Enough already
Posted by jodietonita on July 21, 2007
I live in the notorious Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver. The poorest postal code in Canada, the area is a microcosm of social problems present in every city in North America. Nowhere else, however, have those problems reached such a concentration as in the Downtown Eastside.
* Over 5,000 injection drug users live within the neighbourhood’s 10-block area, where overdose and suicide are leading causes of death. Most residents live well below the poverty line, many challenged by mental illness, disability, addiction, and homelessness.
* There is an accute shortage of low-income housing in Vancouver. The 2004 homelessness count in Greater Vancouver showed that the number of homeless doubled from 2002, to more than 2,000 people.
* Many residents in the Downtown Eastside live in sub-standard “hotels” or Single Room Occupancy (SRO) rooming houses. Rents keep parity with government allowances, though the standard of accommodation can be very low for the price paid.
* Women involved in sex-work are dramatically evident in the Downtown Eastside, where the majority live in extreme poverty. Many sex workers sell sex in order to meet subsistence needs such as food and shelter.
* The legal and social context of sex work in Canada makes it impossible for sex workers to create safe and empowering conditions without breaking the law. As a result, sex workers live in a society where their liberty, security and equality rights are being violated.
* The area has a large prevalence of First Nations people: 30 percent of the residents of the Downtown Eastside are indigenous, 10 times higher than the national average.
* The majority of the more than 65 sex workers allegedly murdered or missing from the Downtown Eastside are of Aboriginal ancestry.
* HIV is epidemic, affecting 30 percent of the local population - most of them women. Many people also suffer from Hepatitis C.
courtesy of Pivot Legal Society
Since moving to the neighbourhood in February, I am often asked why I choose to live here. Unlike many others in the hood, who end up here, I have a choice.
What attracted me is the people. The people that call the Downtown Eastside home have a very strong sense of loyalty to their community and the people that live in it, and we tend to look after each other. Many people living here have survived circumstances most folks could never imagine, they have lived through it and are just trying to carry on. I am humbled by their struggle and the resilience of the human spirit. Each day, as our eyes meet, as we nod in acknowledgment of one another, exchange greetings, I am reminded of our essential oneness, and I am honoured to be a member of this community.
This week was a low week on the common sense and compassion scale for the Vancouver Police. Sixty-three people are facing a total of 89 trafficking charges on Thursday after Vancouver police concluded a two-week undercover operation targeted at street-level drug dealers. These street-level drug dealers are the folks (often using themselves) who sell small quantities of crack cocaine and heroine to the many addicted folks here in the hood.
The drug deals and resulting drug use, regularly take place in plain sight. The police station is in the middle of the neighbourhood. We all know the deal. Cops walk by it day in and day out. Why the busts now? What are they hoping to accomplish? Here’s what they say…
“Residents and merchants of the Downtown Eastside deserve to feel safe in their neighbourhood,” Robinson said. “This means they should be able to walk their streets without having drug deals taking place under their noses, and having drug dealers and drug purchasers lurking in alcoves and in laneways.”
The situation here is so much more complex than that. Drug use can serve as a way of coping and blocking out the pain of the past and present… the hardships of homelessness, surviving the sex trade, battling mental illness, pain management, living (and dying) in poverty with HIV. Does temporarily interrupting the supply of drugs to an addicted population with no where to go and few resources to cope with the withdrawal symptoms make us safer? From my vantage point, it doesn’t. It creates chaos and causes a lot of pain and suffering.
Despite evidence that prevention, treatment, support and harm reduction are the most effective solutions, government still relies on law enforcement as its primary remedy.
THIS IS GETTING REALLY OLD. ENOUGH ALREADY!
5000 people living in a 10 block area without their basics needs being met is barbaric. We need more housing… we need more living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms. And the beds, need to be bed bug free. That would be a start. We need people with the courage to face the pain, to listen, and to provide compassionate care that meets people’s immediate and long term needs. That is our way through.
It’s time to invest in more innovative thinking and to create a strong societal commitment to effective and compassionate solutions. Decision makers and voters/tax payers need to better understand the reality and drop the dogma and judgment. Those who fall through the gaps of our safety nets land here. People are lurking in alcoves and laneways because they have no where else to go. We need to wake up and begin meeting the basic human needs of our most vulnerable. Not only is it the right thing to do, it also makes social and economic sense.
It is time to create a new way forward.
People of the DTES are worthy beings who deserve our support. Let’s rewrite this story. Another DTES is possible.
July 22, 2007 at 10:45 am
Thought provoking words indeed. I have witnessed several arrests or the aftermath of arrests this week. I am amazed at how quickly the cuffs go on, almost before it appears that any guilt is proven. This is a big difference to policing in the UK. When the cuffs go on there you know soon after you are heading to the police station to be questioned, detained, charged or possibly released. I don’t understand why the Vancouver Police Department need to do what appears to be their processing work on the streets surrounding a very large police station on Main Street. Any ideas anyone?
If these drug busts put these low level dealers on the road to recovery from addictions then that would be good. If it doesn’t then what was the point other than a PR job. I think it is clear where the Vancouver Police spokeman quoted in the news story stands. It is his view that it about people feeling safe and shopkeepers feeling safe. Well I am one of those communities and I feel quite safe in this neighbourhood. I get nervous when I see police officers detaining the poor, who often end up sitting on the ground, which often in this means in the rain. No dignity.
I have never used drugs so for me living here my answer when offered drugs is a simple no thanks, or depending on my mood maybe a snide remark. I often feel guilty after for responding in such a way but in that instant I do feel insulted by such an offer. However I don’t feel unsafe. I am the one in control. I don’t have an addiction.
What amazes me about this city is that I can go hiking with friends, I did yesterday, deep into the heart of the forest and then return to see unimaginable suffering. Vancouver what is going on?
July 23, 2007 at 6:53 am
Nice, thoughtful piece. Tell me again, when are you running for office?
April 7, 2008 at 8:57 am
As a regular of the DTES for 27 years and ex resident, I found this article very interesting.
I have seen alot of busts by the Vancouver Police, only to see the same people who were arrested back on the street in a matter of 2-3 hours.
It is not the police’s fault, it is the Crown.
Yes Vancouver needs alot more affordable housing for people on low income (and I mean extremely low), but what we also need is an increase in detoxes and treatment centres.
There are not enough beds for these people to get help in trying to quit their addictions.
I know that not all of them have the courage or strength to want to go into treatment, but there are some who would like to quit, but they need the professional help to do so, and are dying on the streets while they wait to get into treatment.
I have watched too many of my friends die from their addictions because they couldn’t get help.
I would have loved to see the old Woodwards building turned into a treatment centre/residence for people wanting to get clean.
Also, as for why the police would slap the cuffs on someone before they are actually charged with anything?
Alot of the people down there, especially the dealers, carry weapons and needles, and what police officer wants to be stabbed with a knife or surringe? It is for their own safety.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support all the police’s actions, I have seen crooked and predjudiced officers, but the majority I have encountered are just carrying out their orders.
I too love the Downtown Eastside, even though I don’t live there anymore, I am still very much a regular of the neighbourhood, and the old sandstone building on the corner of Main & Hastings.
It is also a real annoyance to have to push through a crowd of persistant drug dealers right in front of it.
So in closing, lets not just fight for more affordable and clean housing, (which I agree is desperately needed), but lets also fight for more detoxes and treatment centres so those with the desire to quit can access that help they desperately want.