The needless decline of a Vancouver community

She’s a controversial figure in Vancouver politics, and our views differ as often as they agree, but there is no doubting Jamie Lee Hamilton‘s passion and sincerity about the Downtown Eastside. JLH grew up there, and played on its streets as a kid. Now those streets are as uninhabitable as the Sunni Triangle, and Jamie Lee continues to ask why.

John Turvey

Last week DTES activist John Turvey passed away. Jamie Lee has written on her blog an obituary for John. Her words describe a mixture of love and anguish, both about John and the plight of her community, which has decayed needlessly for decades.

Compare the Vancouver Sun with JLH’s entry on John Turvey’s passing.

Vancouver Sun:

Turvey is perhaps best remembered for starting Canada’s first free needle exchange. Without any government assistance — and while needle exchanges were still illegal — Turvey filled a knapsack with syringes and distributed them to drug users…No one can say how many people Turvey helped to avoid contracting HIV or hepatitis C.

JLH:

While, I believe John deserves the accolades he received and will also receive in death, I am troubled by the state of the Downtown Eastside.

The Harm Reduction philosophy Mr. Turvey championed needs to be examined. The endless programming dollars going into the DTES needs to be reviewed by independent financial auditors of government. Are there any tangible outcomes which sustain the citizenry of Canada’s poorest postal code?

Moreover, many questions need posing and answering. How has the Needle Exchange worked? Has it saved lives? Has it reduced disease among the disenfranchised, disempowered and marginalized? Is offerring (sic) condoms to marginalized and troubled women of the DTES, the best method to address their survivalist needs? Plus, have bad date sheets had any impacts in decreasing violence to these vulnerable women on the sex strolls of Vancouver?

The Sun makes Turvey into a Johnny Appleseed figure, distributing clean needles to addicts to stave off HIV and Hep C infections. Jamie Lee on the other hand asks the hard questions. Have the policies and resources poured into her neighbourhood measurably improved the lives of Downtown Eastsiders? Visit there and it would be hard to see how.

Jamie Lee is cynical about the DTES poverty industry, but is it fair game to ask these questions?

I think the DTES problem is partly a result of the rest of the city trying to ignore the problem, and leaving it to ‘the experts’ (social services, law enforcement) to take care of. Perhaps for the future well-being of the whole city depends on more of us engaging in the resurrection of this besotted borough.

Kudos to Jamie Lee for continuing to make us more aware of the mean streets where she lives.