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Ihe Downtown Eastside

(DTES) has been in the news a lot, what with the tent city in Oppenheimer Park gradually becoming a thing of the past. The camp that originated in mid-July of this

year has been hit with a series of :

eviction notices for months; a

Supreme Court order from late September ruled that the more than 200 camp residents would have to depart by October 15 at

10 p.m., with risk of arrest if they :

stayed any later. While evicting people from what has become their home is complicated enough, the issue has become further convoluted with the finding of a dead body among the tents shortly before the eviction deadline. The deceased is not believed to have died through foul play, although

an autopsy still needs to be performed.

Mayor Gregor Robertson gave his sympathies on the death, while remaining firm in his belief that the tents had to go: “[T]his tragedy certainly demonstrates why tent camps are not safe, why the city has had great concerns about this camp continuing to be there, and particularly the safety issues for elderly people.”

Clearly Robertson is very concerned with the well-being of residents of the DTES, as evidenced by his alleged voter suppression of the area in the upcoming municipal election. As the Mainlander reports, there are only two advance voting stations east of Main Street, compared with five advance voting stations on the Westside.

It’s unfortunate that Mayor Robertson hasn't put

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© The Other Press is published weekly during the fall and winter semesters, and monthly during the summer. We receive our funding from a student levy collected through tutition fees every semester at registration, and from local and national advertising revenue. The Other Press is a member ofthe Canadian University Press (CUP), asyndicate of student newspapers that includes

_ his advanced polling stations : where his mouth is for the

: elderly, disabled, racialized, and : : impoverished communities that : : wouldn't “grind programming

: toa halt at any location that we

: predominantly make up the

: DTES, and for whom he is oh- : so-concerned.

With the increasing

: discussions of how to help the : residents of the Eastside, it’s

: questionable that the people

: in need of help themselves

: are being erased from the

: conversation. Two lonely

: poll stations don’t accurately

: represent the vastness of the

: Downtown Eastside—described : : further stated that “analysis

: in the City of Vancouver’s

: Downtown Eastside Local

: Area Plan from 2012 as

: spanning roughly 202 hectares.

: This expanse is especially

: significant when you take

: into consideration that the

: residents are predominantly

: disadvantaged populations. As DTES resident Fraser

: Stuart explained in an interview :

: with the Georgia Straight,

: taking the bus to the stations

: isn’t financially possible for

: many people: “After a week

: anda half, your welfare or your

: pension money is gone ... So to

: pony up another $2.75 to go and

: vote—that’s a luxury. That’s your :

: food for the day, basically.”

: Wendy Pedersen, organizer

: of Downtown Eastside

: Votes, further explains to the

: Mainlander that “The city must

: know that DTES residents

: can't, even if they wanted to,

: get to Yaletown to vote. So

: many of them need extra time

: for the registration and voting

: process because of stringent

: ID requirements (no more

: vouching for people this time).” Chief election officer Janice

= Sete se

MacKenzie told the Georgia Straight that they took into consideration accessibility via transit, and ensuring that they

select” for the advance polling stations. It’s bizarre that the DTES

: currently has fewer than half the : advance polling stations that the : : Westside has. Vision Vancouver :

deputy campaign director Stepan Vdovine expressed his concern over the absence of DTES advance voting stations ina letter to MacKenzie. He

of past voter turnout shows

: that these areas have a higher

: likelihood of voting than other : parts of Vancouver.” : : Although Mayor Robertson : : has proclaimed his goals : : for improving the lives of

: impoverished populations— : including addressing housing —: and income gaps, and providing :

social services—the reality is

: that the conditions of DTES

: residents have not ameliorated. : While the City of Vancouver

: has spent its time “Reviewing;

: planning; getting feedback;

[and] measuring results,” the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) has

: identified three key needs

: for the DTES residents. The : : organization, which is dedicated : : to helping “improve the lives :

of people who use illicit drugs,”

: listed these needs in an open : letter: “housing, Indigenous : land claims, and municipal

services at Oppenheimer Park.” Let’s take VANDU’s first

: point of housing as an example: : the City of Vancouver recently > announced its approval of

$1-billion dedicated to services throughout Vancouver; roughly $125-million of that is earmarked for affordable housing. The National Post reports that millions of dollars have been spent on single room occupancy hotels (SROs) over the years, and I imagine this will continue to be the case.

SROs sound ideal at first, offering temporary or long-term housing for those in need of help; yet a national study from 2013 indicated that the mortality rate of residents in SROs is five times the national average. This is in part because the help and services that the people need don’t accompany the provision of housing. SROs consequently become increasingly unsafe, as more people suffering from both mental and physical illnesses, as well as addictions, get shoved into the tiny accommodations: researcher William Honer of the UBC study on SROs states that residents might be in spaces of 3x3 metres. The health of SRO residents is often aggravated by this unhelpful help. It’s no wonder, as VANDU states in its open letter, that “campers are currently paying rent to live in SROs, but have chosen the healthier living conditions of Oppenheimer Park.”

These complex issues demonstrate why the voter suppression of the Downtown Eastside is so offensive, and concerning. Discouraging the DTES voters from voting, whether unintentional or “unintentional,” can only lead to the continued mistreatment of some of Vancouver’s most-

vulnerable. Hello gorgeous,

Natabis Serafini

Editor-in-Chief

coc Ug 9) CEM]

@ facebook.com/DouglasOtherPress

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