PHS Community Services Society

Guy Felicella: “When we’re shaming people for their drug use, we’re actually shaming them for the reason why they use drugs… for something that they had no business going through — sexual abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, childhood suffering." Guy talks bravely about his own protracted recovery process, during which harm reduction supports kept him alive. Treatment weaned his body off drugs, but he was still dealing with underlying PTSD and trauma. Drugs had been a coping mechanism, he says, and he needed support to build new ways of approaching this pain. He regards it as a life-long process: https://bit.ly/4ellW2y Commentators have no business blaming supervised consumption sites for unaddressed societal issues like poverty and homelessness; their mandate is to simply save lives. Safe consumption and treatment are not at odds; we provide both. #harmreduction #healthcare #opioidcrisis

TODAY: A Vancouver gallery exhibition opens celebrating three artists who have survived homelessness in the Downtown Eastside. An Dong, Randy Pandora and Brett Zü are spotlighted at Outsiders and Others gallery, 100 - 938 Howe St. The exhibition, From the Streets of Our Unfair City runs until Saturday, Jan. 25. There's an opening day reception today (Saturday, Jan. 4) from 2 - 4 pm. More info: www.outsidersandothers.com #Vancouver #community #homelessness

"The record high 1.2 million people, one in five British Columbians, living in food insecure households is a shameful matter of public policy neglect" - The Tyee. Think about it as an early warning sign: Hunger often precedes homelessness because people who are forced to decide between paying for rent or groceries often stint on the latter. Food insecurity and homelessness are driven by poverty, and that's a policy choice.

"Build more affordable housing. Build more programs for these people. They need help." Sharon Sinclair, whose daughter Kimberlee Kirton is currently staying in a shelter in Coquitlam after experiencing street homelessness, speaks of the urgent need for authorities to provide services to people in encampments rather than simply forcing them to move along. The various levels of government are pointing fingers at other levels of government, pausing only to blame the people in encampments for their own homelessness in the vague hope it looks like leadership. Let's not act surprised about this: the feds got out of social housing more than 30 years ago and social assistance benefits have been left to trail behind soaring rent costs and food prices. #homelessness #housing

The redevelopment of a DTES community church will house and support Indigenous people in the neighbourhood. First United's $91 million housing and community support project “will serve the urban Indigenous community struggling to secure affordable housing in the Downtown Eastside," said Lu’ma Native Housing Society president Dave Baspaly. It will create 103 new below-market housing units, including 35 supportive housing units, and an additional 68 rental homes. It should open late 2025. #Vancouver #community #housing

“No drug is in itself addictive" - Dr. Gabor Maté. Addiction is a manifestation of trauma, an unhealed wound. It is never the primary problem; it's an attempt to solve a problem, says Maté. “Not all addictions are rooted in abuse or trauma, but I do believe they can all be traced to painful experience," he said. "A hurt is at the centre of all addictive behaviours. “It is present in the gambler, the internet addict, the compulsive shopper, and the workaholic. The wound may not be as deep and the ache not as excruciating, and it may even be entirely hidden, but it’s there." In other words, he's saying that it's not about the drugs. Forget the moral panic; when you see public drug use it's actually a mental health crisis. This model explains how behavioural addictions - food, gambling, sex - can take over some people's lives in the way that drugs take over some people's lives. Because trauma. And also how the war on drugs is a 50-year failure: it can only remove supply, not demand. Read on: https://bit.ly/4dPH0xi #mentalhealth #harmreduction #opioidcrisis

“Even Snoop Dogg likes to tweet about the DTES” - Aboriginal Front Door Society President Norm Leech. “It’s because it’s the end of the road, people end up here… We are the result of people making money and pushing poor people into smaller and smaller places. We are survivors.” Norm spoke during his land acknowledgement at a community meeting titled 'Uplifting or Gentrifying the DTES?,' called to consider a City of Vancouver motion about 'uplifting' the neighbourhood. The community event basically asked if the city's phrase meant much-needed investment in the infrastructure could be on the way. . . or was it instead code for gentrification that would drive the city's poorest into an even more confined space? The City’s Downtown Eastside Plan, launched 2014, establishes a 30-year “people-first” policy to “make the DTES a more livable, safe and supportive place for all of its diverse residents” by protecting the community from commercial development such as high-end condos. Abandoning the plan would allow property developers to make massive profits in the area. It would be gentrification that would do nothing to uplift the community. But. . . it's an area of chronic government neglect and concentrated poverty, and because of this it's really difficult for new businesses to thrive here and bring jobs and money to the neighbourhood. Basic infrastructure upgrades like lighting and sidewalk repairs just don't happen in the DTES, which contrasts starkly with the aggressive investment in surrounding areas of Gastown and Chinatown. It's an area in urgent need of uplifting, but that's not done by building luxury condos. Read on: https://bit.ly/41IALZD #Vancouver #community

Students from Stratford Hall School visited our New Fountain Shelter to deliver care packages for people experiencing homelessness. Gift packs containing necessities and luxuries will be given to PHS shelter guests on Christmas Day. We want to thank all students from K - 12 who were involved in donating items and assembling the bags. Your thoughtful gifts will make a big difference to very marginalized people. #vancouver #homelessness

Special thanks to the amazing team at Let It Flow Period Product Drive for delivering donated sanitary items to our Victoria operation. Their annual campaign addresses period poverty in the city, with donated items handed over to groups that work with marginalized women. Period products are donation items that immediately help our community, providing comfort, dignity and freedom. Thank you to all who supported this campaign. #victoria #charity #community

Special thanks to The Right Shoe team who called in with a double donation: 355 pairs of shoes and $1,500. Staff at the 1601 West 4th Avenue, Kits store supported the Downtown Eastside community by inviting customers to participate in an annual fundraising run and a shoe drive. Kudos to everyone at The Right Shoe who made this possible. Your support makes a difference by helping PHS care for marginalized people we serve. #Vancouver #charity #community