2. The Poetry of Bud Osborn
Raise Shit: A Downtown Eastside Poem of Resistance
A First Nations man recently told me
He had come to the Downtown Eastside to die
He heard the propaganda
That this is only a place of death, disease, and despair
And since his life has become a hopeless misery
He came here specifically to die
But he said
Since living in the downtown eastside
What with the people he has met
And the groups he has found
He now very much wants to live
(Bud Osborn, 2003)

3. Location
 The DTES is directly adjacent to the wealthy tourist
area, Gastown
 The DTES currently exists on unceded Coast Salish
Traditional Territory

4. Map of Needs
Missing
Aboriginal Poverty Gentrification
Women
Crime Addictions Mental Health
Inadequate The Legacy of
HIV/Hep C
Housing Colonization

5. Map of Assets
Residents Residents Residents
Organizing for Organizing for Food Organizing Against
Housing Security Security Gentrification
Small Businesses
Rich Cultural
Owned by Arts and Education
History of the Four
Community Initiatives
Original Groups
Residents
Social Grassroots Advocacy
Strong History of Housing, Mixed Use and Neighbourhood
Resistance Spaces, Governance
Parks Organizations

6. Four Original Communities in the DTES
 The original groups who resided in the DTES were
Aboriginal, Chinese, Japanese, and the working class.
These groups continue to live in the DTES, as well as
newcomers.
•The strengths and histories of these communities bring
richness and diversity to the DTES

7. Residents Organizing for Housing Security
Twelve percent of Single Room Occupancy hotels are accessible to
those with the basic amount of housing allowance money on
social assistance. Many DTES residents subsist on social
assistance.
Groups like The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council fight
to keep housing accessible to all residents.

8. Residents Organizing Against Gentrification
 Developers are interested in the inexpensive property
in the DTES. This threatens accessibility to housing for
local residents.
 Residents have responded by pressuring the municipal
government to regulate development, in order to keep
wealth in the community.
 One group, the DTES Neighbourhood Council, keeps a
list of businesses where working class people do not
feel welcome, in order to monitor gentrification

9. Residents Organizing for Food Security
• The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House provides a community
kitchen with healthy foods. They focus on giving choice to those limited in
their food choices by material poverty.
•SoleFood operates a community garden in the DTES, where one of the
challenges the residents face is accessing fresh produce.
•DTES residents have partnered with local farmers to provide families and
seniors with coupons usable at the local farmer’s market

10. Local Businesses
 Some DTES businesses are owned by DTES
residents, and wealth is kept within the community
this way

11. Social Housing and SROs
 The DTES contains 23% of the city’s non-market housing
and 80% of the city’s Single Room Occupancy hotels.
 These residences face challenges to their safety and
accessibility, but continue to provide shelter to working
class people.
 Residents fought to have the historic Woodward’s building
contain social housing units (and they won).

12. Arts and Education Initiatives
 Hope in the Shadows showcases DTES photographers
affected by poverty, and provides a source of income to
the homeless population.
 The UBC Learning Exchange gives DTES residents a
chance to access post-secondary level education.
 The DTES Survival Guide publishes the poetry of
talented DTES residents.

13. Mixed Use Space
 Many people live in and around the businesses the
work and purchase goods in.
 SROs are often located above other businesses
 This means that the streets do not “empty” at
night, because people are still using the businesses
below. It brings some safety to the area.

14. Community Self Governance and
Advocacy Groups
 Groups like the Downtown Eastside Residents
Association (DERA) and the Downtown Eastside
Neighbourhood Council provide advocacy to
residents, work to solve neighbourhood problems, and
to influence municipal and provincial governments
into making policy and legislation that promotes
positive change in the DTES.

15. Pigeon Park Savings
 Pigeon Park Savings is a bank run by Vancity Credit
Union (a local business) and the Portland Hotel
Society (a grassroots non-profit) to provide non-
exploitative banking services to those who might not
otherwise have access to them
 In many working class communities, cheque-cashing
services exploit poor people. The DTES has a unique
solution that keeps wealth in the community.

16. Direct Action in the DTES
 Groups like the Anti-Poverty Committee organize
against globalization, the structural inequity inherent
to capitalism, gentrification, and the criminalization
of poverty
 In the past this has taken the form of demonstrations
and other actions

17. Works Cited
City of Vancouver. 2004. Woodward’s: Help Create a Vision for the Future of Woodwards.
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/corpsvcs/realestate/woodwards
Downtown Eastside Revitalization: Community History. Available from:
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/planning/dtes/communityhistory.htm
Downtown Eastside Revitalization: Neighbourhoods. Available from:
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/planning/DowntownEastside/neighbourhoo
ds.htm
Downtown Eastside Community Monitoring Report. 7th Edition.
Community Directions. 2002. Getting the Words and the Music: A Guide for Meaningful
Involvement in Community-Based Development in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
Strathcona. Vancouver, BC.
Footprints Community Art Project. 2003. A Walking Tour of the Downtown Eastside.
Vancouver, BC.
Taylor, Paul. (ed.). 2003. The Heart of the Community: The Best of the Carnegie Newsletter.
Vancouver, BC: New Star Books.