McShelters: Numbers harmed today

Under capitalism and colonialism, "success" is often measured in appalling ways. Big institutions are often very efficient at causing mass harm, and very bad at responding to crises in good ways. (Especially crises that they have largely caused.) It can be confusing to sift through government PR to figure out what's actually going on. The …

When government is the public health emergency

On September 23, 1997, after pressure from street community activists, the Vancouver/Richmond Health Board declared a public health emergency in the Downtown Eastside. HIV rates had skyrocketed as a result of insufficient access to clean needles and more than 1,000 people had died of drug overdoses. On April 14, 2016, BC’s provincial health officer declared …

Reality check: situation on the ground

Two days ago the provincial government announced their plans to close down tent cities at Topaz Park and Pandora Avenue here, and Oppenheimer Park in the Downtown Eastside, by May 9. The headline of the accompanying BC Housing release is "Province secures safe shelter, supports for people living in major encampments". People have been told …

Displacing tent cities: today’s government announcement

This morning the provincial NDP government held a press conference to announce their plans to close down tent cities at Topaz Park and Pandora Avenue here, and Oppenheimer Park in the Downtown Eastside. This was supposed to be a gradual process, but minutes after the press conference BC Housing and VicPD came to Pandora to …

Policing is violence

Tomorrow 'victoria' City Council is considering whether to approve $52,500 requested by the VicPD for increased policing of people sheltering at Topaz Park. The Anti-Violence Project wrote a beautiful open letter to City Council opposing this request and explaining how policing is violence. Many other people are individually writing letters. You can reach the Mayor …

Imagining alternatives

When the pandemic first started, given what was known at that time about its spread the solutions seemed pretty obvious -- provide info about COVID and work with people living outside to find out what would work from their perspective. Instead the colonial government has done what it always does: tried to impose strategies of …

No water in a health crisis

In colonial government, public health departments have two mandates: to provide/oversee public health services, and to enforce social control. The combination of the two is deadly for people living outside. Years ago when we were working with people living at another tent city, access to drinking water was a major issue. Naively, we approached public …

Handwashing…so basic and yet…

“A lot of services shut down and there are hardly any bathrooms available, and the bathrooms that are available are only during specified hours...If the city was going to respond you think they would put out handwashing stations, if the basic premise of this [emergency] is to fight COVID-19…right?” trish pal, Indigenous Harm Reduction Team, …

Introducing this website

When the COVID crisis started to unfold here mid-March, like everyone else we went through a range of feelings - shock, fear, denial, overwhelm. From how quickly COVID had moved in other countries we feared for the street community, already so vulnerable because of injustice and already reeling from mass deaths from the overdose crisis. …