A Short Slide to the Mean Streets

Many people live only a few missed paycheques from disaster
Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008

This is not a tale of squalor, depravity or unspeakable horror. But it could be. The North Shore Shelter occupies the corner of West Second Avenue and Bewicke, just a few blocks from the tony market at Lonsdale Quay. There is no open drug market. The streets are not littered with garbage.

The 25 year-round emergency beds and 25 additional cold-weather beds are filled most nights, according to Lauren Stinson, the shelter's case planner. Another 25 transitional housing spaces filled within weeks of the shelter opening its doors about two years ago.

Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside is clearly visible from the North Shore Shelter. It is a very short slide from here to there. It is a reality that terrifies the people here, many of whom were working and living ordinary lives just a few weeks or months ago.

Read the rest here