Open Letter / Call to Action: Rain, Withdrawal, and System Failure in the DTES

 Open Letter / Call to Action: Rain, Withdrawal, and System Failure in the DTES

To: @MarkCarneyBC, @DavidEby, @VancouverCoastalHealth, @VancouverPolice, @TransLink, hospital staff, outreach workers, and housing authorities

Today, people in the DTES are sick, traumatized, and desperate for help. Rain pours down on thin jackets and alleyways. Inside their bodies, withdrawal twists muscles, churns stomachs, and pounds hearts. Every nerve is raw. Every moment is dangerous.

Yet the system continues to fail them:

• Detox beds are limited and often unavailable.
• Discharge without housing sends people back to the same environment that caused relapse.
• Bureaucracy, lack of coordination, and profit-driven models prolong suffering.
• Public transit enforcement sometimes harasses and intimidates people who are homeless, adding fear and stress when they are already vulnerable.

This is not a failure of courage or willpower — it is a failure of policy, planning, and compassion.

We demand action now:

• Outreach vans and teams ready to escort people into detox today.
• Detox and medical staff prepared for arrivals immediately, not hours later.
• Housing solutions ready to receive people after detox — no more sending them back to the streets.
• TransLink and transit enforcement to treat people on buses, SkyTrains, and shelters with care, dignity, and respect, not intimidation or harassment.

The human cost is real. Lives are precious. Every delay, every closed door, every “wait your turn” risks a soul.

💔 We can no longer allow profit, bureaucracy, or indifference to determine who survives. Look at the streets, the SROs, the alleys, and the transit shelters. These are our neighbours. Act now. Every minute counts.