By David Chudnovskey
Photo by Jay Black

Bulldozers and heavy equipment have torn down and chewed up the oldest—and one of the most successful—social housing communities in B.C.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman, in a deal with Holborn Developments, plans to replace the 224 units of social housing at Little Mountain with significantly smaller homes, building a mix of market- and social housing that will include 1,200 -1,500 market condominiums.

Thirty years ago, nearly nobody was homeless in Vancouver. Today, at least 2,500 people are homeless, according to the latest GVRD count, and this is more than double what it was a decade ago.

Not surprisingly, homeless people are more likely to face problems other than lack of shelter, such as drug addiction, mental illness, family breakdown, victimization, poverty and lack of marketable skills and education. But, none of those things are new, so why is there so much homelessness now?

By Bob
Photo by Alex E. Priomos

I was using drugs from ’69 to ‘72 before finally straightening myself out. This is my story of those years, when I briefly tried my hand at drug dealing.

After I admitted to having LSD in my possession, I promised the acting Sergeant and Constable questioning me that I wouldn’t use drugs again. It didn’t last.

By Sarah Berman
Red Tent Photo by Jay Black

For two weeks Canada’s housing crisis was easier to spot than ever before, with some help from the Pivot Legal Society. With bright red tents and banners bearing the slogan “Housing is a Right,” Pivot’s Red Tent Campaign made homelessness visible on the world stage during the Olympics.

The campaign distributed nearly 500 red tents for the tent village located at 58 West Hastings St., as well as throughout the city of Vancouver.

By Anthony R. Windle
Photo by Any Jazz

With every step, my limbs grow heavier. The black dogs are howling and I need a place to rest. I lumber down the street to an old diner, where the bright lights inside push away the grayness of the day. I head directly to the back and sit on a counter stool.

The diner is in a corner of town nobody cares about, a leftover from the depression of the Dirty Thirties. Its bulky red neon sign, like a lighthouse beacon, guides the city’s castaways into her harbour.

By Kevin Hollett
Photo by Todd Macfie

At one time homeless and battling a drinking problem, Megaphone helped changed Peter Thompson’s life.

“Selling the paper got me on a different path, where I could look forward instead of back,” says the Downtown Eastside resident. “It got my mind going and I could try and get myself back on the right track.”

By Kevin Hollett with files from Allison Collins
Photo by Kris Krug

April Smith has bridged the digital divide.

Once homeless and living on the streets of Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside resident now tells stories about her community, thanks to W2’s Fearless City mobile project. With mobile phones and digital cameras, Smith tenaciously covers the people of her neighbourhood, uploading their stories onto the Internet.

By Sean Condon
Photo courtesy of Ministry of Housing and Social Development

When Vancouver won the right to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, it included an unprecedented package of commitments which promised that inner-city communities like the Downtown Eastside would be protected from any adverse impact of the Games.

By Kevin Hollett
Photo by Jacob Hopkins

Sitting in the window of the Interurban Gallery, Angel “Molly” Gaeta works away on yet another canvas.

Her paintings are bright and bold, unorthodox and pleasing in their subject matter: benevolent interpretations of nature, like serenely smiling suns, share space with curious interlopers to the scene, like flying saucers and one-eyed aliens.