rabble.ca

By Mara Kardas-Nelson

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood is not known as one of the city’s most beautiful. Notoriously referred to as Canada’s poorest postal code, the DTES has high rates of poverty, drug use, and sex work. Next to glossy Gastown, it can seem dark and ominous, viewed by many as offering little else than prowling police and a strong homeless presence.

By Alex Samur and Mara Kardas-Nelson

A crowd of hundreds marched from Pigeon Park down busy Pender Avenue to demand greater housing for low-income Vancouver residents. When asked why she’s marching, Mysa Kaczkowski, a waitress who’s lived in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) for three years, told rabble.ca: “I love my neighbourhood, I love my community and I don’t want to see it taken away.

“I have an income, I have a roof over my head and I can barely afford to live here – how can anyone else?”