By David P. Ball
---
The overlapping emergencies of the COVID-19 pandemic, the record-high fatalities from a toxic drug supply, and inadequate housing have pushed the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood to the brink of disaster in the past year.

According to Karen Ward, local advocate and City of Vancouver drug policy advisor, the crises were long simmering for years, but the measures taken to combat the pandemic saw some of their worst collateral damage on the lives — and deaths — of substance users often left out of government consideration, or addressed too late.

In a new year interview with The Pulse on CFRO, Ward said that housing remains the top priority for government intervention in 2021, and it's so directly linked to the overdose crisis and pandemic she said it should be treated as a "life-or-death" issue.

And she also hopes to see months-old commitments to create safe inhalation sites for drug users finally appear, since deadly opioids are throughout the drug supply, including inhaled substances. She asks why that still hasn't happened despite being promised since early last fall.

But for residents of the beleaguered neighbourhood, Vancouver's poorest, the greatest threat has become the tearing apart of community mutual aid structures and communal supports — and liking pulling the threads from a blanket, that will be very hard if not impossible to rebuild, Ward said. Governments and non-profits in the Downtown Eastside need to do an urgent re-thinking of their priorities and strategies, Ward said, and community members need to be at the forefront if a semblance of community is to be rebuilt.