Vancouver's lower east side - a tragedy

Driving home from the Vancouver Island ferry, we missed our turn off and ended up on the east side of town, instead of the west.  This was okay as we could see downtown, and the grid system of roads makes it an easy place to navigate.  So we found Hastings Street, which I knew would take us downtown.  I've mentioned before the problem of homelessness in Vancouver, and panhandling etc - I knew homelessness was a big issue here.  In large part, because it's the warmest city in Canada - if you are going to be homeless anywhere, you'd do it here as there is less chance of freezing to death.

Having worked in public housing and homelessness service delivery (as well as policy) and having lived in big cities, and just spent time in New York, I thought I would have a pretty good idea about what the seedier parts of town might look like here.  But I was shocked.

At 8pm, there were hundreds of people, dressed in rags, with matted hair and pushing shopping trolleys with their belongings - those who had some belongings or who weren't in wheelchairs and unable to push a trolley - along East Hastings Street with its dingy no-star hotels and takeaway food shops half-heartedly lit up.  It was one of the most depressing sights I've seen, and like something out of a movie set in a post-holocaust New York.  This went on for blocks and blocks, and at one end before it started to look a bit brighter, there was a small soup kitchen handing out food.  They weren't being swamped though.

Yesterday, we caught a bus to Chinatown and got off a few blocks away from our destination.  It didn't look like a great part of town, but as we walked toward Chinatown I realised we were in fact on the lower East side of town.   Quick sideways glances down alleyways revealed lots of scuttering movements, like lice on a child's head, as people moved in and out of doorways, again dressed in rags.  A few attempted to panhandle on a main street (which was near deserted, except for us).   A few others congregated for a smoke outside a very down-at-heels pub.  

It was very, very scary and we moved fast through that area.  I might have expected to feel a bit fearful in some parts of New York, including the subway, but this was much worse than that.

I don't have any photos because a) I didn't want to stop for any reason, b) I didn't want to be mugged for the camera and c) it would have been very invasive.

One homeless man called out to us as we entered the area, and walked past his 'spot'.  I ignored it but he called out again and this time I realised he was telling me I'd dropped something.  I had, so thanked him and picked it up.  He didn't ask us for money at all.  So I felt a bit guilty for making assumptions about him.  It reminded me of when George Clooney's character says in Up in the Air, "Always stereotype, it saves time" in that it such an assumption was probably wise, and I can just feel pleased it wasn't proven.   Another, further along, told me "it's not raining" as I had my umbrella up.  But no-one in that area asked us for money.  I think they save that for the busier and more salubrious parts of downtown.  I was very worried about being mugged, though, and made a point of meeting eyes, and looking behind us if anyone approached from behind.

Now I understand why Vancouverites bemoan the problem of homelessness.  And to think this is happening in a country with one of the best social welfare systems in the world, highlights the extent of the problem.   They already do have a lot of social housing projects, including the city buying up a huge number of the cheap hotels and renting them out at an affordable rent, with security of tenure.  And there seem to be a lot of mental health, drug and alcohol, and other community services all around.  I guess part of the problem is the influx from the rest of the country.  The demand is so great.

When we got to Chinatown, just a couple of fairly small blocks away, it was completely different and safe.  Another world.

But - when we got the bus home again, there was a couple who looked very much the worse for wear, obviously off their heads on drugs, on the bus.  We tried not to look at them for fear of prompting violence - it might have been Ice, I think, judging in part by their sexual behaviour as well as what they were saying.  But they were very loud, and very interesting to watch and listen to, actually.   I felt sick watching them kissing though (which was in between loudly abusing each other, with very colourful language).  It was a relief when they got off.   I had to try to make some age appropriate explanations to Angus who was fascinated, of course.   On the bus on the way in, we'd had a horrible experience too, when a man sat down next to me who had the most incredibly strong stench of stale urine about him.  I very nearly got off the bus, and I was seriously struggling not to vomit, it was that bad.  I'm not one to vomit lightly.  Angus noticed it as well, and was very good about not making loud remarks.  He subtly put his shirt over his nose and mouth.   I expressed some sympathy for the man, to Angus.  We wondered whether he was homeless and had lost control of his bodily functions overnight, and had nowhere to shower and no clean clothes.

So while Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, it has a very, very ugly side.