A Kick in the Teeth Courtesy of Black Eye and Phat Pooch Productions©
new video!
2010 Homeless champions &the servants of hope society feed the homeless at christmas in pigeon park
40 recovering addicts formerly from the Downtown Eastside are organized by 2010 Homeless Champions and the Servants of Hope Society and feed more than 400 homeless and drug addicted people an incredible Christmas Dinner. 2010 Homeless Champions regularly provides this type of outreach to individuals and are making a difference and in some cases through our example we are motivating some addicts to embrace the same principles that we have used to change our lives.
Homelessness is the condition and social category of people who lack housing, because they cannot afford, or are otherwise unable to maintain, regular, safe, and adequate shelter. The term "homelessness" may also include people whose primary nighttime residence is in a homeless shelter, in an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or in a public or private place not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings..........
A very small number of people choose to be homeless
.
This website is dedicated to telling the stories of the unfortunate individuals living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in the hope that awareness of this problem will spur people to get involved, to let all levels of government know that something has to be done to alleviate this misery rooted in addiction, homelessness and depravity. To point the way to recovery from addiction, which we believe is the root of most of this situation. With the 2010 Olympics coming to Vancouver it is our mandate to record the transition and the extreme changes that are even now occurring and will continue to unfold in the Downtown Eastside.
New!
100
Year History of Homelessness in Vancouver
More than 2 million syringes are handed out free every year. Clean mouthpieces for crack pipes are provided at taxpayers’ expense. Around 4,000 opiate addicts get prescription methadone. Thousands come to the injection site every year.
Angelina: 18 years old, addicted to heroin and cocaine, living on the streets of the Downtown Eastside since she was 13 years old, only able to stay clean from drugs during periods incarcerated in jail..
addiction is a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning and develops physical dependence, as in drug addiction. When the drug or substance on which someone is dependent is suddenly removed, it will cause withdrawal, a characteristic set of signs and symptoms. Addiction is generally associated with increased drug tolerance common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems
Impelled by the horror show of the Downtown East Side, prodded by activists and convinced by reams of academic studies, the police and city government have agreed to provide hard drug users with their paraphernalia, a place to use it and even, for a few, the drugs themselves.
How many homeless people live in the Downtown Eastside? According to the official homeless count done last March, on March 11 there were 659 homeless people in the DTES, or 54 % of all the homeless people in Vancouver. Of these, 276 were in shelters and 383 were on the street or using a service. According to the Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness, which did the count, their method of counting “underestimates the number of homeless people,” so there are really more homeless people than the official count found.
The number of people who are homeless and on the streets in the whole region (not just the DTES) increased by 373% to 2660, according to the March count. Aboriginal people represent 32 % of homeless people in spite of being only 2% of the regional population. And Aboriginal women make up 44% of homeless women in the region.
There are over 400 vacant rooms in the DTES, enough to shelter all the homeless people found outside of shelters last March.Powered by WebRing®.
