, it somehow seems necessary to bankrupt a city, dispose of civil liberties, displace homeless populations, and hand over public space to giant corporations,” said David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. “I don’t get the connection between those things, and I don’t think it’s necessary.”
I’m well versed in the sob stories of the Downtown Eastside. Friends visiting from out of town routinely comment that they’ve never been solicited by so many panhandlers and are alarmed to see such a dense population of homeless people just blocks away from a neighborhood that sells doggy couture and C$100 square watermelons imported from Japan (that would be Yaletown, if you’re planning to visit). It’s a disparity of lifestyles that Vancouverites have grown accustomed to.
But the Winter Games makes that disparity more apparent.
Just last month, B.C. lawmakers passed a controversial bill allowing police officers to force homeless people into shelters during extreme winter weather—i.e., weather that coincides with the Olympics—though they can’t make them stay. (Leaked documents revealed earlier considerations to even jail the homeless if accommodations could not be found, though this idea was eventually scrapped.)
Hardly a phenomenon, this is probably the Olympics’ most sordid tradition: History has shown host cities to sweep undesirables under the rug just before the torch passes through town. Police in Atlanta, for example, reportedly arrested 9,000 people for panhandling and loitering in the year before the 1996 Summer Games—four times more than in preceding years—and gave homeless people free one-way bus tickets out of the city.
But police here in Vancouver insist there is no street sweep timed before the Olympics. “What we’re doing is…increasing our visibility in the Downtown Eastside,” said VPD spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness. “Everything we’re doing now, we’ll be doing after the Olympics as well.”
I love Vancouver, appreciate the nature of sport and competition on a global scale, and certainly acknowledge the sense of national pride that comes parading in with the five-ringed circus. But winning the Games looks like it will be a pyrrhic victory, its losses sure to outnumber its gains. The situation of the Downtown Eastside was critical years before winning the bid, and in attempts to prepare for the world stage, it has only worsened.
According to a 2007 report by the United Nations Population Fund, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside “is home to a hepatitis C (HCV) rate of just below 70 per cent and an HIV prevalence rate of an estimated 30 per cent—the same as Botswana’s.” A 2008 survey of the neighborhood, by the City of Vancouver, found that 52 percent of the residents said they used drugs, with 28 percent using frequently.
The Olympic bill has already topped C$6 billion. The cost for security alone—about C$1 billion—could build 5,000 homes, or replace every residential hotel room in the Downtown Eastside with self-contained homes, according to Wendy Pederson, researcher at the Carnegie Community Action Project. Our city is severely lacking in the resources needed to fix the problems associated with the Downtown Eastside; shouldn’t the most vulnerable of the city’s residents take priority over a sporting event?
When the party’s over and the guests have gone home, what will be Vancouver’s Olympic legacy?
Perhaps they’ll turn the Olympic Village into low income housing after the Games?
Homelessness and drug use are notoriously difficult problems to solve in any meaningful long term way.
hmmm the streets are littered with condoms yet you want to make a big deal of the aids rate? hmmm
and obviously the only thing a person crawling out of a dumpster needs to be a productive member of society is a house, obviously…..
and the olympics are to blame for some reason? ok… gonna guess that “vancouver’s olympic legacy” isn’t going to have anything to do with homeless people.
shit imagine writing an article with this theme for the china games? hahaha
not a very good article but nice try
#2, For anyone who has been to Vancouver or lives in Vancouver or lives in Canada for that matter, this is a great article.
Also, you are greatly underestimating the value of housing. No substance use programs, employment efforts, etc really matter when the people you’re dealing with don’t have stable and safe shelter. Not to mention that a huge percentage of the homeless population also have mental health challenges, and studies have continuously shown that housing is essential in helping those with mental health issues.
You’re entitled to spout off opinions without having done any research, but at least admit your ignorance.
the Olympics are a greedy elitest corrupt money posioned racket from top to bottom, from (and especially) the bidding process on.
they showcase the worst in human nature and behavior
Oh, and because you apparently missed this lesson in 7th grade health class: unprotected sex is not the only way to become infected with HIV. Particularly in a neighbourhood with heavy injection drug use. God you’re an idiot.
3
people end up homeless because of behavioral issues. some are actually related to mental illness but most relate to poor choices. straighten up their life for them and put them in a house and in a few months they’ll be back. if by housing you mean someone else paying for a place for these people to be warehoused you have a point but that is not a ‘housing’ issue.
5
The “visible drug abuse, where … syringes litter the pavement, and addicts lurch through the streets like zombies” would probably cover that?
Many, if not nearly all, of the long term homeless population(discounting the people say living in their car because they are temporarily out of work), have already lost a home due to substance abuse or mental illness. Giving them another to lose helps no one.
How about we bring back mental institutions? Because the only other real alternative is to try and hide the problem.
FUCKING BOTSWANA COMPARISONS DESTROY INTELLIGIBLE LIFE/GOOD JOURNALISM WHINE AND DROSS.
SOMETIMES ONE HAS TO RECOGNIZE BEEEG METAPHOR IN LIFE. HOMELESS IN THIS CASE R META4. METAPHOR FOR DESTITUTE AND FASCIST WESTERN MENTALITY THAT EXTRUDES SHIT! DROSS! ALREADY SAID THAT. BEEG METAPHOR ALSO RLY FUNNY JOKE, PUNCHLINE BUILT IN, ETC. MET THIS DUDE, DESIGNED A LOGO, WAS HURT BY HOW AGRESSIVELY VAPID HE AND HIS EX WERRR, WANTED TO PUNCH AND PUMMEL, BUT LIFE WAS LIKE, NO, BIG METAPHOR! LEARN!
FUCKING LEARN.
Sorry, I will never feel bad for junkies. The mentally ill, yes. Junkies no.
Damn, how could Canada have problems like this with that stellar utopian nationalized health care system? This sounds like Detroit, but worst because of the obscene conspicuous consumption juxtaposed over the human misery.
Hey Swearengen. It’s a fine article. The author’s points are that the situation in this infamous neighbourhood is: 1.) very bad and getting worse and in need of intevention; 2.) a despicable example of the immoral abandonment of severely damaged humans by the community and the state; 3.) a gruesome example of the disparity between rich and poor; 4.) an implicit criticism of events like the Olympics that divert a fortune in public cash (six billion according to the writer) from what should be higher priorities and 5.) the accurately-told story of what is probably Canada’s most fucked and desparate urban neighbourhood.
It’s a good story and an important story and a true story that deserves better than your Slog-troll poo-flinging. Go find something else to smear feces on.
Rotten666: lack of compassion is just a failure of imagination. You can do better.
WOO THE FUCK IS ANDREA WOO NEWAY?
NVR HRD OF HR. STRANGER STOP FREELANCE/OUTSOURCIMG. ECB AND US MISS THE DAYS OF ALL INTERNAL REPORT ALL THE TIME
13
“Go find someone to smear feces on.”
yeah.
don’t you have a DP?
#7
I was continuing my answer to commenter #2, not to the author of the article.
@16: I said “something” not “someone”. But “someone” is fine by me as long as it’s consensual and makes everyone happy (and I don’t have to watch).
A terrific post. What’s happening with the Hastings Shufflers and the Olympic shills is a great story, and you’re right on it.
It’s all true, and it’s well-stated.
The idea of hosting the Olympics is a fine idea on the face of it, but if we lose our souls in the process? The transition from a marginally compassionate society to a police state is far too high a cost to pay.
VPD spokesperson promises that the war on the poor will continue post-games as if that makes it okay?
Long after this circus is over Vancouverites, British Colombians, and Canadians will be paying the price, and it’s not just financial- it’s spiritual. We have abandoned all but the lip service we pay to compassion and social justice.
Thank you for saying what needed to be said. Ideas on how to recover?
This is certainly no surprise to me. Denver basically did the same thing in advance of last year’s Democratic convention. We couldn’t have those unsightly, un-photogenic homeless bums wandering around during the convention, now, could we?
Yes, money is better spent on housing, shelter, schools, jobs, etc.
But let’s face it – there’s no financial or political gain to helping the homeless, orphans, etc. It looks good on paper until people start asking where the money is going to come from to help them.
Hell, the money We as the U.S. spent on the Iraq war could have been spent winning in Afghanistan, investment in Renewable Energy, restoring the infrastructure, sheltering the homeless, creating jobs, etc. But it’s impossible to get the U.S. to become altruistic.
You have no better argument to that case than the Catholics and Mormons tag-teaming the Anti-Marriage efforts of the GLBTQI. Shouldn’t they be using their money to, you know, help impoverished people than to create them? (I will also throw in universal single-payer health care while I’m at it, lol)
THIS ARTYCLE IS TOTALLY IMPOVERISHED I YAM ASHAMED WHEN IZ IT OK TO WRITE LIKE 40 WORDS AND WIN TIME WIN PLACE IN PLACE?
THE FIRST IS DEMOCRACY, THE SECOND HALLOW EARTH, THE THIRD FUCK ENVIRONMENTALISM.
I am so very very shocked that this is happening.
Oh, wait, they did the same thing during Expo 86 …
Never mind.
BC for the win, Canada for the Gold.
Holy crap. Apparently all the trolls come out to vomit their “thoughts” on Tuesday mornings before 8AM. Duly noted.
I thought it was a good article that posed some legitimate questions as to the different problems facing the city of Vancouver in the eve of their Olympics run.
The east side is pretty scary and about as close to being in a zombie movie as I can imagine. One of the principal reasons people end up there in the first place is, being that Vancouver is one of the warmest places in Canada, homeless people tend to travel there from other places to keep from freezing to death. You don’t see as much of a problem in Montreal or Toronto because a bunch of people just hop on the rails to Vancouver. Once they get there, it’s a self-feeding cesspool of IV drugs and desperation. How does one go about fixing that?
if they hadn’t hosted the games they wouldn’t have spent the money housing the homeless. it’s not one or the other.
Good Morning Andrea,
I agree. I am from Chicago and I am glad they didn’t get the Olympics. Most of my friends and family who live there were glad too. In fact, I worry what Rio de Janeiro is going to do with their homeless during their Olympics? They have far more than Vancouver or Chicago. It’s quite problematic. I recall what Atlanta did as well. You have valid points.
Full of information, but written like a college journalism assignment. Lacks the Stranger bite. No.
The best part about the East Van/Yaletown thing is that when they really do turn into zombies, proximity means they’ll eat every Chet in the city. That’ll be epic win.
(Well, okay, we’ll have to transplant a bunch from Kits. But still!)
I have relatives with mental health and substance abuse problems. You have to practice tough love with them. For years and years the saner, more sober members of the family enabled their problems because the alternative was seeing them wind up in prison or on the street. We have reached a point where our policy is “I am not listening to your excuses anymore. You will get clean, you will get sober, and you will be treated for your mental illness and you will stay in therapy. If you do not, you will go to jail and I won’t bail you out ever again.” So far the tough love “Rehab Or Jail” approach is working.
I’m sorry to disagree, but the reports of the downtown eastside _are_ greatly exaggerated. Primarily by Canadians who have never visited, say, the more interesting parts of Chicago. That’s not in any way to say that the problems down there aren’t important or that we shouldn’t be doing more to help the people there. But the view of the downtown eastside that I get from people around here is that it’s the worst place they’ve ever seen – and as far as I an tell, it’s just because Canada and Vancouver in particular are pretty nice.
Your point about replacing the residential hotels though, I’m totally with that. Those places are run by some pretty appalling slumlords.
Conservatives are much more generous charitible givers than Liberals.
The Catholic and LDS Churches (among others) spend huge amounts fighting poverty worldwide.
Is there any comparable Homosexual organization that does so?
Too bad poverty and health care can’t be solved by a bar crawl.
@32 is @22
@32: well, considering how much money the Vatican and the LDS have to give, i would assume worldwide poverty is just about solved. right?
@14 get over yourself you smug prick. I will never feel for someone who has forfeit their life for a lifestyle. I have been around many a junkie in my life and they are all the same: self centered, narcissistic parasites. I will spend my compassion on the working homeless, the mentally ill and cute fuzzy animals. Fuck junkies. Fuck them in their ear.
I adore Vancouver (it’s my second home), and I love living there. But the downtown east side is – among other things – heartbreaking. It’s upsetting to see such a concentration of people so void of hope and self-respect. But it’s also a historic problem. A lot of money has been spent there in efforts to make a positive difference. To date, there has been little in the way of visible improvement. It is worse than Montreal or Toronto because the winters in Vancouver – rainy, cold, and dark as they are – are nothing like the winters back east. How do you make people start caring about themselves and their futures?
I love The Olympics, too, or at least the idea of The Olympics, but again, in almost every town where it has visited, the price of living increases wildly – rent gouging being the most noticeable side effect. Get rid of that elderly man who has paid $800/mo. for years in order to raise the rent for new tenants or rent out by the week at $400. It has happened before at other Olympics, and it’s happening in Vancouver (check out Craigslist for “Olympic Rentals”) right now.
I’ve come to southern California for the winter months this year. I’ll head back to Vancouver next spring…after The Games. I guess the best place to watch them is on TV anyway. All the good tickets are long gone (which, BTW, is a bone of contention with many Vancouverites…all the good tickets, it is believed, went to officials and their families).
This makes me really unsympathetic to homeless advocates. It’s “controversial” to demand that the homeless accept shelter even in adverse weather conditions? Really? So all the belly aching about how there isn’t enough shelter is all a bunch of bullshit. Even if there were enough shelter we still can’t expect people to get off the fucking streets. Nice to know.
#37, the point is that nothing is being done to help find stable housing for the homeless except when the Olympics are going on. And even then, forcing people into shelters isn’t stable housing. It’s pushing people – humans, citizens, – out of view.
Some people seem to be taking the word “housing” quite literally. It doesn’t mean you buy someone a house. Low-income housing is a far from ideal living space but it’s a start in order to help people with other factors that contributed to their current situation, such as substance abuse or mental health challenges.
#30, I totally respect that the Tough Love approach worked for your family. But it doesn’t work for everyone. A Dr. Phil approach of yelling “stop that!” just isn’t effective or realistic for everyone.
A well written and accurate article. Some of you responders have a little too much time on your hands and too much hostility. The olympics are supposed to be a symbol love for humanity, world peace and unity. However, with the pressures of not being an embarrassment on the world’s stage, most host countries will act similarly. I agree with Ms. Woo’s wish for our country to be an innovator/leader instead of following in the trend of other cowardly host nations.
FYI, I’m no journalist, just a proud Canadian who fell in love with the city of Vancouver when I was there two years ago.
Ms. Woo, you rock… keep doing your thing and speaking your mind.
For more info, Google No2010. No Olympics on stolen native land!
34
Sadly there is much more to be done.
Plenty of room for DINK homosexuals to get in on the act…
@37,
One of the problems with the law is that the shelters the police will be forcing people to go to will have no room. But I see from your comment that passing this law has made it seem as if there are enough mats. Good to know how the propaganda machine is working.
As for the junkie-haters, you can be without compassion. In fact, compassion is not needed for this situation. Maybe what you should be concerned about is the fact that poverty and homeless and addiction are determinants of health. Meaning, if we spend money on making sure that people get homes and services, we’ll sped less on health care.
Your hate is your own worst enemy. In your haste to deprive junkies of care and basic needs, you end up driving us further into social decline. Good job.
“if we spend money on making sure that people get homes and services,”
then why are Canadian taxes so high if all these fab services make life cheaper?
FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME
If you or your readers would like a web with a view we have it covered
Last year in early November I was walking around the downtown eastside as part of normal routine, and couldn’t help but notice the poverty and hopelessness that seem to be rampant on every corner of this the poorest part of our lovely city. I myself have suffered in the past from addiction and temporary homeless conditions. After a few days of feeling inspired I decided to carry a camera with me and started to document what I saw for the next two week’s I gathered together a archive of photo’s and with the help of a friend we produced a video which we aptly named THE OLYMPICS’ TOOK MY HOME This video is currently hosted on over fifty websites throughout the world. I also started a WEBSITE called 2010homelesschampions.ca ” WHO NEW” Today I’m so looking forward to the coming event’s surrounding the Olympics’ and the plight of this neighborhood Here is the link to this video
http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca/olym…
Vancouver Hosts the 2010 Addiction Olympics
This website is dedicated to telling the stories of the unfortunate individuals living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in the hope that awareness of this problem will spur people to get involved, to let all levels of government know that something has to be done to alleviate this misery rooted in addiction, homelessness and depravity. To point the way to recovery from addiction, which we believe is the root of most of this situation. With the 2010 Olympics coming to Vancouver it is our mandate to record the transition and the extreme changes that are even now occurring and will continue to unfold in the Downtown Eastside.
http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca/
2010 Homeless Champions Videos on YouTube
http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca/yout…
A sympathetic article with a few inaccuracies. The residents of the Downtown Eastside generally don’t look like zombies, and the streets aren’t littered with syringes and condoms. The Downtown Eastside is a community much like any other community, granted with some problems. I have volunteered in this community for a number of years, and have served on the Carnegie Community Centre Assocation Board of Directors for a couple of years, and been involved with community organizations like the Carnegie Community Action Project and Raise The Rates, and the people I have come in contact with, regardless of their social standing (resident, homeless, addict), have all had one thing in common: an abiding love of their neighbourhood, and a willingness to find ways in which to improve it. The greatest problem facing the neighbourhood is not addiction, as many would think, but homelessness, which can only be solved if enough social housing is built. Canada had a national social housing program up to the early 1990s until the then-governing Federal Liberals eliminated it. A national social housing program is the ONLY way enough housing is going to be built to house the nearly 300,000 homeless across Canada. And to those who say only consider the “deserving” poor, consider that it is more costly to keep a person homeless than to give them housing.
take a look at this website to see the true homelessness and addiction situation in vancouvers downtown eastside!!
Homelessness is the condition and social category of people who lack housing, because they cannot afford, or are otherwise unable to maintain, regular, safe, and adequate shelter. The term “homelessness” may also include people whose primary nighttime residence is in a homeless shelter, in an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or in a public or private place not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings……….
A very small number of people choose to be homeless
http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca/inde…
This website is dedicated to telling the stories of the unfortunate individuals living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in the hope that awareness of this problem will spur people to get involved, to let all levels of government know that something has to be done to alleviate this misery rooted in addiction, homelessness and depravity. To point the way to recovery from addiction, which we believe is the root of most of this situation. With the 2010 Olympics coming to Vancouver it is our mandate to record the transition and the extreme changes that are even now occurring and will continue to unfold in the Downtown Eastside.
“The term “homelessness” may also include people whose primary nighttime residence is in a homeless shelter, in an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or in a public or private place not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings”
So the homeless include those with a roof over their heads…..what a scam.
@42: What should we do about junkies? I’m not trying to be confrontational. I honestly feel like there is no good answer.
THE BUTTCRACKER
I’M RESPONDING
To a comment by ROLF who says the people in the dtes of our fair city love the hood, in my opinion Rolf must be smoking ”BUTTCRACK” that’s what you get when your head is so far up your butt even a match will not extinguish the smell of poverty depression pain suffering and depravity that exists in this the poorest postal code in Canada .On any given day you will find two or three hundred people who’s lives are absolutely destroyed and in need of more than what this part of town offers. The depression is so thick you would need a water bomber full of Prozac flying through twice daily to put a smile on just a few . I visit this part of town everyday know many people who survive many friends who have died in most cases a large percentage do not know of life outside of this part of town. It is a sad example and existence for any human do not believe the liberals they would have you believe that money changes everything
THIS IS A SILENT FILM FROM 1916 ABOUT COCAINE IT’S ALSO A COMEDY IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT WE DARE YOU TO CHECK IT OUT
Coke Enneday: The Mystery of the Leaping Fish 1916
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish is a 1916 short film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Bessie Love. In this unusually broad comedy for Fairbanks, the acrobatic leading man plays “Coke Enneday,” a cocaine-shooting detective parody of Sherlock Holmes given to injecting himself with cocaine from a bandolier of syringes worn across his chest and liberally helping himself to the contents of a hatbox-sized round container of white powder labeled “COCAINE” on his desk. The movie, written by D.W. Griffith, Tod Browning, and Anita Loos, displays a surreally lighthearted attitude toward cocaine and opium. Fairbanks otherwise lampoons Sherlock Holmes with checkered detective hat, coat, and even car, along with the aforementioned propensity for injecting cocaine whenever he feels momentarily down, then laughing with delight. In addition to observing visitors at his door on what appears to be a closed-circuit television referred to in the title cards as his “scientific periscope,” a clocklike sign on the wall reminds him to choose between EATS, DRINKS, SLEEPS, and DOPE.
http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca/vide…
THIS IS A SILENT FILM FROM 1916 ABOUT COCAINE IT’S ALSO A COMEDY IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT WE DARE YOU TO CHECK IT OUT
Coke Enneday: The Mystery of the Leaping Fish 1916
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish is a 1916 short film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Bessie Love. In this unusually broad comedy for Fairbanks, the acrobatic leading man plays “Coke Enneday,” a cocaine-shooting detective parody of Sherlock Holmes given to injecting himself with cocaine from a bandolier of syringes worn across his chest and liberally helping himself to the contents of a hatbox-sized round container of white powder labeled “COCAINE” on his desk. The movie, written by D.W. Griffith, Tod Browning, and Anita Loos, displays a surreally lighthearted attitude toward cocaine and opium. Fairbanks otherwise lampoons Sherlock Holmes with checkered detective hat, coat, and even car, along with the aforementioned propensity for injecting cocaine whenever he feels momentarily down, then laughing with delight. In addition to observing visitors at his door on what appears to be a closed-circuit television referred to in the title cards as his “scientific periscope,” a clocklike sign on the wall reminds him to choose between EATS, DRINKS, SLEEPS, and DOPE.
http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca/vide…