A little vignette from Saturday morning ...
“So are you learning much from volunteering down here?”
The question came from a Native chap, whose name I don’t know yet but who’s been a regular around The Lord’s Rain for some time now.
“I mean,” he went on, “there's a big difference between the Ritz-Carlton and this place, isn’t it?”
I guess we all do some “profiling” in our lives, and while I’m not exactly the embodiment of urbane sophistication (and certainly not an habitué of the Ritz-Carlton), it’s easy to assume some kind of class distinction. Mind you, I think I can count on one hand the number of times the issue has come up in my own case; unfortunately, when it has, it’s come up in the form of a crass comment from someone, which I dismiss because there’s a spirit of envy behind it. Usually, praise God, people at the Mission accept me for who I am and I return the compliment.
But this fellow’s questions were sincere and without that spirit. He was genuinely curious.
“Actually,” I told him, “what impresses me more than the differences is the similarities.”
And that’s the truth. People often look on the folks on the Downtown East Side as being “special cases”, a separate caste: someone once referred to the treatment of the urban poor in Vancouver as “genocide”, but that implies they’re a different race from the “others” in the city. But I think that's patronizing, suggesting that they should get perpetual handouts and "breaks" from society because they are basically incapable of moving beyond where they are now. But that kind of thinking avoids the inconvenient truth: any one of us is one slip away from winding up in the same situation.
When I speak in churches, that’s often one of the key messages, and I pull it out both for shock value and because it's the truth. What impresses me about working on the Downtown East Side is that people are intelligent, respectful, well-spoken, and good to be around. Ask Amelia about the level of respect: when she serves them coffee or food, they all say “please” and “thank you” and they stop to chat; when she was ill recently, people asked about her, prayed for her and sent home good wishes.
Some of the people, certainly, are addled by drugs; others by mental illness. Some can be a real pain in the bottom at times. Some seem closeted away in their own little world – but watch what happens when you call their name: they snap into this world, and smile, and answer.
Think about it: there are people in your own circle who are just like that – and if they’re not addled by drugs, certainly there are other addictions that affect a person’s behaviour and outlook.
All have fallen in some way, and some people handle it differently than others. Any one of us can be one misstep away from starting that downward spiral that leads to situations like the Downtown East Side. If you're in a decent financial situation, that can cover a multitude of sins -- at least, as far as the world is concerned. As Spike Milligan once said, “money can’t buy you friends, but it gets you a better class of enemy”. But if the slip-up is accompanied by going broke, losing a job, family, status – and that’s happened to more than a few of the people we meet on the DTES – the crash is palpable. A rich man whose Grace runs out ahead of the money doesn’t realize how much he needs Grace.
One recurring theme in my own messages at the Mission is how close I came to that kind of crash: the elements were there, but by then God had gotten hold of me and had said, "stick with Me, kid, and you'll go places". I've long since understood that this isn't about me, but about Him, and the rest of that theme is how that same Grace and renewal is available to anyone who'll believe.
If you want to look for differences our friend was asking about, here's one: most people who come into the Mission know they need help. A lot of people in other parts of the city don’t. Recently, another recurring theme that's developed is that it’s OK to believe God has something better and that one is entitled to it, simply because, well, it is written ....
So while it’s easy to look at the DTES – or any hotbed of urban poverty – and look at an “Us and Them” situation, you don’t have to look much harder to see it’s really “Us and Us”.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Working on our own "little room"
Another great post this morning from Ron Edmonson, which speaks to the need for us to keep our own role in God's Plan in perspective. He points out that a honeybee only produces 1/12 tsp. of honey in its lifetime while, in conjunction with all the other bees in the hive, turns out a prodigious amount of honey.
The trick is that the bee knows what its job is and does it to the best of its ability. It shoulders its own burden and doesn't try to take on anyone else's -- like, it doesn't try to lay eggs or become the queen bee.
(DIGRESSION ALERT: this could turn into the stuff of a sappy children's book if I'm not careful: the little bee that wanted to be queen. Except, well, it was a male ... and, well, it didn't know that if another queen came along in the hive, Bob the Kindly Beekeeper came along and ruthlessly killed the new queen to prevent the bees from swarming and flying off to form a new hive and terrorize Bob's neighbors in the process, causing the neighbors to descend on Bob's beehives with axes and flame-throwers ......
Sorry, slipped over to the "dark side" for a moment there. Must by my German heritage -- the same culture that brought us Max und Moritz, before they became "sanitized" as the Katzenjammer Kids ....)
Back to the bees ...
As I read it, Ron is saying that as workers in any effort, we need to lose the word "only" from our vocabulary. We need to understand that so long as we are doing our job, we can be satisfied and proud of that 1/12th tsp. we produce, because it's part of a whole that is so much bigger.
A couple of years ago, a brother at Gospel Mission asked about Ezekiel 40 -- the description of The City. He wondered why the prophet goes into such intricate detail about the little rooms and the chairs and the palm trees and other carvings. Meditating on that, we start to see a parallel to our own walk. Ezekiel is never shown the "30,000-foot view" of the entire project.
He does the same thing with Noah, by the way: never actually shows him a picture of what the ark is supposed to look like at the end; same with Moses and the instructions for the Tabernacle.
There's a good reason for that. As human beings, we want to be responsible for the entire project: we want to Do Big Things, and if God showed us the overall picture of what He was going for, somebody (or maybe all of us) would come along and cut corners to produce what only looked like the overall picture. But you know something would be missing.
In the same way, He gives intricate instructions as to what we are supposed to do. That way, we don't embellish -- like adding a kangaroo between the cherubim -- and don't fall into pride. We also come to trust Him to bring it all together, because He knows that 30,000' view.
We also "stick to our knitting" and don't try to shoulder someone else's burden. God gives us enough as it is, and we have to remember that we can only be "unprofitable servants" -- the best we can do for God is break even, because if we tried to do anything more for Him, we'd be saying that His instructions to us weren't good enough.
By the way, there's nothing wrong with Doing Big Things: so long as they're the Big Things God calls you to do. Peter wanted to Do A Big Thing -- defend Jesus. But Jesus had just told him he'd be the rock His church would be built on. That's a Really Big Thing. Peter's church stands to this day (and I don't mean the Catholic church), but when he did what he thought he was supposed to do -- take a sword and attack one of the soldiers -- he missed and only got the ear. And Jesus healed that.
I believe it's OK to let God know that one is willing to do more; but we need to be stick with the job we're given in the mean time.
The trick is that the bee knows what its job is and does it to the best of its ability. It shoulders its own burden and doesn't try to take on anyone else's -- like, it doesn't try to lay eggs or become the queen bee.
(DIGRESSION ALERT: this could turn into the stuff of a sappy children's book if I'm not careful: the little bee that wanted to be queen. Except, well, it was a male ... and, well, it didn't know that if another queen came along in the hive, Bob the Kindly Beekeeper came along and ruthlessly killed the new queen to prevent the bees from swarming and flying off to form a new hive and terrorize Bob's neighbors in the process, causing the neighbors to descend on Bob's beehives with axes and flame-throwers ......
Sorry, slipped over to the "dark side" for a moment there. Must by my German heritage -- the same culture that brought us Max und Moritz, before they became "sanitized" as the Katzenjammer Kids ....)
Back to the bees ...
As I read it, Ron is saying that as workers in any effort, we need to lose the word "only" from our vocabulary. We need to understand that so long as we are doing our job, we can be satisfied and proud of that 1/12th tsp. we produce, because it's part of a whole that is so much bigger.
A couple of years ago, a brother at Gospel Mission asked about Ezekiel 40 -- the description of The City. He wondered why the prophet goes into such intricate detail about the little rooms and the chairs and the palm trees and other carvings. Meditating on that, we start to see a parallel to our own walk. Ezekiel is never shown the "30,000-foot view" of the entire project.
He does the same thing with Noah, by the way: never actually shows him a picture of what the ark is supposed to look like at the end; same with Moses and the instructions for the Tabernacle.
There's a good reason for that. As human beings, we want to be responsible for the entire project: we want to Do Big Things, and if God showed us the overall picture of what He was going for, somebody (or maybe all of us) would come along and cut corners to produce what only looked like the overall picture. But you know something would be missing.
In the same way, He gives intricate instructions as to what we are supposed to do. That way, we don't embellish -- like adding a kangaroo between the cherubim -- and don't fall into pride. We also come to trust Him to bring it all together, because He knows that 30,000' view.
We also "stick to our knitting" and don't try to shoulder someone else's burden. God gives us enough as it is, and we have to remember that we can only be "unprofitable servants" -- the best we can do for God is break even, because if we tried to do anything more for Him, we'd be saying that His instructions to us weren't good enough.
I needed that revelation because we were opening up The Lord's Rain at the time -- just about 3 years ago, now -- and one morning, I was standing outside the Mission looking at the scene on the street. We look right into the teeth of one of the worse alleys in Vancouver for drugs and crime (possibly the worst, although the one beside the Carnegie Center gives it some stiff competition).
So I said to the Lord, "look at all this: the drugs and the crime and the mental illness and the homelessness ... how can we fix that?" And He said, "and your job is to run the showers program. Don't worry: you stick to that and see where it goes. I'll bring the others together."
And that's never left me. And rather than let me despair, God has shown me remarkable things with lives turning around; all because I was "just" running a showers program and preaching the Gospel. And I'm confident my 1/12th tsp. is part of a far bigger picture.
I believe it's OK to let God know that one is willing to do more; but we need to be stick with the job we're given in the mean time.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
VENTING - Why we're called to be here
O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
-- Julius Caesar, Act 3 Sc. 1
When I started writing this piece on Saturday, I was still slightly radioactive over a situation we had to deal with at The Lord’s Rain. The Shakespeare quote kept bubbling to the surface after seeing one of our regulars get carted off to hospital, evidently on a bad trip.
Lesley is one of the regulars at The Lord’s Rain, a 40-something woman who at one time was probably very attractive. She’s also remarkably intelligent – as indeed are the majority of the people we see at The Lord’s Rain and Gospel Mission upstairs. But drugs and street-life have robbed all of that from her: her teeth are gone, she has AIDS, she has open sores on her face that she has to be admonished not to pick at; she, along with many others in the area, reminds me of a scene in a cartoon where a deranged sailor rushes off a ship and screams, “I was a human being once!”
At any rate, Lesley came in yesterday, acting about as normal as we ever do see her. After a while, she went into the bathroom, leaving behind her coat and bag, as we require people to do, to try to reduce the chances that they’ll do drugs when they’re back there or in the showers. I went back to tend to the laundry, and realized she was still there.
“Are you OK?” I called.
The response was a cross between a groan and a gargle – taken individually, they’re not good signs; taken together, it was even worse. She told me she wanted to get to her doctor, but she didn’t have his number. The only number I know in a situation like that is 911, and I dialled it.
The amazingly impressive thing about emergency personnel working the Downtown East Side is their speed and their compassion. It’s a popular and populist thing to suggest that police and paramedics tend to regard a street person as “just another junkie”, but in seven years of personal observation, I have never seen that. They are tough when they have to be – as I saw when they took down Axel three years ago after I’d pointed him out as the one who took a piece of re-bar to a fellow in the alley across from the Mission – but the streaks of compassion and friendliness restore your faith in the way they do things and wonder where the “activists” get their stuff.
The paramedics were there within a few minutes and by then, Lesley was only semi-coherent. The 911 operator asked what drugs she’d been taking, and Lesley painstakingly wrote out a list of them – mostly her AIDS “cocktail” – and then explained patiently to the paramedics that they would have to speak very quietly and very slowly so she could understand what they were saying. She had very little control over her movements, which made it impossible to get a reading on her blood pressure. We walked her out to the ambulance, strapped her into the stretcher and they drove off.
St Paul’s Hospital would be the most likely destination, and when I went through my own health issues a couple of years ago, I saw first-hand their dealings with “street people” (it’s also one of the leading facilities for AIDS treatment, which would make it the best place to take her, as well). They would likely give her a stern talking-to about street drugs and “bringing it on herself”, but would also do whatever it took to at least stabilize her and keep her alive. It’s a mixture of toughness and compassion.
But Saturday, after the ambulance had left, I hit cracking point. Angry? Frustrated? You better believe it! But where do you start?
Do you get angry at the circumstances that led Lesley to that point? How about the society that’s taken this laissez-faire attitude towards drugs? (It’s so easy to sneer at the US “war on drugs”, but we in Canada have a lot to answer for with the “non-aggression pact” we seem to have – and students of history and World War II will understand the full implications of that.)
Maybe you could rail against the amount of money, energy, time and resources spent chasing “cures” rather than attacking the root causes; or against the dealers, pimps and absent parents; or against the societal attitudes that decided it would violate her rights to force her into treatment?
Where do you start? Heck – where do you finish?
Sunday afternoon, I drove down Hastings Street and passed five ambulances and one fire department first-response unit, all with their lights flashing. I can’t help wondering what would have happened if there had been a fire or a heart attack while the paramedics were attending to Lesley or if one of the victims had to wait for a bed in ER because Lesley was taking one up.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not about to advocate for an emergency care system that “respects persons” and writes off certain people because they were largely to blame for their condition. What makes me angry and frustrated is that Lesley’s situation could have been prevented, but there’s such a negative response to people who suggest that we should try to stop these problems before they start, actually teaching kids values and hope and the social heresy that we can and should turn to God to get us through tough times. People advocating abstinence or “Just Say No” are denounced as naive and self-righteous; that’s as may be, but I believe that if we give people something to “Just Say Yes” to, “Just Say No” does not become an issue.
And even in this, the Lord is putting things into perspective – praise Him. “At least she had a place to come to,” He quietly reminded me as I was about to start punching the walls inside The Lord’s Rain.
Right as always. The Lord’s Rain was her safe place, as it’s meant to be. If she’d had that bad trip – or the chest pains she complained about – anywhere else, what would she have done? Where would she have gone?
I don’t think it over-states the case to say that we – meaning you, our supporters, because you’re part of this – have someone; at least, helped to give one more person another chance at life, another chance to turn around; another chance to feel the love that is so much a part of The Lord’s Rain. The Lord’s Rain was built on love: it was not built to satisfy a government requirement or as a make-work project; it was built because God put it on the hearts of all those associated with it that this was something needed in the area. More importantly, once He had set the idea in motion, He made sure it came to pass, often through miraculous ways. Incidents like this with Lesley remind one just how needed it is. Remembering how so many others have found safe haven and encouragement at 327 Carrall Street reinforces that.
It's important to remember that, and the successes we have, even as we keep up the search for others to work with us: those to open The Lord’s Rain on the other three early mornings a week, to help run “Ladies Day” (Tuesdays, 9-Noon) and to fill in on other mornings as needed. I know the Lord of the Harvest is tapping people on the shoulder -- just as His Son is knocking on the doors of a lot of people (Rev. 3:20) -- and sooner or later, those people will say, "hello?"
One of those people who did answer the bell is Randall, who has emerged as a vital member of our leadership team; almost immediately the enemy tried to bring him under when he was diagnosed early this year with cancer. (As 'tis said, if you're not taking flak, you're not over the target.) I have heard from him occasionally: his neighbour tells me he’s had surgery to remove the tumor and has been going almost daily for follow-up treatment. I haven’t heard his prognosis, so it’s still anybody’s guess as to when he’ll return to action, so please keep him in prayer.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Casino plans and the Whore of Babylon
Statement from Gospel Mission regarding the proposed new Casino on False Creek.
Gospel Mission welcomes the prospect of an expanded casino on False Creek. The casino will definitely generate new business for us: new people finding themselves caught in their addictions, broke and in debt; and we will welcome them to our rescue mission to hear the Word of God, share a hot meal, and re-connect with Hope that goes beyond the empty promise of easy money through gambling. We find that when people have their backs against the wall and hit rock bottom at the same time, they inevitably turn to Jesus. We have seen that with drug addicts and alcoholics who have come through our doors over the past 82 years, and now we look forward to this new crop for harvest. Further, since we do not ourselves receive money from gambling operations -- including the relatively tiny pot reserved for charities in BC's gaming revenue -- but place our confidence in Jehovah Jireh, the Lord Who Provides, we know we will be there to catch whoever falls. We are, after all, just a stone's throw away from the casino: a six-sided stone, if you catch our drift.
Hands up, all those who caught a bit of sarcasm there ......
In one of its weekly collections of news clips (at least, this was the case the last time I read the magazine), Sports Illustrated would have a kicker called "This Week's Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us"; some weird, usually funny, statement or event that suggests that things are not as they should be.
There are plenty of those around right now, and nowhere near amusing -- the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, for example, is the latest. Add it up with the fires, flooding and tornadoes in Australia, earthquakes in diverse places, vicious and short-notice (if not unpredictable) weather events and all the issues surrounding the Gulf of Mexico oil blowout last year, and an inescapable reality emerges: the signs Jesus foretold of His return are coming to pass.
As the song says, People Get Ready.
But the end-times prophecies are not all bad news -- after all, Jesus' return, and God taking over His Creation, bringing the New Jerusalem and coming to live among His people is good news and to be embraced and welcomed as well as prepared-for. And the Book of Revelation has lots of cause to celebrate.
Take, for example, the current controversy in Vancouver over plans to build a "destination casino" next to BC Place Stadium. There already is a high-end casino there: this would expand it and include a resort hotel and seven restaurants. And the opposition has been swift and loud. Opponents don't want Vancouver to turn into a northern version of Las Vegas and they're not swayed by the proponents' arguments. Health officials have waded into the debate -- coming out against the casino, saying problem gambling is already an epidemic in BC and this will make it worse.
I've blogged before about my views on gambling in general, but I'm noticing something else here, tied to end-times talk. In the past, arguments about the amount of money being generated for health care and community charities have won the day for the gaming proponents; but this time, those points -- along with the repeated assertion that it will "revitalize the area" and "boost Vancouver tourism" -- seem hollow and desperate.
("Boost Vancouver tourism"? In case anyone has missed the past 100 years, Vancouver already has a good tourism industry, with wonderful restaurants, entertainment -- Grammy-award-winning symphony, the Arts Club, the Playhouse, the Jazz Festival, the Yale, Gastown; not to mention natural beauty which you can still see from downtown despite the forest of high-rises. If any place does not need a casino to suck people inside and suck their pockets empty, it's Vancouver.)
You'll find that "something else" in Revelation 17-18, which refers to The Whore of Babylon. I see that as a description of the world economy, where kings and merchants worship and bow down to this gorgeous, jewel-bedecked woman, but when God steps in and exposes her for what she is, the kings and merchants cut and run and try to stay as far away from her burning as possible -- all the while bemoaning her demise.
What I'm seeing with the casino debate is the failure of the "money argument" to sway people in favor of the project, and the increasingly desperate tone that argument is taking. Is the Whore going down? Are people starting to back away? Are merchants starting to wail for her?
Gospel Mission welcomes the prospect of an expanded casino on False Creek. The casino will definitely generate new business for us: new people finding themselves caught in their addictions, broke and in debt; and we will welcome them to our rescue mission to hear the Word of God, share a hot meal, and re-connect with Hope that goes beyond the empty promise of easy money through gambling. We find that when people have their backs against the wall and hit rock bottom at the same time, they inevitably turn to Jesus. We have seen that with drug addicts and alcoholics who have come through our doors over the past 82 years, and now we look forward to this new crop for harvest. Further, since we do not ourselves receive money from gambling operations -- including the relatively tiny pot reserved for charities in BC's gaming revenue -- but place our confidence in Jehovah Jireh, the Lord Who Provides, we know we will be there to catch whoever falls. We are, after all, just a stone's throw away from the casino: a six-sided stone, if you catch our drift.
Hands up, all those who caught a bit of sarcasm there ......
In one of its weekly collections of news clips (at least, this was the case the last time I read the magazine), Sports Illustrated would have a kicker called "This Week's Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us"; some weird, usually funny, statement or event that suggests that things are not as they should be.
There are plenty of those around right now, and nowhere near amusing -- the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, for example, is the latest. Add it up with the fires, flooding and tornadoes in Australia, earthquakes in diverse places, vicious and short-notice (if not unpredictable) weather events and all the issues surrounding the Gulf of Mexico oil blowout last year, and an inescapable reality emerges: the signs Jesus foretold of His return are coming to pass.
As the song says, People Get Ready.
But the end-times prophecies are not all bad news -- after all, Jesus' return, and God taking over His Creation, bringing the New Jerusalem and coming to live among His people is good news and to be embraced and welcomed as well as prepared-for. And the Book of Revelation has lots of cause to celebrate.
Take, for example, the current controversy in Vancouver over plans to build a "destination casino" next to BC Place Stadium. There already is a high-end casino there: this would expand it and include a resort hotel and seven restaurants. And the opposition has been swift and loud. Opponents don't want Vancouver to turn into a northern version of Las Vegas and they're not swayed by the proponents' arguments. Health officials have waded into the debate -- coming out against the casino, saying problem gambling is already an epidemic in BC and this will make it worse.
I've blogged before about my views on gambling in general, but I'm noticing something else here, tied to end-times talk. In the past, arguments about the amount of money being generated for health care and community charities have won the day for the gaming proponents; but this time, those points -- along with the repeated assertion that it will "revitalize the area" and "boost Vancouver tourism" -- seem hollow and desperate.
("Boost Vancouver tourism"? In case anyone has missed the past 100 years, Vancouver already has a good tourism industry, with wonderful restaurants, entertainment -- Grammy-award-winning symphony, the Arts Club, the Playhouse, the Jazz Festival, the Yale, Gastown; not to mention natural beauty which you can still see from downtown despite the forest of high-rises. If any place does not need a casino to suck people inside and suck their pockets empty, it's Vancouver.)
You'll find that "something else" in Revelation 17-18, which refers to The Whore of Babylon. I see that as a description of the world economy, where kings and merchants worship and bow down to this gorgeous, jewel-bedecked woman, but when God steps in and exposes her for what she is, the kings and merchants cut and run and try to stay as far away from her burning as possible -- all the while bemoaning her demise.
What I'm seeing with the casino debate is the failure of the "money argument" to sway people in favor of the project, and the increasingly desperate tone that argument is taking. Is the Whore going down? Are people starting to back away? Are merchants starting to wail for her?
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works:
in the cup which she hath filled, fill her to the double.
-- Rev. 18:5-6
And the Word of God encourages us to realize that this world economy has oppressed and ignored the people and that we are to ignore and oppress that Whore right back. Could we be seeing this now?
Of course, to close the loop back to the statement at the beginning here, we'll be there to help people: but there are times we kinda wish we didn't have to.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Fresh Eyes in the neighbourhood
Diane is one of our new workers at The Lord's Rain. A retired nurse, she responded to a letter I'd written to The Vancouver Sun just after Christmas 2010 about a lengthy item on people who volunteer for the big dinners put on by charities at that time of year. My point was that there are volunteers working in the area 365 days a year and that we need more of them. Diane has now begun running The Lord's Rain -- usually alongside Randall but lately I've been filling in for Randall -- on Wednesday mornings. During our times working together, she's talked about some of her observations -- particularly after Randall had taken her on a "walkabout". Recently, I asked her to write them down. Here's what she sent, followed by an exchange of emails between her and a Vancouver city councillor about her concerns.
I started volunteering at the Lords Rain at the beginning of the year.
At the end of my third shift, my co-volunteer Randall took me on a tour to show me more of the DTE
WHAT HORRIFIED ME
After three shifts I was used to the drug dealing that went on in the alley opposite to the Lords Rain, I was not prepared for the extent of the dealing that is all pervasive in the area, especially on Welfare Wednesday. The dealers were on every street corner, and outside every ATM and cheque cashing shop. Many of the residents were spaced out, and walking along Hastings Street by the Ovaltine cafe there were at least four women sitting on the sidewalk injecting themselves with obviously pre used needles
I wish I had made notes at the time-the following are my recollections, including information from Randall.
First United Church*
We entered to see a group of volunteers providing bowls, soap and water to “walk ins” for foot care
Some people were lying fully clothed in the corridor
The meal room was very large-according to one occupant, a Rabbi had conducted a short service there. The long dining tables were covered with spilt coffee
I looked in on one of the sleeping rooms-bunk beds-very close together-nearly all were occupied (at 9.30 a.m.) by men sleeping fully clothed on top of a sheet
According to Randall, it is open 24/7 which does not allow time for cleaning, there are three bathrooms for the men, and three for the women
The Bottle Depot
A dark, dismal, depressing place
The binners come in and get money for their bottles and cans-the drug dealers are waiting at the door to relieve them of that mone
People were lining up to get free food all over the area-some did not appear to be homeless-(according to Randall there are some who abuse the system )
Different charities run food and soup kitchens
WHAT SURPRISED ME
The resources available to people in the area, and how up beat some of the helpers are
The Evelyn Saller Center
A well used shower programme
Meals available at a price which I felt gave those partaking a certain dignity and self worth
A pool table and area for socialising
Health, delousing, and laundry facilities
“A Health Clinic” ( I cannot remember the name, but I do remember the cheery and very funny pharmacist)
Downtown East Side Personal Development School
Life Skills Centre
Job search assistance, computers
Carnegie Centre
Meals available at a cheaper price
Socialising
Computers
Newspapers
The Door is Open
The day we were there was “ladies day”- a dedicated group of volunteers, mostly from the West side of town were preparing lunch, mainly from donated food
About 12 women were seated at tables socialising-quite a good atmosphere
***
Diane also paid a visit to the showers program at Kitsilano Community Centre. It operates on Saturday mornings.
I wanted to see how this programme was run, and the coordinator kindly agreed to let me observe
The programme, which is totally run by volunteers apart from one Community centre staff person, takes place each Saturday from 7-9 a.m.
I counted about twelve volunteers
The guests were nearly all male, some coming every week from the DTE, others from the surrounding neighbourhood. Many were regulars-nearly all were appreciative
Much of the food and clothing is donated-socks and gloves are purchased and given out to anyone who asks
The showers are the same ones used by the regular center users, and although no tally was made as to how many people had showers, I counted five people in the room at one time-this area was not supervised
There had been a problem with bed bugs-the center had to be closed for cleaning
The coordinator gives everyone a talk re the problem before they are allowed to enter
There are written guidelines for volunteers with emphasis on personal safety
My own thoughts re above
There seems to be a definite hierarchy within the world of the homeless, which ranges from the hopelessness of the women outside the Ovaltine Cafe, to the (learned) helplessness of some of the men in the food lines, as evidenced by the downward slope of their shoulders and downcast eyes, to the hopefulness of the people who are trying to turn their lives around
I feel angry when I see how people are “housed” on the East Side-such conditions would never be tolerated on the West Side
I feel angry and baffled when money is handed out every month to people who immediately spend it on drugs-I cannot understand how there cannot be a system in place to ensure that that money goes toward food and shelter
*Diane had some further thoughts on the cleanliness at First United, which she shared in a Jan. 29 letter to Vancouver Councillor Kerry Jang.
Dear Councillor Jang
I have just read the following in today's edition of the Globe and Mail-the story was referring to tent cities in Seattle: "Health and safety concerns - for prospective residents and staff- make tent encampments a non-starter, Vancouver Councillor Kerry Jang said. 'It's just not good public health,' he said.
I volunteer with one of the shower programmes on the downtown east side-another volunteer took me on a tour of the area. I had the chance to take a look inside the First United Church on the corner of Hastings and Gore, and was horrified at what I saw-I am assuming that you have been there, so will not go into any more detail.
A large number of people are sleeping in very close quarters under one roof, with a limited number of bathrooms and exits. If you have not been to this facility lately, I hope you will take the time to revisit it-unannounced.
I would also appreciate your telling me what role the city plays in its funding, and what is being done to ensure that safety and health standards are being met.
Yours sincerely
***
Councillor Jang replied that same day,
Hi Diane,
I am well aware of First United. The shelter there is being funded now entirely by the Province of BC. The city set it up initially with the Province and it became very popular due to the needs in the area. Just so you know, we are aware of the issues there - mainly over crowding on some nights and our fire and VPD inspectors are there regulalry, as are folks from Coastal Health to make sure all are safe. To date, any issues have been dealt with by the church and Coastal Health have been satisfied. Over the past two plus years, although crowded, the facilities there have not had any outbreaks, etc, likely due to the cleaning protocol and the fact there are adequate washroom facilities. I do not know what parts you have seen, but there are beds there now when in the first year there were just mats and pews.
Tent cities are a problem as there are no proper santitation/washroom facilities and no way to regulate heat. When tent cities have popped up in Vancouver in the past, there were severe health problems.
***
Diane copied her MLA, Dr Margaret McDiarmid, on the exchange, and was told that had been forwarded to Rich Coleman, Minister of Public Safety -- and the minister whose department would oversee the program.
I started volunteering at the Lords Rain at the beginning of the year.
At the end of my third shift, my co-volunteer Randall took me on a tour to show me more of the DTE
WHAT HORRIFIED ME
After three shifts I was used to the drug dealing that went on in the alley opposite to the Lords Rain, I was not prepared for the extent of the dealing that is all pervasive in the area, especially on Welfare Wednesday. The dealers were on every street corner, and outside every ATM and cheque cashing shop. Many of the residents were spaced out, and walking along Hastings Street by the Ovaltine cafe there were at least four women sitting on the sidewalk injecting themselves with obviously pre used needles
I wish I had made notes at the time-the following are my recollections, including information from Randall.
First United Church*
We entered to see a group of volunteers providing bowls, soap and water to “walk ins” for foot care
Some people were lying fully clothed in the corridor
The meal room was very large-according to one occupant, a Rabbi had conducted a short service there. The long dining tables were covered with spilt coffee
I looked in on one of the sleeping rooms-bunk beds-very close together-nearly all were occupied (at 9.30 a.m.) by men sleeping fully clothed on top of a sheet
According to Randall, it is open 24/7 which does not allow time for cleaning, there are three bathrooms for the men, and three for the women
The Bottle Depot
A dark, dismal, depressing place
The binners come in and get money for their bottles and cans-the drug dealers are waiting at the door to relieve them of that mone
People were lining up to get free food all over the area-some did not appear to be homeless-(according to Randall there are some who abuse the system )
Different charities run food and soup kitchens
WHAT SURPRISED ME
The resources available to people in the area, and how up beat some of the helpers are
The Evelyn Saller Center
A well used shower programme
Meals available at a price which I felt gave those partaking a certain dignity and self worth
A pool table and area for socialising
Health, delousing, and laundry facilities
“A Health Clinic” ( I cannot remember the name, but I do remember the cheery and very funny pharmacist)
Downtown East Side Personal Development School
Life Skills Centre
Job search assistance, computers
Carnegie Centre
Meals available at a cheaper price
Socialising
Computers
Newspapers
The Door is Open
The day we were there was “ladies day”- a dedicated group of volunteers, mostly from the West side of town were preparing lunch, mainly from donated food
About 12 women were seated at tables socialising-quite a good atmosphere
***
Diane also paid a visit to the showers program at Kitsilano Community Centre. It operates on Saturday mornings.
I wanted to see how this programme was run, and the coordinator kindly agreed to let me observe
The programme, which is totally run by volunteers apart from one Community centre staff person, takes place each Saturday from 7-9 a.m.
I counted about twelve volunteers
- 2 at the entrance to the Center where guest sign in-their bags are put into large plastic bags, carts are tagged, and they are given a ticket for them “Valet Parking"
- 3 in the kitchen cooking up a full breakfast
- 2 at the cereal, hot porridge and muffin table
- 2 at the coffee(pre prepared and donated by Starbucks) and juice table
- 2 at the clothing, toiletries, towels table
Friendly, outgoing volunteers, mainly from the West side, some attend the Catholic Church next door-very respectful to the guests
The guests were nearly all male, some coming every week from the DTE, others from the surrounding neighbourhood. Many were regulars-nearly all were appreciative
Much of the food and clothing is donated-socks and gloves are purchased and given out to anyone who asks
The showers are the same ones used by the regular center users, and although no tally was made as to how many people had showers, I counted five people in the room at one time-this area was not supervised
There had been a problem with bed bugs-the center had to be closed for cleaning
The coordinator gives everyone a talk re the problem before they are allowed to enter
There are written guidelines for volunteers with emphasis on personal safety
My own thoughts re above
There seems to be a definite hierarchy within the world of the homeless, which ranges from the hopelessness of the women outside the Ovaltine Cafe, to the (learned) helplessness of some of the men in the food lines, as evidenced by the downward slope of their shoulders and downcast eyes, to the hopefulness of the people who are trying to turn their lives around
I feel angry when I see how people are “housed” on the East Side-such conditions would never be tolerated on the West Side
I feel angry and baffled when money is handed out every month to people who immediately spend it on drugs-I cannot understand how there cannot be a system in place to ensure that that money goes toward food and shelter
*Diane had some further thoughts on the cleanliness at First United, which she shared in a Jan. 29 letter to Vancouver Councillor Kerry Jang.
Dear Councillor Jang
I have just read the following in today's edition of the Globe and Mail-the story was referring to tent cities in Seattle: "Health and safety concerns - for prospective residents and staff- make tent encampments a non-starter, Vancouver Councillor Kerry Jang said. 'It's just not good public health,' he said.
I volunteer with one of the shower programmes on the downtown east side-another volunteer took me on a tour of the area. I had the chance to take a look inside the First United Church on the corner of Hastings and Gore, and was horrified at what I saw-I am assuming that you have been there, so will not go into any more detail.
A large number of people are sleeping in very close quarters under one roof, with a limited number of bathrooms and exits. If you have not been to this facility lately, I hope you will take the time to revisit it-unannounced.
I would also appreciate your telling me what role the city plays in its funding, and what is being done to ensure that safety and health standards are being met.
Yours sincerely
***
Councillor Jang replied that same day,
Hi Diane,
I am well aware of First United. The shelter there is being funded now entirely by the Province of BC. The city set it up initially with the Province and it became very popular due to the needs in the area. Just so you know, we are aware of the issues there - mainly over crowding on some nights and our fire and VPD inspectors are there regulalry, as are folks from Coastal Health to make sure all are safe. To date, any issues have been dealt with by the church and Coastal Health have been satisfied. Over the past two plus years, although crowded, the facilities there have not had any outbreaks, etc, likely due to the cleaning protocol and the fact there are adequate washroom facilities. I do not know what parts you have seen, but there are beds there now when in the first year there were just mats and pews.
Tent cities are a problem as there are no proper santitation/washroom facilities and no way to regulate heat. When tent cities have popped up in Vancouver in the past, there were severe health problems.
***
Diane copied her MLA, Dr Margaret McDiarmid, on the exchange, and was told that had been forwarded to Rich Coleman, Minister of Public Safety -- and the minister whose department would oversee the program.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Shouldn't do it to a dog ...
The outrage du jour in British Columbia lately has been the slaughter of sled dogs by a sled-dog tour operator in Whistler. Apparently, these dogs were deemed expendable when the company experienced a downturn after the initial post-Olympics surge in business.
It's a horrifying case, both in and of itself and also in the exercise in "rush to judgment". There's been this outpouring of anger -- including death threats -- against the company, the person who did the killing (who's just been granted worker's compensation benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder) and the Olympic games; there's even been a Facebook page set up (oooh! a Facebook page! Now they're really in trouble!)
Interestingly, none of this outrage seems to be directed at the general public - the tourists who created a perceived demand for this service in the first place. It's a little like demanding Big Macs and Quarter-Pounders and then complaining that the South American forests have been destroyed to increase beef cattle lands.
Mind you, God is not impressed, either: A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. (Proverbs 12:10 KJV)
(Reading this, Temple Grandin is definitely more in line with the will of God than most animal-rights activists: reputedly, one of her key observations about cattle management was that in dying, animals provide us with food, so we have to treat them with respect while they're alive. But I digress ...)
But one of the sidebars to this outrage has been people pointing to the lack of outrage when it comes to inhumane efforts against people -- like the deaths of 21 children who were under the care of the Ministry of Children and Families. The province's Child Advocate identified those, and I can tell you, there wasn't anywhere near the public outcry over that than there has been over the dogs.
And let me add this to the mix: where is the outrage over the human condition on Vancouver's Skid Road? Why have so many Christians, who are called to reach out to the poor and destitute, abrogated that responsibility and handed it off to a vast socio-political experiment in not-so-benign neglect? Solutions like harm-reduction and mixing affordable and market housing run counter to the will of God:
God's solution involves recognizing that drug addicts and the mentally ill are fallen human beings like all of us -- everyone has a different response mechanism and theirs has involved a more spectacular crash. It's the duty before God for all of us to reach out with love and hope that overpower the need for the drugs.
I'm not just talking about the addicts. I grieve for the dealers and enforcers and lookouts I see on the street outside Gospel Mission: lurking about in their hoodies, talking on cell phones, swaggering back and forth looking as tough as they can, talking among themselves as if they're old friends, but you know deep down, none of them trusts the others. What will their lives be like in 5, 10, 20 years -- if they're still alive? Believe it or not, we as Christians have a duty to reach out to them, too.
But where is the outrage? Do we really care more for sled dogs than for other humans? Jesus told us there'd be days like these -- when "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matt. 24:12 KJV) -- as the world awaits His return.
Or is this lack of outrage really because deep down, we're convicted that -- to use Walt Kelly's overworked line from Pogo -- we have met the enemy and he is us?
It's a horrifying case, both in and of itself and also in the exercise in "rush to judgment". There's been this outpouring of anger -- including death threats -- against the company, the person who did the killing (who's just been granted worker's compensation benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder) and the Olympic games; there's even been a Facebook page set up (oooh! a Facebook page! Now they're really in trouble!)
Interestingly, none of this outrage seems to be directed at the general public - the tourists who created a perceived demand for this service in the first place. It's a little like demanding Big Macs and Quarter-Pounders and then complaining that the South American forests have been destroyed to increase beef cattle lands.
Mind you, God is not impressed, either: A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. (Proverbs 12:10 KJV)
(Reading this, Temple Grandin is definitely more in line with the will of God than most animal-rights activists: reputedly, one of her key observations about cattle management was that in dying, animals provide us with food, so we have to treat them with respect while they're alive. But I digress ...)
But one of the sidebars to this outrage has been people pointing to the lack of outrage when it comes to inhumane efforts against people -- like the deaths of 21 children who were under the care of the Ministry of Children and Families. The province's Child Advocate identified those, and I can tell you, there wasn't anywhere near the public outcry over that than there has been over the dogs.
And let me add this to the mix: where is the outrage over the human condition on Vancouver's Skid Road? Why have so many Christians, who are called to reach out to the poor and destitute, abrogated that responsibility and handed it off to a vast socio-political experiment in not-so-benign neglect? Solutions like harm-reduction and mixing affordable and market housing run counter to the will of God:
- mixed-use housing is not a bad idea, per se, but as I pointed out in my previous post, it keeps drug addicts in the very area where their problems are all around them. They need to move -- like Abram was instructed by God -- to a different place, so they can move towards the promise God as for them
- (it also provides developers an excellent opportunity to promise an affordable housing component in their plans and then, when sales go sideways -- as happened with Olympic Village -- cry poverty and demand to be released from their promise)
- as I've said numerous times before, Jesus was not into harm reduction; He was (and still is) into harm elimination -- total healing, not just band-aids
- drug advocates rail that the US "War on Drugs" has been a failure, but the peace treaty with drugs we have in this society has led to the problems on Skid Road today -- the reason why people are terrified of walking through the area between Chinatown and Gastown. Neither works, because of the spirit behind them: the spirit of a "quick fix".
- The US approach is to try to drop the Monty Python 16-ton weight on the drug industry;
- the approach we see in Canada is to make life easier for the addicts: lots of social housing, clean needles and a "safe place to shoot up";
- the court system fails to back up law enforcement officers;
- the news media glamorize pushers by publicizing the dollar value of drug seizures and printing photos of gang leaders who look like they belong more in GQ than Hotel Crowbar
God's solution involves recognizing that drug addicts and the mentally ill are fallen human beings like all of us -- everyone has a different response mechanism and theirs has involved a more spectacular crash. It's the duty before God for all of us to reach out with love and hope that overpower the need for the drugs.
I'm not just talking about the addicts. I grieve for the dealers and enforcers and lookouts I see on the street outside Gospel Mission: lurking about in their hoodies, talking on cell phones, swaggering back and forth looking as tough as they can, talking among themselves as if they're old friends, but you know deep down, none of them trusts the others. What will their lives be like in 5, 10, 20 years -- if they're still alive? Believe it or not, we as Christians have a duty to reach out to them, too.
But where is the outrage? Do we really care more for sled dogs than for other humans? Jesus told us there'd be days like these -- when "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matt. 24:12 KJV) -- as the world awaits His return.
Or is this lack of outrage really because deep down, we're convicted that -- to use Walt Kelly's overworked line from Pogo -- we have met the enemy and he is us?
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Some heresy about the DTES
There’s been a lot of talk lately about development on Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, with people concerned that “gentrification” (the bogeyman du jour in that section of town) will push the poor out of the area as housing prices rise; and then where would they go?
Unfortunately, the response from some of the advocates for affordable housing – as in the Vancouver Sun op-ed piece on Feb. 2 – makes the case that mixing social strata doesn’t work and demands that unnamed people and entities build more single-room occupancy (SRO) spaces and upgrade existing ones. The advocates don’t actually say who should pay for this, although I’m sure that, if asked, we would hear the usual responses: “the city can afford to spend millions on bike lanes” ... “the province can spend $600 million on a new roof for BC Place, but ...” ... yadda-yadda-yadda ...
Here’s a piece of heresy: what’s so great about keeping the poor on the Downtown East Side?
Really: isn’t this build-more-social-housing-on-the-DTES position little more than a call to perpetuate the ghetto?
This comes from ministering, observing and talking with people in the area, and for no compensation and with a sole interest, if I may say so myself, in seeing people’s lives change, turn around and move forward. Let's get real: this is Skid Road, a cauldron of despair, drugs, crime and prostitution; why would we want to pursue policies and strategies that don’t help people move on and instead make it easier for them to stay in that cauldron?
Perhaps it’s because there can be a buck in it for people who advocate that approach. But that would be cynical. Moi?
See, the first thing we need to do is stop glamorizing the place, and we've been doing that since the 1970s when the term Downtown East Side started getting traction. I remember thinking the term was kinda cool – a sort of New York cachet – like “Lower East Side” or “The Village”. These days, someone’s trying to coin “SoMa” for a stretch of Main Street (“South Main”, get it?): kind of like “SoHo” – South of Houston Street – in New York. (Vancouver has a history of wanting to be Just Like The Big Cities – so long as it’s not Toronto – and that goes back over a century, when architecture like the Dominion Building on Hastings resembled some of the buildings of the time in San Francisco. Unfortunately, a lot of its treatment of poor people resembles New York as depicted in “How The Other Half Lives” – in 1878.)
Next, we need to turn up our BS detectors when someone comes along with an idea they claim will “help” or “humanize” the “homeless”. Look at the people whose political and/or personal careers have been built on being “advocates” for the poor. Now consider the fruits of their labor. Recently, the UBC Museum of Anthropology cancelled an exhibit of portraits of the women who went missing from the Downtown East Side over a 10-year period. That was one of the wisest things a public body could have done, as it was responding to a couple of advocacy groups, which complained that the exhibit was primarily an exercise in self-promotion by the artist.
Only when we de-glamorize the area do we see that we are dealing with human beings, not subjects in a social experiment. Nor are they numbers on a “homelessness audit”: figures for a politician to point to and declare that’s his or her goal to have new rooms in fleabag “hotels” provided during their term in office.
We have to face the reality that the heart of the problems on the Downtown East Side is drugs. That, in itself, is not a big revelation, but the focus has strayed away from the need to get people off drugs. Do that, and you’re on your way to alleviating problems of health, crime, prostitution and the general fear people have of the area. We’ve tried the experiment of making it easier and “healthier” for people to take drugs, and it has not worked. For all its self-generated statistical evidence of success, the current approach of “harm reduction”, including places like InSite (the heroin equivalent of filter-tipped cigarettes), has not worked. Take a walk along Hastings between Cambie and Gore and tell me it’s made the streets safer (the way it was sold to the public almost a decade ago) and given people a new chance at life.
I believe we need to consider forced recovery treatment, not as a “punishment” for being a drug addict, but as duty of society to its people. The civil libertarians would claim that addicts are being denied their rights and that people have a choice to be addicts or quit, but I submit that someone who is lurching along the street, bent double, looking for a grain of crack that someone might have dropped and foregoing food for the sake of another hit has already lost that freedom of choice. It’s not their fault: it’s the insidious and deadly nature of the drugs.
There are three important elements, I believe, to changing people’s lives in this way:
1. Get them into treatment – real treatment programs, using proven techniques, that involve quitting and staying off
2. Help them develop a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. By doing that, they have something to focus on, rather something to turn away from. It’s the principle of “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” In this case, “all these things” means the “pleasure” derived from drug-taking.
3. Set up the treatment program anywhere but the Downtown East Side. If you want to get clean, get out of the cesspool. And stay out. Probably the best venue is a farm-like atmosphere or something else related to good, solid, productive work. Access should be severely limited. I can hear the howls of “concentration camp” now from the civil libertarians, but I’ve long since stopped believing they’re actually on the side of the poor (see above).
As I’ve said before, the problem on Skid Road is not homelessness. It’s hope-lessness. We need to restore hope – that intangible reason for carrying on; the liberating knowledge that none of us is capable of turning our lives around without Jesus. He is the hope that people need: the unconditional love that never fails – never has and never will.
And yes, I do see the results of that message as I see people start to rise up out of the ashes, get off the drugs ... or even start to smile again. But it’s tough to reinforce that message when the world around them – even people like mayors, members of Parliament and those who claim to be acting in their best interests – keep taking positions that such people, because they’re mentally ill and/or drug-addicted, are entitled to remain drug addicts, living on Skid Road.
It is not in our interest as a society to let any of our people live this way. God has not given up on these people: neither should we. If you talk with anyone in the Skid Road area, you’ll find they all have their stories, they all have experiences ... and they all have brains and things they can contribute. I meet artists, teachers, academics, working stiffs, chefs: people who’ve made one or two really bad mistakes and have wound up broke, on drugs or mentally ill. These people have gifts and talents to contribute and we as a society are denying ourselves those gifts.
Who among us hasn’t made a mistake? Who among us is without sin? Or are we actually being subtly self-righteous and judgmental, figuring they “made their choices” and are “paying the price”? Wracked with societal guilt, we then wail and gnash our teeth and ride off madly in all directions trying to “do something”. We forget – or ignore – the fact that Jesus already “paid the price” for everybody’s mistakes and then instructed us to reach out and help those whose fall was longer and harder than ours.
Unfortunately, the response from some of the advocates for affordable housing – as in the Vancouver Sun op-ed piece on Feb. 2 – makes the case that mixing social strata doesn’t work and demands that unnamed people and entities build more single-room occupancy (SRO) spaces and upgrade existing ones. The advocates don’t actually say who should pay for this, although I’m sure that, if asked, we would hear the usual responses: “the city can afford to spend millions on bike lanes” ... “the province can spend $600 million on a new roof for BC Place, but ...” ... yadda-yadda-yadda ...
Here’s a piece of heresy: what’s so great about keeping the poor on the Downtown East Side?
Really: isn’t this build-more-social-housing-on-the-DTES position little more than a call to perpetuate the ghetto?
This comes from ministering, observing and talking with people in the area, and for no compensation and with a sole interest, if I may say so myself, in seeing people’s lives change, turn around and move forward. Let's get real: this is Skid Road, a cauldron of despair, drugs, crime and prostitution; why would we want to pursue policies and strategies that don’t help people move on and instead make it easier for them to stay in that cauldron?
Perhaps it’s because there can be a buck in it for people who advocate that approach. But that would be cynical. Moi?
See, the first thing we need to do is stop glamorizing the place, and we've been doing that since the 1970s when the term Downtown East Side started getting traction. I remember thinking the term was kinda cool – a sort of New York cachet – like “Lower East Side” or “The Village”. These days, someone’s trying to coin “SoMa” for a stretch of Main Street (“South Main”, get it?): kind of like “SoHo” – South of Houston Street – in New York. (Vancouver has a history of wanting to be Just Like The Big Cities – so long as it’s not Toronto – and that goes back over a century, when architecture like the Dominion Building on Hastings resembled some of the buildings of the time in San Francisco. Unfortunately, a lot of its treatment of poor people resembles New York as depicted in “How The Other Half Lives” – in 1878.)
Next, we need to turn up our BS detectors when someone comes along with an idea they claim will “help” or “humanize” the “homeless”. Look at the people whose political and/or personal careers have been built on being “advocates” for the poor. Now consider the fruits of their labor. Recently, the UBC Museum of Anthropology cancelled an exhibit of portraits of the women who went missing from the Downtown East Side over a 10-year period. That was one of the wisest things a public body could have done, as it was responding to a couple of advocacy groups, which complained that the exhibit was primarily an exercise in self-promotion by the artist.
Only when we de-glamorize the area do we see that we are dealing with human beings, not subjects in a social experiment. Nor are they numbers on a “homelessness audit”: figures for a politician to point to and declare that’s his or her goal to have new rooms in fleabag “hotels” provided during their term in office.
We have to face the reality that the heart of the problems on the Downtown East Side is drugs. That, in itself, is not a big revelation, but the focus has strayed away from the need to get people off drugs. Do that, and you’re on your way to alleviating problems of health, crime, prostitution and the general fear people have of the area. We’ve tried the experiment of making it easier and “healthier” for people to take drugs, and it has not worked. For all its self-generated statistical evidence of success, the current approach of “harm reduction”, including places like InSite (the heroin equivalent of filter-tipped cigarettes), has not worked. Take a walk along Hastings between Cambie and Gore and tell me it’s made the streets safer (the way it was sold to the public almost a decade ago) and given people a new chance at life.
I believe we need to consider forced recovery treatment, not as a “punishment” for being a drug addict, but as duty of society to its people. The civil libertarians would claim that addicts are being denied their rights and that people have a choice to be addicts or quit, but I submit that someone who is lurching along the street, bent double, looking for a grain of crack that someone might have dropped and foregoing food for the sake of another hit has already lost that freedom of choice. It’s not their fault: it’s the insidious and deadly nature of the drugs.
There are three important elements, I believe, to changing people’s lives in this way:
1. Get them into treatment – real treatment programs, using proven techniques, that involve quitting and staying off
2. Help them develop a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. By doing that, they have something to focus on, rather something to turn away from. It’s the principle of “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” In this case, “all these things” means the “pleasure” derived from drug-taking.
3. Set up the treatment program anywhere but the Downtown East Side. If you want to get clean, get out of the cesspool. And stay out. Probably the best venue is a farm-like atmosphere or something else related to good, solid, productive work. Access should be severely limited. I can hear the howls of “concentration camp” now from the civil libertarians, but I’ve long since stopped believing they’re actually on the side of the poor (see above).
As I’ve said before, the problem on Skid Road is not homelessness. It’s hope-lessness. We need to restore hope – that intangible reason for carrying on; the liberating knowledge that none of us is capable of turning our lives around without Jesus. He is the hope that people need: the unconditional love that never fails – never has and never will.
And yes, I do see the results of that message as I see people start to rise up out of the ashes, get off the drugs ... or even start to smile again. But it’s tough to reinforce that message when the world around them – even people like mayors, members of Parliament and those who claim to be acting in their best interests – keep taking positions that such people, because they’re mentally ill and/or drug-addicted, are entitled to remain drug addicts, living on Skid Road.
It is not in our interest as a society to let any of our people live this way. God has not given up on these people: neither should we. If you talk with anyone in the Skid Road area, you’ll find they all have their stories, they all have experiences ... and they all have brains and things they can contribute. I meet artists, teachers, academics, working stiffs, chefs: people who’ve made one or two really bad mistakes and have wound up broke, on drugs or mentally ill. These people have gifts and talents to contribute and we as a society are denying ourselves those gifts.
Who among us hasn’t made a mistake? Who among us is without sin? Or are we actually being subtly self-righteous and judgmental, figuring they “made their choices” and are “paying the price”? Wracked with societal guilt, we then wail and gnash our teeth and ride off madly in all directions trying to “do something”. We forget – or ignore – the fact that Jesus already “paid the price” for everybody’s mistakes and then instructed us to reach out and help those whose fall was longer and harder than ours.
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