Downtown Eastside facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Downtown Eastside
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Neighbourhood
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View of the Downtown Eastside and Woodward's site at dusk from Harbour Centre in summer 2018.
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| Nicknames:
DTES, Skid Row
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 Downtown Eastside
Location in Vancouver City
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| Country | Canada |
| Province | BC/BCE |
| City | Vancouver |
| Population
(2011)
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| • Total | 18,477 for the greater DTES area |
| • Estimate
(2009)
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6,000 – 8,000 for the DTES |
| Time zone | UTC-8 (PST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (PDT) |
| Postal code |
V6A
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| Area code(s) | 604, 778, 236 |
The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues including disproportionately high levels of homelessness, poverty, crime and mental illness. It is also known for its strong community resilience, history of social activism, and artistic contributions.
Around the beginning of the 20th century, the DTES was the political, cultural and retail centre of Vancouver. Over several decades, the city centre gradually shifted westwards and the DTES became a poor, although relatively stable, neighbourhood. In the 1980s, the area began a rapid decline due to several factors including the cessation of federal funding for social housing. As of 2018, critical issues include decrepit and squalid housing; a shortage of low-cost rental housing; and mental illness.
The population of the DTES is estimated to be around 7,000 people. Compared to the city as a whole, the DTES has a higher proportion of males and adults who live alone. It also has significantly more Indigenous Canadians, who are disproportionately affected by the neighbourhood's social problems.
Since Vancouver's real-estate boom began in the early 21st century, the area has been increasingly experiencing gentrification. Some see gentrification as a force for revitalization, while others believe it has led to higher displacement and homelessness. Numerous efforts have been made to improve the DTES at an estimated cost of over $1.4 billion as of 2009. Services in the greater DTES area are estimated to cost $360 million per year. Commentators from across the political spectrum have said that little progress has been made in resolving the issues of the neighbourhood as a whole, although there are individual success stories. Proposals for addressing the issues of the area include increasing investment in social housing, increasing capacity for treating people with mental illness, making services more evenly distributed across the city and region instead of concentrated in the DTES, and improving co-ordination of services. However, little agreement exists between the municipal, provincial and federal governments regarding long-term plans for the area.
Contents
Geography
The term "Downtown Eastside" is most often used to refer to an area 10 to 50 blocks in size, a few blocks east of the city's Downtown central business district. The neighbourhood is centered around the intersection of Main Street and Hastings Street, where residents have gathered for over a hundred years to connect. This intersection is also the home of the Carnegie Community Centre. The area around Hastings and Main is where the neighbourhood's social issues are most visible, described in the Vancouver Sun in 2006 as "four blocks of hell."
Some indications of the borders of the DTES, which shift and are poorly defined, are as follows:
- A 2016 analysis of crime in the DTES by The Georgia Straight focused on an area that consisted of a six-block length of Hastings and Cordova Streets, between Cambie Street and Jackson Avenue.
- The City of Vancouver describes a "Community-based Development Area", in which places that are important to low-income residents are concentrated. This area includes Hastings Street from Abbott Street to Heatley Avenue, and the blocks surrounding Oppenheimer Park.
- By some definitions, the DTES extends along Main Street to beyond Terminal Avenue, and the DTES also includes a strip of land adjacent to Vancouver's port.
For some community planning and statistical purposes, the City of Vancouver uses the term "Downtown Eastside" to refer to a much larger area with considerable social and economic diversity, including Chinatown, Gastown, Strathcona, the Victory Square area, and the light industrial area to the north. This area, referred to in this article as the greater DTES area, is bordered by Richards Street to the west, Clark Drive to the east, Waterfront Road and Water Street to the north and various streets to the south including Malkin Avenue and Prior Street. The greater DTES area includes some popular tourist areas and nearly 20% of Vancouver's heritage buildings.
Strathcona in the 1890s included the entire DTES. By 1994 Strathcona's northern boundary was generally considered to be the alley between East Pender and East Hastings streets, though some place it at Railway Street, including DTES east of Gore Avenue.
History
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The DTES forms part of the traditional territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam First Nations. European settlement of the area began in the mid-19th century, and most early buildings were destroyed in the Great Vancouver Fire of 1886. Residents rebuilt their town at the edge of Burrard Inlet, between Cambie and Carrall streets, a townsite that now forms Gastown and part of the DTES. At the turn of the century, the DTES was the heart of the city, containing city hall, the courthouse, banks, the main shopping district, and the Carnegie Library. Travellers connecting between Pacific steamships and the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway used its hundreds of hotels and rooming houses. Large Japanese and Chinese immigrant communities settled in Japantown, which lies within the DTES, and in nearby Chinatown, respectively.
During the Depression, hundreds of men arrived in Vancouver in search of work. Most of them later returned to their hometowns, except workers who had been injured or those who were sick or elderly. These men remained in the DTES area – at the time known as Skid Road – which became a non-judgemental, affordable place to live as the main downtown area of Vancouver began to shift westward.
In 1942, the neighbourhood lost its entire ethnic Japanese population, estimated at 8,000 to 10,000, due to the Canadian government's internment of these people. Most did not return to the once-thriving Japantown community after the war.
In the 1950s, the city centre continued its shift westward after the interurban rail line closed; its main depot was at Carrall and Hastings. Theatres and shops moved towards Granville and Robson streets. As tourist traffic declined, the neighbourhood's hotels became run-down and were gradually converted to single room occupancy (SRO) housing, a use which persists to this day.
1980s
| “ | When we deinstitutionalized, we promised [mentally ill] people that we would put them into the community and give them the support they needed. But we lied. I think it's one of the worst things we ever did. | ” |
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—Senator Larry Campbell, former mayor of Vancouver |
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In the early 1980s, the DTES was an edgy but still relatively calm place to live. The neighbourhood began a marked shift before Expo 86, when an estimated 800 to 1,000 tenants were evicted from DTES residential hotels to make room for tourists.
Meanwhile, the provincial government adopted a policy of de-institutionalization of the mentally ill, leading to the mass discharge of Riverview Hospital's patients, with the promise that they would be integrated into the community. Between 1985 and 1999, the number of patient-days of care provided by B.C. psychiatric hospitals declined by nearly 65%. Many of the de-institutionalized mentally ill moved to the DTES, attracted by the accepting culture and low-cost housing, but they floundered without adequate treatment and support.
1990s to present
In the 1990s, the situation in the DTES deteriorated further on several fronts. Woodward's, an anchor store in the 100-block of West Hastings street, closed in 1993 with devastating effect on the formerly bustling retail district. Meanwhile, a crisis in housing and homelessness was emerging.
Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the supply of low-income housing shrank in both the DTES and in other parts of the city, partly because of conversion of buildings into more expensive condominiums or hotels. In 1993, the federal government stopped funding social housing, and the rate of building social housing in B.C. dropped by two-thirds despite rising demand for it. By 1995, reports had begun to emerge of homeless people sleeping in parks, alleyways, and abandoned buildings. Cuts to the provincial welfare program in 2002 caused further hardship for the poor and homeless. Citywide, the number of homeless people climbed from 630 in 2002 to 1,300 in 2005.
In the 21st century, considerable investment was made in DTES services and infrastructure, including the redevelopment of the Woodward's Building and the acquisition of 23 SRO hotels by the provincial government for conversion to social housing. In 2009, The Globe and Mail estimated that governments and the private sector had spent more than $1.4 billion since 2000 on projects aimed at resolving the area's many problems.
Opinions vary on whether the area has improved: A 2014 article in the National Post said, "For all the money and attention here, there is little success at either getting the area's shattered populace back on their feet, or cleaning up the neighbourhood into something resembling a healthy community." Former NDP premier Mike Harcourt described the current reality of the neighbourhood as "100-per-cent failure." Also in 2014, B.C. housing minister Rich Coleman said, "I’ll go down for a walk in the Downtown Eastside, night time or day time, and it's dramatically different than it was. It's incredibly better than it was five, six years ago."
Demographics
There are no official population figures for the DTES. Estimates have ranged from 6,000 to 8,000; the geographic boundaries associated with these figures was not provided.
Official figures are available for the greater DTES area, which was home to an estimated 18,477 people in 2011. In comparison to the city of Vancouver overall, the greater DTES had a higher proportion of males (60% vs. 50%), more seniors (22% vs 13%), fewer children and youth (10% vs 18%), slightly fewer immigrants, and more Indigenous Canadians (10% vs. 2%).
A 2009 demographic profile by The Globe and Mail focused on an area of just over 30 city blocks in and around the DTES: It indicated that 14% of the residents were of Indigenous descent. The average household size was 1.3 residents; 82% of the population lived alone. Children and teenagers made up 7% of the population, compared to 25% for Canada overall.
A population that is frequently studied is tenants of single room occupancy (SRO) hotels in the greater DTES area. According to a 2013 survey, this population is 77% male, with a median age of 44. Indigenous people make up 28% of the population, and Europeans 59%.
Culture
Although many outsiders fear the DTES, its residents take pride in their neighbourhood and describe it as having multiple positive assets. DTES residents say the area has a strong sense of community and cultural heritage. They describe their neighbours as being accepting and having empathy for people with health issues. According to the city government, Hastings Street is valued by SRO residents as "a place to meet friends, get support, access services and feel like they belong."
The area has had a robust tradition of advocacy for its marginalized residents since at least the 1970s, when the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) was formed. Over the years, the DTES community has consistently resisted many attempts to "clean up" the neighbourhood by dispersing its close-knit residents. Successful resident-led initiatives to improve conditions in the DTES include the transformation of the then-closed Carnegie Library into a community centre in 1980, the opening of an unlicensed supervised injection site in 2003, which led to the founding of Insite; improvements to Oppenheimer Park, and the creation of CRAB Park.
In 2010, the V6A postal area, which includes most of the DTES, had the second-highest concentration of artists in the city. Artists made up 4.4% of the labour force, compared to 2.3% in the city as a whole. One example of art societies is the Downtown Eastside Artists' Collective. The greater DTES area is the location of several art galleries, artist-run centres and studios. Prominent local artists include poet Henry Doyle, artist Marcel Mousseau, and poet Bud Osborn.
Notable annual events include the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, which showcases the art, culture, and history of the neighbourhood, and the Powell Street Festival in Oppenheimer Park, which celebrates Japanese-Canadian arts and culture. The Smilin' Buddha Cabaret operated at 109 East Hastings Street from 1952 to the late 1980s as a symbol of "cultural vitality," reflecting shifts in the neighbourhood itself. City Opera of Vancouver, the Dancing on the Edge Festival, and other artists regularly perform in DTES venues such as the Carnegie Centre, the Firehall Arts Centre, and the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at the Woodward's site. The musical composition, "100 Block Rock," featuring 11 tracks, was released in 2020. In 2010, Sam Sullivan, former mayor of Vancouver, said that in the DTES, "Behind the visible people who clearly have a lot of troubles, there's a community. Some very intelligent people say this is the cultural heart of the city."
Current issues
Mental illness
The DTES population suffers from very high rates of mental illness. In 2007, Vancouver Coastal Health estimated that 2,100 DTES residents "exhibit behaviour that is outside the norm" and require more support in the areas of health service. According to the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) in 2008, up to 500 of these individuals were "chronically mentally ill with extreme behaviours, no permanent housing and regular police contact." The VPD reported in 2008 that in its district that includes the Downtown Eastside, mental health was a factor in 42% of all incidents in which police were involved. The police department says its officers are often forced to act as front-line mental health workers, due to the lack of more appropriate supports for this population.
A 2013 study of SRO tenants in the greater DTES found that 74.4% had a mental illness, including 47.4% with psychosis. Only one third of individuals with psychosis were receiving treatment. A 2016 study of the 323 most chronic offenders in the DTES found that 99% had at least one mental disorder.
Poverty
The greater DTES area is significantly poorer than the rest of Vancouver, with a median income of $13,691 versus $47,229 for the city as a whole. 53% of the greater DTES population is low-income, compared to 13.6% of the population of Metro Vancouver. In the V6A postal area, whose boundaries are similar to the greater DTES area, 6,339 residents received some form of social assistance in 2013. Of these, 3,193 were considered disabled and 1,461 were considered "employable". The base welfare rate for single adults who are considered employable is $610 per month: $375 per month for shelter and $235 ($335 since July 2017) per month for all other expenses. Advocates for low-income DTES residents say this amount, which has not increased since 2007, is not enough to live on. In 1981, the base welfare rate was equivalent to $970 per month after adjustment for inflation.
A 2008 survey of SRO residents found that the average tenant income from all sources, including the informal economy, was $1,109 per month.
In addition to issues with mental illness, DTES residents often have difficulty finding employment due to mental and physical disabilities and lack of education and skills. According to a 2009 survey of the 30 blocks in and around the DTES, 62% of the residents over the age of 15 were not considered participants in the labour force, compared to 33% in Vancouver as a whole.
The DTES is often referred to as "Canada's poorest postal code", although this is not the case.
Housing
Both homelessness and substandard housing are major issues in the DTES, that compound the neighbourhood's problems with mental illness. In 2012, there were 846 homeless people in the greater DTES area, including 171 who were not in some form of shelter. The DTES homeless made up approximately half of the city's total homeless population, over a third of whom are Indigenous.
Thousands of DTES residents live in SROs, which provide low-cost rooms without private kitchens or bathrooms, Although conditions in SROs vary considerably, they have become notorious for their squalor and chaos. Many are more than 100 years old and in extreme disrepair, with shortages of basic necessities such as heat and functioning plumbing. In 2007, it was reported that four out of five rooms had bed bugs, cockroaches, and fire code violations. Even at their best, the SROs have a lack of living space that results in tenants spending more time in the public spaces of the DTES.
SRO landlords have often been called "slumlords" for failing to fix problems, and illegally evicting tenants. The city has often been slow to force SRO owners to make major repairs, saying that owners could not afford to make them without raising rents.
Law enforcement
The VPD engages in the controversial practice known as "carding", or "street checks", in which police stop and question individuals whom they suspect of being involved in criminal or suspicious activity. In Vancouver, 15% of street checks are on Indigenous people who represent just 2% of the general population, and 5% of checks are on Black people who represent less than 1% of the population. Some civil rights groups believe the VPD's practices constitute racial profiling and result in excessive harassment and violence against Indigenous and Black residents.
In 2008, the VPD implemented a crackdown on minor offences, such as illegal vending on sidewalks and jaywalking. The ticketing blitz was stopped after objections from community groups, so that residents with unpaid tickets would be less afraid to approach police to report serious safety concerns.
In 2010, police launched an initiative to combat violence against DTES women, that resulted in the convictions of several violent offenders. However, the level of trust toward police remains low. According to some DTES activists, "gentrification/condos and police brutality" are the two worst problems in the neighbourhood.
In 2020, the Defund604 network was formed, calling for the defunding of the Vancouver Police Department. Among other requests, the network calls for a $152 million budget cut to the VPD, matching the City of Vancouver's budget shortfall due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Defund604 network is still active as of summer 2021.
Housing availability and affordability
The City refers to the housing and homelessness situation in the DTES as a "crisis". There is wide support amongst governments, experts, and community groups on a Housing First model, which prioritizes stable, quality housing as a precursor to other interventions for the homeless or those with mental illness. Many people with mental illness require supportive housing.
As the DTES has many low-income adults who live alone and are at risk of homelessness, trends in housing options for low-income adults are of central importance to the neighbourhood. Although SROs have well-known problems, each SRO resident who loses their room and ends up on the street is estimated to cost the provincial government approximately $30,000 to $40,000 per year in additional services.
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In recent years, the number of units designed for low-income singles has increased slightly: In the downtown area (Burrard Street to Clark Drive) there were 11,371 units in 1993 and 12,126 units in 2013. The number of privately owned SROs declined during this time by 3283 units, while the number of social housing units increased by 4038 units. In 2014, an additional 300 privately owned SRO units were lost.
However, rents in many of those units have risen. Rents in social housing units for low-income singles are fixed at the shelter component of welfare rates, but rents in privately owned SROs can vary. In 2013, 24% of privately owned SROs rented at the base welfare shelter rate of $375 per month, down from 60% in 2007. According to one advocacy group, the average lowest rent in privately owned hotels in the greater DTES area was $517 per month in 2015, and there were no vacant rooms renting at less than $425 per month.
The city has implemented a bylaw to discourage the redevelopment of SROs. Advocates for SRO tenants argue that the city's bylaw does not go far enough, as it does not prevent rent increases. The city says that only the province, not the city, has the jurisdiction to control rents, and that the province should raise welfare rates.
Since 2007, the provincial government has acquired 23 privately owned SRO hotels in the greater DTES area, containing 1,500 units. It undertook extensive renovations in 13 of those buildings at a cost of $143.3 million, of which $29.1 million was paid by the federal government. Due to rising rents and often-decrepit conditions in the area's remaining 4,484 privately owned SROs, DTES activists have called for governments to replace them with a further 5,000 social housing units for low-income singles.
Migration patterns
The DTES has a history of attracting migrants with mental health issues from across B.C. and Canada, with many drawn by its affordable housing, and services. Between 1991 and 2007, the DTES population increased by 140%.
A 2016 study found that 52% of those DTES residents who experience chronic homelessness and serious mental-health issues, had migrated from outside Vancouver in the previous 10 years. This proportion of the population has tripled in the last decade. The same study found that once migrants had settled in the DTES, their conditions worsened. A 2013 study of tenants of DTES SROs found that while 93% of those surveyed were born in Canada, only 13% were born in Vancouver. Vancouver Coastal Health estimates that half of the population that uses its health services in the DTES are long-term residents, and that there is a population turnover of 15 to 20% each year.
