The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues, including disproportionately high levels of drug use, homelessness, poverty, crime, mental illness and sex work.
Around the beginning of the 20th century, the DTES was Vancouver's political, cultural and retail centre. Over several decades, the city centre gradually shifted westwards, and the DTES became a poor neighbourhood, although relatively stable. In the 1980s, the area began a rapid decline due to several factors, including an influx of hard drugs, policies that pushed sex work and drug-related activity out of nearby areas, and the cessation of federal funding for social housing. By 1997, an epidemic of HIV infection and drug overdoses in the DTES led to the declaration of a public health emergency. As of 2018, critical issues include opioid overdoses, especially those involving the drug fentanyl; decrepit and squalid housing; a shortage of low-cost rental housing; and mental illness, which often co-occurs with addiction.
The population of the DTES is estimated to be around 7,000 people. Compared to the city, the neighbourhood is home to a significant Indigenous population, which reflects the ongoing impacts of colonial displacement and systemic inequities that have shaped the area’s demographics. Additionally, historical factors such as de-institutionalization, housing shortages, and limited access to mental health care have contributed to the concentration of poverty and substance use in the community. Residents experience Canada's highest rate of death from encounters with police, and there is mutual mistrust between police and many residents experiencing homelessness.
Since Vancouver's real-estate boom began in the early 21st century, the area has been increasingly experiencing gentrification. Some see gentrification as a force for revitalization, while others believe it has led to higher displacement and homelessness. Numerous efforts have been made to improve the DTES at an estimated cost of over $1.4 billion as of 2009. Services in the greater DTES area are estimated to cost $360 million per year. to 50 blocks in size, a few blocks east of the city's Downtown central business district. The neighbourhood is centred around the intersection of Main Street and Hastings Street, where residents have gathered for over a hundred years to connect. This intersection is also the home of the Carnegie Community Centre. The area around Hastings and Main is where the neighbourhood's social issues are most visible, described in the Vancouver Sun in 2006 as "four blocks of hell."
Some indications of the borders of the DTES, which shift and are poorly defined, are as follows:
- A 2016 analysis of crime in the DTES by The Georgia Straight focused on an area that consisted of a six-block length of Hastings and Cordova Streets, between Cambie Street and Jackson Avenue.
- The City of Vancouver describes a "Community-based Development Area", where places important to low-income residents are concentrated. This area includes Hastings Street from Abbott Street to Heatley Avenue, and the blocks surrounding Oppenheimer Park.
- By some definitions, the DTES extends along Main Street to beyond Terminal Avenue, and the DTES also includes a strip of land adjacent to Vancouver's port. though some place it at Railway Street, including DTES east of Gore Avenue.
History
thumb|right|alt=refer to caption|The corner of Hastings and Main, c. 1912
thumb|right|alt=refer to caption|Lotus Light Lei Zang Si Temple, a Chinese Buddhist temple in the heart of East Hastings, is part of the diversity of the neighbourhood.
The DTES forms part of the traditional territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam First Nations. European settlement of the area began in the mid-19th century, and most early buildings were destroyed in the Great Vancouver Fire of 1886. Residents rebuilt their town at the edge of Burrard Inlet, between Cambie and Carrall streets, a townsite that now forms Gastown and part of the DTES. At the turn of the century, the DTES was the heart of the city, containing city hall, the courthouse, banks, the main shopping district, and the Carnegie Library. Travellers connecting between Pacific steamships and the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway used its hundreds of hotels and rooming houses. Large Japanese and Chinese immigrant communities settled in Japantown, which lies within the DTES, and in nearby Chinatown, respectively.
During the Depression, hundreds of men arrived in Vancouver searching for work. Most of them later returned to their hometowns, except workers who had been injured or those who were sick or elderly. These men remained in the DTES area – at the time known as Skid Road – which became a non-judgemental, affordable place to live as the main downtown area of Vancouver began to shift westward. Among them, drinking was a common pastime. In addition to being a central cultural and entertainment district, Hastings Street was also a centre for beer parlours and brothels.
In 1942, the neighbourhood lost its entire ethnic Japanese population, estimated at 8,000 to 10,000, due to the Canadian government's internment of these people. After the war, most did not return to the once-thriving Japantown community.
In the 1950s, the city centre continued its shift westward after the interurban rail line closed; its main depot was at Carrall and Hastings. Theatres and shops moved towards Granville and Robson streets. As tourist traffic declined, the neighbourhood's hotels became run-down and were gradually converted to single room occupancy (SRO) housing, a use which persists to this day. By 1965, the area was known for prostitution and for having a relatively high proportion of poor, single men, many of whom were alcoholics, disabled, or pensioners.
1980s
thumb|left|alt=refer to caption|[[Carnegie Community Centre at the corner of Main and Hastings.]]
In the early 1980s, the DTES was an edgy but still relatively calm place to live. The neighbourhood began a marked shift before Expo 86, when an estimated 800 to 1,000 tenants were evicted from DTES residential hotels to make room for tourists. With the increased tourist traffic of Expo 86, dealers introduced an influx of high-purity cocaine and heroin. In efforts to clean up other areas of the city, police cracked down on the cocaine market and street prostitution, but these activities resurfaced in the DTES. Within the DTES, police officers gave up on arresting the huge numbers of individual drug users, and chose to focus their efforts on dealers instead.
Meanwhile, the provincial government adopted a policy of de-institutionalization of the mentally ill, leading to the mass discharge of Riverview Hospital's patients, with the promise that they would be integrated into the community. Between 1985 and 1999, the number of patient-days of care provided by B.C. psychiatric hospitals declined by nearly 65%. Many of the de-institutionalized mentally ill moved to the DTES, attracted by the accepting culture and low-cost housing, but they floundered without adequate treatment and support and soon became addicted to the neighbourhood's readily available drugs.
Between 1980 and 2002, more than 60 women went missing from the DTES, most of them sex workers. A large number are missing and murdered Indigenous women. Robert Pickton, who had a farm east of the city where he held "raves", was charged with the murders of 26 of these women and convicted on six counts in 2007. He claimed to have murdered 49 women. As of 2009, an estimated 39 women were still missing from the Downtown Eastside.
1990s to present
thumb|Downtown Eastside Justice for All Network asking the government and media to address persistent issues in the Downtown Eastside before the 2010 Olympics .
In the 1990s, the situation in the DTES deteriorated further on several fronts. Woodward's, an anchor store in the 100-block of West Hastings street, closed in 1993 with devastating effect on the formerly bustling retail district. Meanwhile, a crisis in housing and homelessness was emerging.
Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the supply of low-income housing shrank in both the DTES and in other parts of the city, partly because of the conversion of buildings into more expensive condominiums or hotels. In 1993, the federal government stopped funding social housing, and the rate of building social housing in B.C. dropped by two-thirds despite rising demand for it. By 1995, reports had begun to emerge of homeless people sleeping in parks, alleyways, and abandoned buildings. Cuts to the provincial welfare program in 2002 caused further hardship for the poor and homeless. Citywide, homeless people climbed from 630 in 2002 to 1,300 in 2005.
Without a viable retail economy, a drug economy proliferated, with an accompanying increase in crime, while police presence decreased. Crack cocaine arrived in Vancouver in 1995, and crystal methamphetamine started to appear in the DTES in 2003. In 1997 the local health authority declared a public health emergency in the DTES: Rates of HIV infection, spread by needle-sharing amongst drug users, were worse than anywhere in the world outside Sub-Saharan Africa, and more than 1000 people had died of drug overdoses. Efforts to reduce drug-related deaths in the DTES included the opening of a needle exchange in 1989, the opening of North America's first legal safe injection site in 2003, and treatment with anti-retroviral drugs for HIV. A shift among users from injected cocaine to crack cocaine use may have also slowed the spread of disease. In 2009, The Globe and Mail estimated that governments and the private sector had spent more than $1.4 billion since 2000 on projects aimed at resolving the area's many problems.
Opinions vary on whether the area has improved: A 2014 article in the National Post said, "For all the money and attention here, there is little success at either getting the area's shattered populace back on their feet or cleaning up the neighbourhood into something resembling a healthy community." Former NDP premier Mike Harcourt described the current reality of the neighbourhood as "100-per-cent failure." Also in 2014, B.C. housing minister Rich Coleman claimed "I'll go down for a walk in the Downtown Eastside, night time or day time, and it's dramatically different than it was. It's incredibly better than it was five, six years ago." Indigenous peoples are significantly overrepresented in the Downtown Eastside, a pattern widely linked to the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism, including displacement from traditional territories, the legacy of residential schools, and systemic barriers in housing, healthcare, and employment.The average household size was 1.3 residents; 82% of the population lived alone. Children and teenagers made up 7% of the people, compared to 25% of Canada overall.
Migration patterns
The DTES has a history of attracting migrants with mental health and addiction issues across B.C. and Canada, with many drawn by its drug market, affordable housing, and services. The same study found that once migrants had settled in the DTES, their conditions worsened. The greater DTES area is the location of several art galleries, artist-run centres and studios, including Gallery Gachet. Prominent local artists include poet Henry Doyle, artist Marcel Mousseau, and poet Bud Osborn.
Notable annual events include the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, which showcases the art, culture, and history of the neighbourhood, and the Powell Street Festival in Oppenheimer Park, which celebrates Japanese-Canadian arts and culture. The Smilin' Buddha Cabaret operated at 109 East Hastings Street from 1952 to the late 1980s as a symbol of "cultural vitality," reflecting shifts in the neighbourhood itself. City Opera of Vancouver, the Dancing on the Edge Festival, and other artists regularly perform in DTES venues such as the Carnegie Centre, the Firehall Arts Centre, and the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at the Woodward's site. The musical composition "100 Block Rock," featuring 11 tracks, was released in 2020. In 2010, Sam Sullivan, former mayor of Vancouver, said that in the DTES, "Behind the visible people who have a lot of troubles, there's a community. Some very intelligent people say this is the city's cultural heart."
Current issues
Addiction and mental illness
The DTES population suffers very high rates of mental illness and addiction. In 2007, Vancouver Coastal Health estimated that 2,100 DTES residents "exhibit behaviour that is outside the norm" and require more support in the areas of health and addiction services. According to the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) in 2008, up to 500 of these individuals were "chronically mentally ill with disabling addictions, extreme behaviours, no permanent housing and regular police contact." As of 2009, the DTES was home to an estimated 1,800 to 3,600 individuals who were considered to be at "extremely high health risk" due to severe addiction or mental illness, equivalent to 60% of the population in this category for the 1 million people in the Vancouver Coastal Health region.
A 2013 study of SRO tenants in the greater DTES found that 95.2% had some form of substance dependence, and 74.4% had a mental illness, including 47.4% with psychosis. Between 60% and 70% of mentally ill patients treated at St. Paul's Hospital, the hospital closest to the DTES, are estimated to have multiple addictions. Possible explanations for the high level of co-occurrence between addiction and mental illness in the DTES include the vulnerability of the mentally ill to drug dealers and a recent rise in crystal methamphetamine use, which can cause permanent psychosis.
Substance use
A 2010 BBC article described the DTES as "home to one of the worst drug problems in North America." In 2011, crack cocaine was the most commonly used illicit hard drug in Vancouver, followed by injected prescription opioids (such as fentanyl and OxyContin), heroin, crystal methamphetamine (usually injected rather than smoked), and cocaine (also usually injected). At the end of 2014, the DTES saw a dramatic rise in fentanyl overdoses. In 2016 the surge in drug overdose deaths led to the declaration of a public health emergency across the province.
In a 2008 survey of SRO residents in the greater DTES, 32% self-reported as being addicted to drugs, 20% were addicted to alcohol, 52% smoked cigarettes regularly, and 51% smoked marijuana. In 2006, DTES residents incurred half of the deaths from illegal drug overdoses in the entire province. Between 1996 and 2011, there have been large fluctuations in drug usage, with the most recent trend being an overall decline in illicit drug use between 2007 and 2011. Some spend hundreds of dollars per day on drugs. Police attribute much of the property crime in Vancouver to chronic repeat offenders who steal to support their drug habits. The pilot expired on January 31, 2026, and was not renewed. As of February 1, 2026, possession of these substances once again became subject to criminal enforcement.
Mental illness
The VPD reported in 2008 that in its district, which includes the Downtown Eastside, mental health was a factor in 42% of all incidents in which police were involved. The police department says its officers are often forced to act as front-line mental health workers due to lacking more appropriate support for this population.
In 2013, the city and police department reported that in the previous three years, there had been a 43% increase in people with severe mental illness or addiction in the emergency department of St. Paul's Hospital. In Vancouver, apprehensions under the Mental Health Act rose by 16% between 2010 and 2012, and there was also an increase in the number of violent incidents involving mentally ill people. Mayor Gregor Robertson described the mental health crisis as "on par with, if not more serious than" the DTES HIV / AIDS epidemic that had led to a declaration of a public health emergency in 1997. In 2023, the City of Vancouver accounted for 22% of the province's fatal overdoses, and in Vancouver, authorities have repeatedly acknowledged that the DTES struggles with especially acute problems of addiction and overdose deaths.
In a report presented to the City Council of Vancouver by Mayor Kennedy Stewart on 20 December 2018 regarding the opioid crisis, he stated:
thumb|An emergency opioid overdose kit, containing a single dose of naloxone, needle, and syringe.
Sex work
Vancouver has an estimated 1,000 street-based sex workers. According to the police, most of them work in the DTES. They call the neighbourhood and contiguous industrial areas near Vancouver's port these "outdoor workers" (previously referred to using the more stigmatizing language including "low track" workers), where they typically earn $5 to $20 for a "date". Most are survival sex workers who use sex work to support their substance use; up to two-thirds say they have been physically or sexually assaulted while working. Sex workers, particularly women with children, find it difficult to find housing that they can afford, and often have difficulty leaving the industry because of criminal records or addictions that make it harder to find jobs.
Although Indigenous Canadians makeup only 2% of Vancouver's population, approximately 40% of Vancouver's street-based sex workers are Indigenous. In one 2005 study, 52% of the sex workers surveyed in Vancouver were Indigenous, 96% reported having been sexually abused in childhood, and 81% reported childhood physical abuse. Some researchers and Indigenous advocacy groups have attributed the over-representation of Indigenous people in Vancouver's sex trade to transgenerational trauma, linking it to Canada's colonial history and in particular, to the cultural and individual damage caused by the residential schools, which previous generations of indigenous Canadians were forced to attend.
Displacement
After the displacements that occurred on Dupont and Davie Street, Vancouver's outdoor sex workers were pushed to the streets of the Downtown Eastside. Here they are facing more violence than ever before. Neighbourhood harassment, policing, and developmental changes contribute to these conditions. Throughout all of the areas where sex work has been present, the city has been critiqued for backing up property owners to harass workers collectively. In the Downtown Eastside, these behaviours have continued to persist. A study published in 2017 containing interviews with thirty-three sex workers addressed concerns with changes in construction, surveillance, and security measures that have pushed workers into isolated areas where they are at greater risk of harm. The growth of new businesses in the area has also required workers to develop good relations to prevent frequent police calls. These conditions have also forced workers to rush or forgo screening and negotiation processes that increase the risk of bad dates and STI contractions. This disproportionately impacted the safety of oppressed communities such as indigenous, substance-dependent and transgender workers who are often restricted to this area. Over the years, this has also contributed to the many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) cases, including those involved in the mass killings by serial killer Robert Pickton.
Crime and public disorder
thumb|Peoples' Pigeon Park, near Hastings and Carrall Streets
Reported crime rates in the DTES are higher than in the rest of the city, with most crimes being assaults, robberies, or public intoxication. Although it is home to 3% of Vancouver's population, the DTES was the location of 16% of the city's reported sexual assaults in 2012. In 2008, it was the location of 34.5% of all reported serious assaults and 22.6% of all robberies in the city.
These figures may be an underestimate, as marginalized populations such as DTES residents tend to be less likely to report crime. Many residents are survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system or experience transgenerational trauma as a result of Residential Schools, and are further traumatized by excessive policing.
The figures do not indicate how many of the reported crimes were committed by DTES residents; some residents and business owners believe that visitors from other neighbourhoods are responsible for a significant proportion of serious crimes.
In addition to reported crime, the DTES has the highly visible street disorder, which The New York Times described as "a shock even to someone familiar with the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1980s or the Tenderloin in San Francisco." Tourists are often encouraged to avoid the DTES. However, they are seldom victims of crime. High crime rates and difficulties in obtaining affordable property insurance deter legitimate businesses from opening or staying in the area, resulting in many vacant storefronts.]]
The greater DTES area is significantly poorer than the rest of Vancouver, with a median income of $13,691 versus $47,229 for the city as a whole. 53% of the greater DTES population is low-income, compared to 13.6% of the population of Metro Vancouver. In the V6A postal area, whose boundaries are similar to the greater DTES area, 6,339 residents received some form of social assistance in 2013. Of these, 3,193 were considered disabled and 1,461 were considered "employable". The base welfare rate for single adults who are considered employable is $610 per month: $375 per month for shelter and $235 ($335 since July 2017) per month for all other expenses. Advocates for low-income DTES residents say this amount, which has not increased since 2007, is not enough to live on.
Some DTES residents supplement their incomes through the informal economy, through volunteer work which can yield stipends, or through criminal activity or sex work. A 2008 survey of SRO residents found that the average tenant income from all sources, including the informal economy, was $1,109 per month.
Housing
Both homelessness and substandard housing are major issues in the DTES that compound the neighbourhood's problems with addiction and mental illness. In 2012, there were 846 homeless people in the greater DTES area, including 171 who were not in some form of shelter. The DTES homeless made up approximately half of the city's total homeless population,
Thousands of DTES residents live in SROs, which provide low-cost rooms without private kitchens or bathrooms, Although conditions in SROs vary considerably, they have become notorious for their squalor and chaos. Many are over 100 years old and in extreme disrepair, with shortages of necessities such as heat and functioning plumbing. In 2007, it was reported that four out of five rooms had bed bugs, cockroaches, and fire code violations. The city has often been slow to force SRO owners to make significant repairs, saying that owners could not afford to make them without raising rents and adversely affecting affordability.