Downtown Eastside readying for world media
December 2nd, 2009 Filed under: Made In Canada, News/Calendar/Industry by admin
“…and on the 8th day God said: Get rid of those junkies, we’ve got sports to play!”
(Globe & Mail | Photo – Chris Webber) – Thousands of international reporters are expected to prowl through the Downtown Eastside during the Olympic Games this February looking for a story about the darker side of Vancouver.
And B.C.’s Housing Ministry is going to be ready for them, with stories aimed at showing that it’s not all decay and despair.
“We think there’s a good story to tell about what we’ve done in B.C. for homelessness, mental health, drug addiction,” Housing Minister Rich Coleman said.
Mr. Coleman confirmed this week that BC Housing will be setting up shop in a ground-floor space in one of the Woodward’s towers at the gateway to the Downtown Eastside, a strategy hinted at in a document obtained through a recent freedom of information request by the political blog Public Eye.
He said it’s not his ministry’s plan to paint the Downtown Eastside as something it isn’t. “We’re not going to hide that we have a bit of homelessness,” he said.
A 2008 count found nearly 2,700 homeless people in the Lower Mainland.
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