Tuesday, 23 June 2009 @ 12:38Written by DamonC

Homelessness especially in the downtown eastside of Vancouver is a complex issue that obviously cannot be solve in a paragraph. Yet as shown byinitiatives by community players like Pivot Legal Society', the solution must come from within, rather than without. First public perception of the DTES must be changed, and secondly local community members should be empowered to take charge of their own communities.

The vast majority of people that reside and live outside the DTES have extremely inaccurately negative perceptions of the DTES. Already the residents and homeless of the DTES have become akin to the untouchables of India to many lower mainland residents. In order to combat homelessness it is imperative that we fight these stereotypes of what it means to be homeless. As long as people can continue to view homeless peoples as a seperate group of people, it becomes easier to forget they are also complex human beings with their own wants, needs, goals, etc. To view the homeless as the "other" allows people to continue to walk past the homeless on the street without batting an eye, to trust to a failing government welfare system to "take care" of them, to ignore gentrification continuing to push our fellow people further into what Agamden calls "bare life". A great example of how we can fight these stereotypes of homelessness and the DTES is Pivot's Hope in Shadows campaign. Publishing both a book and a calendar, the project highlights several DTES residents but focuses on not their residential status, but on their humanity and relationships: the very things that they share with everyone else.

Secondly, it is imperative that solutions be grassroots situated. The peculiarities of any community is much to complex for any outside observer to understand. While those in the community undoubtedly have great ideas concerning what progress needs to be made in the community what they are lacking are technical expertise and resources. Thus this is where marriage can happen between concerned outsiders (for a lack of a better term) and residents.

What sort of solution can we come up with to suit both the points mentioned above? 

I propose that a series of community brainstorm sessions be held between residents of the DTES and other concerned peoples. Through these sessions, ideas should be discussed about essential services that are needed in the community, and a roadmap created to acheive one or some of these services. As these ideas develop and mature, a core group of both residents and outsiders will put the plan into action, starting up a new community initiative with the backing of the community.

The kicker is this: the entire process and experience should be recorded by a documentary crew, highlighting not just the initiative, but more importantly the relationships that are created; highlighting how both residents of the DTES and outsiders are the same rather than different., highlighting the humanity of homelessness and not why the homeless should be pitied.