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‘He showed me how much you can do in life when you put yourself out there’

Trey Helten remembered by the community as someone who reached higher than most; City of Vancouver dedicates ‘Ashtrey Alley’ in his honour

July 3, 2025

The mood was somber and quiet, with lots of hugs and tears at Trey Helten’s Celebration of Life. 

On Saturday, May 10, a large gathering of people showed up at the former Balmoral Hotel’s parking lot to honour Helten, who was 42 years young when he died. Helten was found unresponsive in his Strathcona home on April 22. 

He was a much-loved member and well-known advocate of the Downtown Eastside. On the bare concrete where the Balmoral once stood, friends and relatives gathered and listened in silence to speakers and performers as they paid tribute to Helten. A singer named Madlove sang a song inspired by James Taylor’s Fire and Rain. It was heart-wrenching to hear.  

Many said he was a great man taken before his time. Local TV news crews were there with their cameras. The Heart Tattoo Society served lunch. 

Many people shared memories of Helten saving lives, helping out and influencing everyone he met.  

Helten was publicly up front that his early years were characterized by addiction. But once he was in recovery and as manager of the Overdose Prevention Society, Helten — and his dog Zelda — saved the lives of hundreds of people in the ongoing toxic drug crisis. 

Cinematographer Nathaniel Canuel met Helten volunteering about six years ago. 

“He taught me how to save lives,” said Canuel. “I reversed a lot of overdoses because of him.”  

Canuel said Helten had a domino effect on people. 

“He showed me how much you can do in life when you put yourself out there. A lot of us struggle with exposing ourselves — Helten was fearless,” he said. 

Helten was also an artist, curating the Land Back mural at Abbott and Pender Streets, among many others. 

“The guy could work around a 40-foot ladder like no one I have ever seen,” said Canuel. 

Helten, he said, was able to reach higher than anyone else.  

Last month, Vancouver City Council voted unanimously to designate the city’s legal graffiti alley — the east-west laneway located between Hastings and Pender Streets connecting Cambie and Abbott Street — as “Ashtrey Alley” in honour of Helten and his considerable contributions to the community.   

Mike McNeeley is a Megaphone vendor and avid photographer; he’s had his images published many times in the magazine, Hope in Shadows calendar and Voices of the Street literary anthology. When he’s not shooting pictures, Mike enjoys other creative pursuits such as sculpture and live theatre. He is part of The Shift peer newsroom team and member of the Binners Project.  

Published in Megaphone magazine on July 4, 2025