Rethinking Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Vancouver’s Downtown East Side has long been associated with high levels of homelessness and substance abuse, issues which many cities across the country are now facing. Host Mary Rowe speaks with two people who help deliver services and housing supports to people in the neighbourhood, and share lessons that other communities can learn. Donna-Lynn Rosa is CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society and Corey McCallum is Atira’s Director of Outreach Programs. They talk about how to engage respectfully with people experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental health challenges, misconceptions about the Downtown East Side, and why they encourage people to not think of homelessness and substance use as “problems” with a clear solution. This is part of an ongoing series on CityTalk about how to address the interconnected challenges of substance use, mental health and homelessness that many cities are facing.