I've spent a fair bit of time traveling through the #DowntownEastside and I'm not much one for hot takes but here's a thing that occurred to me:

The idea that a lot of #homeless people are homeless because they're mentally ill kind of gets the causality backwards. A lot of them are mentally ill because they're fucking homeless.

#vancouver

"Women wrapped in blankets — but still shivering in temperatures of -1C — use blow-torch lighters to melt small rocks of crack cocaine before inhaling the fumes through a plastic tube.
But the police on patrol simply walk on. As of Tuesday, in the eyes of the law, these people are doing nothing wrong."

On East Hastings Street in Vancouver, where it's now legal to shoot up
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/on-east-hastings-street-in-vancouver-where-its-now-legal-to-shoot-up

#BCPol #CanPol #drugs #DowntownEastside #Vancouver
#DailyTelegraph

https://thetyee.ca/Presents/2022/12/20/First-United-Affordable-Housing-Renter-Protections/
#FirstUnited serves #LowIncome, #UnderHoused & #homeless individuals living in #Vancouver #DowntownEastside . Their #inclusive , #LowBarrier programs provide #essential #services , #advocacy , #community #connection & #healing in the #DTES . First United is asking #Vancouverites to add their names to the call for #AffordableHousing options.
#petition can be signed until Dec. 31. First United will send full petition to municipal leadership on Jan. 4, 2023. #BCHousing #YVR

Incoming B.C. #premier #Eby vows to make Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside healthy, safe: “I’ve never seen the #DowntownEastside in a more desperate state,” he said. “I’ve never seen it worse. I worked down there 20 years ago for a number of years and I thought it was pretty desperate. We’re headed in the wrong direction in that neighbourhood.” https://www.thestar.com/politics/2022/11/17/incoming-bc-premier-eby-vows-to-make-vancouvers-downtown-eastside-healthy-safe.html #BC #politics #Canada #dtes #poverty