Downtown East Side.

[angry anderson]

Anyone think this is getting a little bit out of hand? I came to Vancouver a few decades ago and the skids occupied a shameful half dozen blocks on Hastings between Main and Carral. Drove by on Sunday and it seems to go right up to Jackson or some such. Also it has spread over to Powell.same distance. Thousands of people. Oppenheimer Park finally got clear and they set up a new tent city in Crab Park. An official said they would have to wait for a court decision,as any attempt to clear them would be unconstitutional and risky as far as law suits.
Anyone else think there is something seriously wrong? I just have WTF? seizures when I see it. Vancouver was pristine 30 years ago in comparison to this. The homeless seem to have become emboldened and in charge. What to do?

 

[luvsdaty]

My Aunt lived by the Pacific Coliseum in the 70s, she'd drive us downtown and drop us off at Granville st. to go see a movie. My cousin and I who were 10 and 11 would catch the matinee and walk back through skid row and nobody would bug us, there'd be a group of winos in pigeon square but that was it.
Last time I drove down there a couple years ago was just heart breaking. The people with mental health issues left to their own devices is just mind boggling.

 

[zippy45]

My step dad is a retired VPD, he said you saw a huge turn around when riverview shut down

 

[D12]

Same thing is happening in Victoria we have 2 tent city’s now and Pandora ave has become just like the DTES. It’s sad to see my town looking worse and worse all the time and the worst part is city council seems to support it. I real solution is needed it’s out of control

 

[Thehouse]

My step dad is a retired VPD, he said you saw a huge turn around when Riverview shut down

I would have to agree 100% with your dad.
The Gordon Cambell led Liberals wanted to cut down on fraud in the `help thy neighbour` system(so they said). Starting in the early 2000`s.

They started making it very hard for anyone applying for income assistance of any kind. Plus shutting facilities all over.

Can you imagine any of these denizens of the DTES figuring out how to apply for proper treatment
You have to get a Doctor verifying in writing that you are indeed crazy enough to sleep on a sidewalk in a cardboard box all year long.

It`s super sad and crazy at the same time-no social distancing of any kind.

Drive down Hastings and you`ll see thousands (not hundreds) of people clamouring around the sidewalks.

It`s like a giant farmer`s open 7 days a week ,24 hours a day -and you can buy anything you want-drugs,clothes,food,sex, stolen property galore.

 

[westwoody]

It shocked me when I went downtown last August for the first time since the 90’s!
I used to walk through that area as a teen in the 70’s no problem. The actual skid row was only a few blocks long.
Remember the high end classical music store, Sekora’s? There were lots of nice restaurants and the great pawn shop.
Now the whole area is a disaster.
Riverview is where most of those people belong. It should never have closed.
With proper treatment a lot of them could lead fairly normal lives and not be a burden on the system.

 

[Quarter Mile'r]

It shocked me when I went downtown last August for the first time since the 90’s!
I used to walk through that area as a teen in the 70’s no problem. The actual skid row was only a few blocks long.
Remember the high end classical music store, Sekora’s? There were lots of nice restaurants and the great pawn shop.
Now the whole area is a disaster.
Riverview is where most of those people belong. It should never have closed.
With proper treatment a lot of them could lead fairly normal lives and not be a burden on the system.

Yup and again as mentioned above about Gordon Campbell who resides I believe it is in some constabulatory
known as a consulate somewhere. Can't remember where off hand but the point is the shallow sightedness
of what the Liberals have done reflects now on what we see today.

PLEASE any of you people do not vote Liberal. Anyone else is better than those scumbags.
Same as the era that riverview went down, Schools and hospitals province wide were closed down.
How many I can't remember but if you remember those days and the news reporting on those times
it was appauling how many of them were closed.

Now look what we see and what we talk about here that IS the reality of that situation.
When riverview was running with an estimated 5000 patients at the time Westlawn was still open.
The DTES had a few winos and maybe a hooker or two and that was about it.
Yes.........how times have changed and not for the good obviously.

SO MIND WHO YOU VOTE FOR PEOPLE!!!! THink about it seriously.




..........................QM'r

 

[oldshark]

When I was a kid, my doctor's office was at Hastings and Main. Sure the area was particularly nice but it wasn't all that dangerous. Most of the mentally or drug challenged were at Riverview. The people in the seedy Hasting St. bars were out-of-work lumberjacks or others from outside of Vancouver. Some of the people were veterans screwed up by WWII. It was sad but not like today.

 

[sensualsixty]

Leonard Krog

He is Nanaimo's mayor, and he got into a lot of hot water for suggesting that it was past time for a new Riverview to open up to help people who cannot help themselves. I agree that individual freedoms should not be taken away, but Krog was suggesting that only those who were at risk of harming themselves should be put in a HELPFUL facility. Emphasis on "helpful". Just "housing" is not the solution.

sensualsixty

 

[JimDandy]

PLEASE any of you people do not vote Liberal. Anyone else is better than those scumbags.

..........................QM'r

The NDP have been in power now for several years and I have seen no improvement. If anything, it has gotten worse. The Conservative party here in BC is basically non existent. So who would you have us vote for ??? The Greens ???

JD

 

[uncleg]

Anyone think this is getting a little bit out of hand? I came to Vancouver a few decades ago and the skids occupied a shameful half dozen blocks on Hastings between Main and Carral. Drove by on Sunday and it seems to go right up to Jackson or some such. Also it has spread over to Powell.same distance. Thousands of people. Oppenheimer Park finally got clear and they set up a new tent city in Crab Park. An official said they would have to wait for a court decision,as any attempt to clear them would be unconstitutional and risky as far as law suits.
Anyone else think there is something seriously wrong? I just have WTF? seizures when I see it. Vancouver was pristine 30 years ago in comparison to this. The homeless seem to have become emboldened and in charge. What to do?

Keep something in mind....the Crab Park crowd are "Homeless Advocates"...they actually have homes, just not a job that keeps them busy....so here they go again. Saw this a few time during the Oppenheimer mess....people speaking out about how safe things were and it was just about getting proper housing....then going home for a good nights sleep. One woman said she spent a couple days/nights a week at the park and had no problems...WTF

 

[VanessainVictoria]

So homeless are on the street because shelters closed due to covid. So they start a tent city. Here in Victoria there were at least 100 tents on a busy downtown artery. Obviously it is bad PR for the city to have an an entire area of tents downtown, so these people were then moved to a park, where the NIMBY's didn't want them. After this failed attempt it was suggested they all be moved into Victoria's empty motels (hotels?). After a few weeks of this motel owners started complaining about, and kicking out tenants, forcing people back on the street.

So there have been many attempts to house the homeless, the most recent being (I believe) save on memorial being turned into a make shift (covid friendly) shelter, let's see how long that lasts. It is all very sad and just goes to show that homelessness isn't just about homelessness. It's also about finding housing solutions for those suffering from mental health and addiction issues.

 

[CanineCowboy]

The NDP have been in power now for several years and I have seen no improvement. If anything, it has gotten worse. The Conservative party here in BC is basically non existent. So who would you have us vote for ??? The Greens ???

JD

Hey Jim, the NDP were elected to government almost exactly three years ago (May 9), the DTES was already a mess and there was already a health emergency declared as a response to the opioid crisis, so before you place blame on them look at what they have accomplished: they are delivering on building 2,000 temporary housing units to house the homeless population and established a safe legal supply to drug addicts. The mental health challenges remain and there appears no simple solution.

Another problem that has to be recognized with the DTES and North Surrey is they are collectors of vulnerable populations from across the country, so the challenges and solutions go well beyond our Provincial borders.

 

[susi]

Universal Income Benefit..... if people didn't have to try to survive on $780 now $1080 a month, alot fewer people would have to hustle. the "market" is mostly people dumpster diving and then trying to sell what they find to make money for FOOD!!

yes addiction plays it's role but addiction is a SYMPTOM of the trauma inflicted during the dangerous life of being homeless.

those people here who support the neo cons and wish for the harper days are either blind or cannot remember....

cuts to everything, no raising welfare rates, let's not support treatment let's arrest everyone instead and create an overblown prison industrial complex!! jobs as prison guards for everyone! train for only 2 days and start with a wage of over $35.00 and hour!

the tragedy we are witnessing is the result of these horrible policies.

the drug war, no supports for people dealing with mental health, no affordable housing....

what did the harper harpies think would happen? that no one would be harmed? that it's ok because it's only a "few" people and doesn't affect me?

the BC Liberals were horrible too...at least under the NPD somethings are improving in spite of what some have said here.

If you want to see some improvement in the lives of people impacted (uncleg you are so jadded lol) who are NOT all housing advocates who can go home anytime - support the universal income benefit and allow people to at least live with dignity. if they can afford to pay rent and eat they will be able to start to stabilize their lives.

and comments about how they would spend it all on drugs are not helpful. people use drugs to cope with the shit they have to deal with everyday...

example - my friend who has been shot, stabbed and beaten damn near to death. broken pelvis and face...she has been looking for her missing niece for 20 years...who is obviously not going to be found...she lives with enormous pain and battles the trauma of everything she has witnessed after 20 years of life in the DTES. her doctor won't give her enough pain medication telling her "you take too much" so she is forced to hustle - steal, sell drugs or do sex work - so she can buy "heroine" - now fentanyl - to make up the short fall addressing her pain....

finally a safe supply is available after decades of calling for it...want to stop drug crime? GIVE THEM THE DAMN DRUGS!

also, imagine if you lived in a community for 20 years...then the government came and told you you must move. you are forced to move to a community where you know NO ONE! people look at you as lesser than in your new community as they don;t know you and you look "sketchy" because you are poor and can't afford to fix your teeth or buy clothes.... you now have no social safety net, no friends....

this problem is a result of bad planning decisions like ghettoizing services and multiple bad governments "trying to fix" the "problem" which they or their predecessors have caused through bad policy.

let's not forget NIMBYism....

this issue is way more complex than it seems and there is no solution which will not harm those affected.

my two cents....

love susie

 

[AuldMagpye]

Having bin in a few flops in the DTES, I'd haveta say that giving them housing is not the real answer. Whike a few ladies do keep a tidy sometimes downright Spick n span, the most r filthy messes. Sad to see a brand-new highrise room reduced to a regency hotel suite.
No answers here from me. But building places rhat the majority of homeless cant maintain seems a waste of taxes

 

[Post Malone]

Hey now. LOts of debauchery in West Vancouver, drug use, mental health issues......but it is behind closed doors.

Try lending a hand to help, or maybe notice why you are so triggered to make judgments.

What is it about yourself that seeing the East End brings up. Fear that your an equal or greater fuck up?

This is such a lazy post on your part: if you can't handle it, take another route and chill the eff out.

 

[Post Malone]

My take: the 0.01% and the extremely marginalized have something in common.

A kind of freedom most cannot imagine.

 

[angry anderson]

My take: the 0.01% and the extremely marginalized have something in common.

A kind of freedom most cannot imagine.

At someone else's expense. If you decided to squat on the sidewalk and shit and eat and trash your immediate surroundings, 50 years ago, someone in authority,probably wearing a blue uniform, would put a stop to it. Nobody now is doing a fucking thing about it and it is exploding. Nobody is in charge? As someone pointed out, housing people in brand new facilities when they can't even be put in charge of wiping their own asses is a waste of money. My sympathy for them is gone. A lot of them are mentally ill, so mental hospitals would be a cheaper and more practical solution. Many of them are their due to a long lifetime of personal choices. Not all of them deserve sympathy. Singapore seemed to have a pretty good solution about 40 years ago. Friggin army camps with drill instructors. Drug addicts left there after a year in good shape and no longer drug addicts. May seem a bit Hitlerish, but something has to be done. Tough love or what. The situation at the moment is total bullshit with nobody taking responsibility for the freedom the marginalized enjoy. They need some fucking margins.

 

[Quarter Mile'r]

At someone else's expense. If you decided to squat on the sidewalk and shit and eat and trash your immediate surroundings, 50 years ago, someone in authority,probably wearing a blue uniform, would put a stop to it. Nobody now is doing a fucking thing about it and it is exploding. Nobody is in charge? As someone pointed out, housing people in brand new facilities when they can't even be put in charge of wiping their own asses is a waste of money. My sympathy for them is gone. A lot of them are mentally ill, so mental hospitals would be a cheaper and more practical solution. Many of them are their due to a long lifetime of personal choices. Not all of them deserve sympathy. Singapore seemed to have a pretty good solution about 40 years ago. Friggin army camps with drill instructors. Drug addicts left there after a year in good shape and no longer drug addicts. May seem a bit Hitlerish, but something has to be done. Tough love or what. The situation at the moment is total bullshit with nobody taking responsibility for the freedom the marginalized enjoy. They need some fucking margins.

Actually there's not much more that can be done as all avenues it would seem have been exhausted.
As has been said giving the homeless/Drug addicted persons a place to live who can't even wipe
their own asses barely is a useless gesture to deal with this problem.
We have to go back in time somehow to where it was dealt with properly.

Key word.......Proper care for these individuals where it was initiated. In a hospital where they could be cared for
and treated. Maybe not to the point of actually being cured of addiction but at least they were cared for.
Next best step just might be what is in order for assessed individuals who may need the tough love scenario
as you called it anderson. That's the way things were done "YEARS" ago before some political HACKS came
along and made it politically incorrect to do that. If we look back at the results of those times.

They sure as hell beat the crap outta what's being done today and how well it has not performed.
Bring back riverview is the best start. Ever since it was closed even the winos were pushed out of the
DTES. And small communities as far out as Chilliwack are inundated with drug users and homeless people.

Wow great progress isn't it? Exactly what happens when you close places like riverview and try and ignore
our problems. IDIOTS!!! You turn cops into health care workers. Oh, I bet they love that.





......................QM'r

 

[angry anderson]

Actually there's not much more that can be done as all avenues it would seem have been exhausted.
As has been said giving the homeless/Drug addicted persons a place to live who can't even wipe
their own asses barely is a useless gesture to deal with this problem.
We have to go back in time somehow to where it was dealt with properly.

Key word.......Proper care for these individuals where it was initiated. In a hospital where they could be cared for
and treated. Maybe not to the point of actually being cured of addiction but at least they were cared for.
Next best step just might be what is in order for assessed individuals who may need the tough love scenario
as you called it anderson. That's the way things were done "YEARS" ago before some political HACKS came
along and made it politically incorrect to do that. If we look back at the results of those times.

They sure as hell beat the crap outta what's being done today and how well it has not performed.
Bring back riverview is the best start. Ever since it was closed even the winos were pushed out of the
DTES. And small communities as far out as Chilliwack are inundated with drug users and homeless people.

Wow great progress isn't it? Exactly what happens when you close places like riverview and try and ignore
our problems. IDIOTS!!! You turn cops into health care workers. Oh, I bet they love that.





......................QM'r

Yes. The solution seems to be just let it be. Unbelievable. I am at the point where I don't give a shit how it is done. I just want the streets cleaned up. What are we paying public officials for? The lunatics are running the asylum. I can't imagine taking a visitor from another country for a tour around Vancouver and letting them see this shit. It is explainable.