Beyond Homelessness in Vancouver
The city of Vancouver is one of the most desirable places to live in the world. On the east end of the city lies the Downtown Eastside (DTES), a neighbourhood with a reputation of being one of the roughest in North America. It is a site of many complex social issues, including poverty, homelessness, mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, crime and prostitution.
I am an immigrant from a developing country and have witnessed some of the worst forms of poverty through my work, but even I was shocked by the extent of poverty and homelessness in DTES. Every time I visited the neighbourhood, I could not help but wonder how it is even possible for a country like Canada to have so much poverty.
Finally, in 2014 I decided to live amongst the homeless in the Downtown Eastside. I noticed a campsite at Oppenheimer Park, where many homeless protested against the lack of affordable housing. When I explained my purpose to Stella August, a First Nations elder, she allowed me to camp with them.
I worked in the kitchen, cleaned dishes, served food, and made friends. A disproportionately large number of homeless were the Indigenous - robbed of their motherland and their culture. They are trying hard to heal, seeking to reclaim their land and dignity that is lost.
Audrey Siegel, a young indigenous activist, said, "The juxtaposition of the abject poverty against wealth tells you a lot. Poverty is the greatest tool used against the indigenous people right now and that wealth was generated in large part from the dispossession of indigenous peoples. We can't turn a blind eye to that contradiction any longer."
