How do you explain Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to tourists? It’s complicated…
Vancouver's DTES became a poor neighbourhood although relatively stable. The area rapidly decline due to several factors, including an influx of hard drugs, policies that pushed sex work and drugrelated activity out of nearby areas, and the cessation of federal funding for social housing. The drug overdoses in the DTES led to the declaration of a public health emergency and critical issues include opioid overdoses, especially those involving the drug fentanyl; decrepit and squalid housing; a shortage of lowcost rental housing; and mental illness, which often cooccurs with addiction.