Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
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Housing, policy and community life.
Medetomidine in B.C.’s Opioid Supply: What Naloxone Can and Cannot Reverse
In January, frontline workers in Trail found about 20 people unconscious outdoors every night. The suspected cause, the veterinary sedative medetomidine, does not respond to naloxone and now turns up in about one in five B.C. opioid samples tested by Health Canada.
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Vancouver’s Police Audit Promise Needs the Board’s Invitation
A Vancouver council committee approved $5 million for a Downtown Eastside police task force nine months after it began. A promised VPD audit now depends on an invitation that only the Police Board can send.
Canada’s Homelessness Target Would Cost $3.5 Billion More a Year
Ottawa gave itself until 2027-28 to halve chronic homelessness. A friendship centre spent 18 years working toward one East Hastings building. Now a call for a national mission arrives three days before the budget, without a number.
The Debt Behind the Deal
A supplier can offer credit, drugs and a way to earn, then demand repayment under threat. Published Downtown Eastside accounts show what keeps a worker tied to that arrangement. They also show what it can cost to leave.
The Changing Promise of 58 West Hastings
A safe home has changed residents’ lives at Bob & Michael’s Place. Behind that achievement is an unfinished argument over the rents and admission rules that decide who gets the same chance.
Another year to keep the washrooms open
Vancouver’s emergency washroom programs became services people rely on every day. Years later, keeping them open still depends on another grant, another extension, and now, a proposal for shorter hours.
The Freedom to Play Someone Else
A prison record tells one story about a person. At Heart of the City, The Circle Project’s artists offer others, through invented characters and costumes they helped create.
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