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Community Mapping Presentation:Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES)
The Poetry of Bud OsbornRaise Shit: A Downtown Eastside Poem of Resistance
A First Nations man recently told meHe had come to the Downtown Eastside to dieHe heard the propagandaThat this is only a place of death, disease, and despairAnd since his life has become a hopeless miseryHe came here specifically to dieBut he saidSince living in the downtown eastsideWhat with the people he has metAnd the groups he has foundHe now very much wants to live
(Bud Osborn, 2003)
Location
The DTES is directly adjacent to the wealthy tourist area, Gastown
The DTES currently exists on unceded Coast Salish Traditional Territory
Map of NeedsMissing
Aboriginal Women
Poverty Gentrification
Crime AddictionsMental Health
HIV/Hep C Inadequate Housing
The Legacy of
Colonization
Map of AssetsResidents
Organizing for Housing Security
Residents Organizing for Food Security
Residents Organizing
Against Gentrification
Small Businesses Owned by
Community Residents
Rich Cultural History of the Four Original
Groups
Arts and Education Initiatives
Strong History of Resistance
Social Housing, Mixed Use
Spaces,Parks
Grassroots Advocacy and
Neighbourhood Governance
Organizations
Four Original Communities in the DTES
The original groups who resided in the DTES were Aboriginal, Chinese, Japanese, and the working class. These groups continue to live in the DTES, as well as newcomers.
•The strengths and histories of these communities bring richness and diversity to the DTES
Residents Organizing for Housing Security
Twelve percent of Single Room Occupancy hotels are accessible to those with the basic amount of housing allowance money on social assistance. Many DTES residents subsist on social assistance.Groups like The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council fight to keep housing accessible to all residents.
Residents Organizing Against GentrificationDevelopers are interested in the inexpensive
property in the DTES. This threatens accessibility to housing for local residents.
Residents have responded by pressuring the municipal government to regulate development, in order to keep wealth in the community.
One group, the DTES Neighbourhood Council, keeps a list of businesses where working class people do not feel welcome, in order to monitor gentrification
Residents Organizing for Food Security
• The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House provides a community kitchen with healthy foods. They focus on giving choice to those limited in their food choices by material poverty.•SoleFood operates a community garden in the DTES, where one of the challenges the residents face is accessing fresh produce.•DTES residents have partnered with local farmers to provide families and seniors with coupons usable at the local farmer’s market
Local BusinessesSome DTES businesses are owned by DTES
residents, and wealth is kept within the community this way
Social Housing and SROsThe DTES contains 23% of the city’s non-market
housing and 80% of the city’s Single Room Occupancy hotels.
These residences face challenges to their safety and accessibility, but continue to provide shelter to working class people.
Residents fought to have the historic Woodward’s building contain social housing units (and they won).
Arts and Education InitiativesHope in the Shadows showcases DTES
photographers affected by poverty, and provides a source of income to the homeless population.
The UBC Learning Exchange gives DTES residents a chance to access post-secondary level education.
The DTES Survival Guide publishes the poetry of talented DTES residents.
Mixed Use SpaceMany people live in and around the
businesses the work and purchase goods in. SROs are often located above other
businessesThis means that the streets do not “empty” at
night, because people are still using the businesses below. It brings some safety to the area.
Community Self Governance and Advocacy Groups
Groups like the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) and the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council provide advocacy to residents, work to solve neighbourhood problems, and to influence municipal and provincial governments into making policy and legislation that promotes positive change in the DTES.
Pigeon Park SavingsPigeon Park Savings is a bank run by Vancity
Credit Union (a local business) and the Portland Hotel Society (a grassroots non-profit) to provide non-exploitative banking services to those who might not otherwise have access to them
In many working class communities, cheque-cashing services exploit poor people. The DTES has a unique solution that keeps wealth in the community.
Direct Action in the DTESGroups like the Anti-Poverty Committee
organize against globalization, the structural inequity inherent to capitalism, gentrification, and the criminalization of poverty
In the past this has taken the form of demonstrations and other actions
Works CitedCity of Vancouver. 2004. Woodward’s: Help Create a Vision for the Future of Woodwards.
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/corpsvcs/realestate/woodwards
Downtown Eastside Revitalization: Community History. Available from:http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/planning/dtes/communityhistory.htm
Downtown Eastside Revitalization: Neighbourhoods. Available from: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/planning/DowntownEastside/neighbourhoods.htm
Downtown Eastside Community Monitoring Report. 7th Edition. Community Directions. 2002. Getting the Words and the Music: A Guide for Meaningful
Involvement in Community-Based Development in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside Strathcona. Vancouver, BC.
Footprints Community Art Project. 2003. A Walking Tour of the Downtown Eastside. Vancouver, BC.
Taylor, Paul. (ed.). 2003. The Heart of the Community: The Best of the Carnegie Newsletter. Vancouver, BC: New Star Books.