Author: Jennifer Allford
From Dan Rather and his camera crew to the Governor General and her entourage, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) attracts much attention and many opinions about how to fix the notorious neighbourhood.
Long plagued with poverty, addiction, prostitution and homelessness, the DTES is Canada’s poster boy of disadvantaged communities.
The Canada West Foundation sent a writer to Vancouver to ask people working in the trenches of the DTES what general lessons they could pass on to other neighbourhoods across Canada.
Letters From Hastings and Main: Signs of Hope in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is not intended to be an exhaustive examination of complex social ills and attempts at solutions.
Rather, the paper offers a glimpse into some of the innovative programs operating in the DTES and guidance about bridging the gap between policy and the people it’s meant to help.