Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House (DTES NH)
&
the 2010 Vancouver Olympics
When it was confirmed that Vancouver would host the 2010 Winter Olympics, the immediate reaction of the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House (DTES NH), was to calculate the impact of the Games on low-income DTES residents – the majority of the DTES community.
Alongside sister organizations, the emphasis of our work these years is to inform, protect and sustain the DTES community under the weight of the Olympics’ impact as Vancouver’s hosting of the Games has triggered disruptive change, gentrification and displacement.
Our neighbourhood is being transformed into one which appears to be more accommodating of middle and upper-middle class neighbours and less welcoming of ‘native’ community members (both in the historic sense of the word as Indigenous peoples and in regard to other DTES founding communities – Japanese, Chinese and low-income).
As the landscape of the DTES is being transformed to appeal to and satisfy Olympic guests, the low-income community must now struggle even more to live day to day. Affordable housing is almost an anomaly, private security and police presence increase, the homeless are harassed and arrested more frequently. Construction of condos is outpacing social housing at a rate of 3:1 while the new restaurants and bars which condos attract are infusing more alcohol into the neighbourhood. Affordable housing, a living wage and adequate Detox and Treatment on demand are far from sight.
The DTES Neighbourhood House’s response to the Olympics is to host HomeGround all through the month of February, in partnership with Carnegie Community Centre. HomeGround events are exclusively for homeless and underhoused DTES residents. HomeGround’s purpose is to offer additional sustenance and sanctuary to our most vulnerable neighbours during the period of the Games. HomeGround is not open to the public. HomeGround Media Guidelines are widely available for everyone who is in possession of a recording device, including community members, social media and mainstream media.
The low-income DTES community continues to struggle against the forces of poverty, racism and stereotyping. The DTES Neighbourhood House asserts that DTES residents who are living harsh, complex lives which include material poverty, substance dependency, physical/mental health challenges, the dangers of survival sex work and nutritional vulnerability – to name but a few – merit dignity and the respect of all. We ask you to follow this lead.
DTES NH Board of Directors
February 2010
The DTES NH acknowledges and honours the fact that our community lies within the Traditional Territory of the Coast Salish people.
