Over the years I have heard many people compare Vancouver to Melbourne. Vancouver enjoys a mild climate with definite seasons, it has a friendly population of Canadian citizens, and the city is renowned and awarded for its liveability.
Vancouver is undoubtably beautiful. The snow-capped mountains provide the perfect backdrop to the harbour, which is framed by the cedar, fir and spruce trees of Stanley Park. It’s a beautiful and interesting city to walk around, with stunning natural features, historic buildings, and excellent restaurants and bars.
Vancouver has a darker side, however. One that I had not anticipated. We literally stumbled upon it by mistake.
After walking around the city all day we decide to walk to dinner in Chinatown. We take a detour to Gastown on the way. Gastown is the oldest commercial centre in Vancouver. We check out the whistling old steam clock, apparently a popular place for photo shoots for influencers and wedding parties. We discovere some excellent architecture, including Hotel Europe, which looks like a small version of New York’s Flatiron Building, and we take touristy photos of the old-style Edwardian lamps and cobblestone streets.
Realising the time of our dinner reservation is impending, we leave Gastown and begin walking towards Chinatown. We turn onto East Hastings Street at the 100 block and before we realise where we were, find ourselves amid a large homeless encampment. A tent city. Three or four tents deep across the sidewalk. Occasionally more. On both sides of the street. Running for at least three full city blocks.
We’re so caught unawares we’re not sure how to react.
We calmly walk through the labyrinth of tents, shopping carts, and people. People from the mission in front of which the encampment is situated. People looking bored. People passed out and doubled over. People smoking crack and people shooting up. In the middle of Downtown Vancouver.
I am aware of not gawping and try not to look shocked. I’m not sure how successfully. Strangely I don’t feel unsafe or intimidated and these people are, after all, friendly Canadians, right?
I later find out, through the reaction of Canadian friends and family, how notorious this area of Vancouver is.
We continue walking to the restaurant. A very fancy, Italian Japanese fusion restaurant in a luxuriously decadent setting. I am feeling torn, full of privileged guilt, extreme sadness, and desire to do something.
My husband, Stu (who is Canadian) explains that many homeless from around the country gravitate toward Vancouver over the winter. The weather is significantly milder than elsewhere in Canada and the local drug laws and police tolerance to homelessness is quite different from the rest of the country.
I am trying to make sense of what I have just walked through.
We talk about the seemingly desperate situation in the city.
When we arrive home, I decide to research this situation in Vancouver. I watch a couple of documentaries and do some reading. The situation is perhaps not as simple as a large homeless population.
Vancouver has a lot of public housing. Much of it is empty and available.
What? Really?
The public housing is run by the city and tenants must adhere to rules while living there. This includes drug and dealing regulations and other requirements that must be met. Many people interviewed in the documentaries said they had no desire to follow these guidelines or restrictions. Some said they have $300 a day drug habits. They enjoy the freedom of being homeless. They don’t want responsibilities.
Vancouver has a very liberal approach to drug use. Drug addiction is accepted as a mental health issue, a physical health issue, not a criminal issue. The city engages in safe supply of fentanyl and methamphetamine, amongst other things, with the hope this will discourage theft and property crime. As much as I agree with harm minimisation programs and assistance with all health issues, be they mental or physical, I can’t help but think this approach may be endangering people more than helping them.
The aim of the liberalism is to decriminalise drug activity and prevent drug users being labelled criminals. However, violent and unprovoked crime against other citizens of the city is rife and many are concerned with the tolerance level and with the effect it is having on their very beautiful city. The current mayor has recently been voted out and I believe some change will occur in the approach to homelessness and to drug policies. Hopefully there will be headway made, without judgement, without harm and with positive change affected.
I think about this experience often. It frightens me that a seemingly people focused policy can backfire and cause something problematic to become even more so. My guilt and sadness remain, however many of the people I walked past that night had spent more money on crack that day than I did on dinner. I don’t doubt there are many other factors contributing to these issues and that there may well not be a solution.
Despite the sense of helplessness this experience gave me, the only action I can take is to try to be kind, try to be understanding, and try to treat other humans the way in which I would want to be treated if I were in their place. I do not advocate a hard line against drug use, or condone the zero policy approach which so clearly doesn’t work.
Featured image credit: The Conversation
Read more of Kylie’s writing at Mountain Ash Chapter.