Downtown Eastside votes ahead of election as candidates promise action

Advance polling is underway in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), giving residents a chance to cast their ballots.

Voting, while a responsibility and right in the country, is not necessarily an easy feat in the community, as residents face extra barriers to cast their vote.

Several service providers in the neighbourhood have advance polls open until election day on Oct. 15, and accommodations for people without fixed addresses or identification.

“We deeply care about providing space for people to come down and feel like their voice can be heard,” Nicole Mucci of Union Gospel Mission told CityNews.

In the last federal and provincial elections, Mucci says around 50 people showed up.

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“While that might sound like a small number, it’s actually really uplifting for us to hear because each of those individuals is somebody who likely has experienced poverty, homelessness, or addiction at some point in their lives. Who maybe has felt like their voice didn’t matter, or vote didn’t count,” she said.

A tent city grew along East Hastings street after the city stopped its practice of throwing out peoples’ tents and belongings — a practice that drew protests for years. A fire order then led to the city-sanctioned displacement of people living on the sidewalk.

Following the recent upheaval and unrest in the community, mayoral candidates are promising all sorts of things for DTES residents.

Incumbent mayoral candidate Kennedy Stewart says his party Forward Together will create more supportive housing with wrap-around services.

“We’ll launch our new health and addictions response team to compassionately assist those in difficulty. We’re going to transform Hastings street into a wellness corridor, with new, Indigenous-focused facilities and support services, and a brand new park. We’re going to expand safe supply access and peer-led compassion clubs,” he said.

The last count of Vancouver’s unhoused population in 2020 shows Indigenous people continue to be overrepresented, and over half of the total unhoused population report having addiction issues.

ABC Vancouver’s candidate for mayor, Ken Sim, wants a “quality over quantity” approach to supportive housing, proposing a free 24-hour recovery centre, along with 100 new police officers and 100 mental health nurses.

“There are four random assaults in the city every single day. So we know intuitively that this makes a lot of sense, and it’s an empathetic and effective way to deal with the situation,” he said.

TEAM for a liveable Vancouver’s Colleen Hardwick says leadership is the problem and is proposing a full-time DTES commissioner.

“Prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and enforcement. And what’s happening down there right now is just the harm reduction piece. So we need to bring those four pillars into balance again, in order to be able to treat the issues that are infecting Chinatown, Gastown, and now around the city.”

Meanwhile, advocates in the Downtown Eastside have been calling on mayoral candidates to sign a pledge to stop the practice of taking down tents on East Hastings.

Members of ‘Stop the Sweeps’ says no mayoral candidates have agreed to sign the pledge as yet.