How to help those who are not accepting shelter and choosing to stay on the streets after the initial Hastings decampment remains a challenge – as city workers supported by Vancouver police continue to keep the area clear of new tents and structures as per the fire chief’s order.
Jesse Swain, who said he’s been in a daily cycle of packing up and moving on since enforcement action began April 5, told Global News more socially inclusive peer-motivated programs would go a long way to helping him get inside.
“Work programming and stuff like that, where you sort of have a purpose in the day right,” Swain said in an interview Tuesday.
“But if we’re just sitting around downtown, east Vancouver like what are we doing – we’re just falling back into addiction and not doing anything positive.”
After connecting with people living on Hastings Street through outreach and service referrals since last summer, the city said it moved in on the entrenched encampment to ensure public safety amid escalating crime and increasing fire risks.
“We’ve been working on this for over eight months now,” Vancouver mayor Ken Sim told Global News.
“We promised that our approach would be empathetic and compassionate and we’ll do whatever we can to make sure people are taken care of in an empathetic way.”
From August 2022 to April 5, the city of Vancouver said more than 600 structures were removed from the Hastings area, while over 90 people accepted and moved into housing, and more than 165 others accepted shelter referrals.
“Every single person who has put their hand up and asked for the housing has gotten it,” said Sim.
“These challenges that we’re seeing with people experiencing homelessness, mental health or substance use disorder didn’t happen overnight – and it’s not going to get solved next week.”
While Sim said the decampment was about safety and not solving homelessness, he acknowledged “every single person” who didn’t take up the city’s offers for shelter is unique.
“I think everybody can agree more supports are needed for people living with serious mental health issues,” added Sgt. Steve Addison of the Vancouver Police Department.
“More supports are needed for people living with serious addiction or substance use issues to stop them from slipping through the cracks.”
More than one month after Global News requested a look inside the Red Fish Healing Centre, B.C.’s mental health and addictions minister invited all media on a tour of the Coquitlam facility.
Jennifer Whiteside confirmed the B.C. government is looking to expand the centre’s treatment model.
Red Fish is the only facility in the province which provides both psychiatric and addiction treatment to those with dual severe mental illness and substance use disorders.
“There isn’t a model of care like this in North America,” said Red Fish Healing Centre medical director Dr. Nick Mathew.
Red Fish offers trauma-informed and culturally safe voluntary and involuntary care for individuals whose health needs extend beyond the treatment options available in their communities.
Since opening in October 2021 on səmiq̓ʷəʔelə or Place of the Great Blue Heron, the land formerly known as Riverview Lands, the seven-unit, 105-bed centre has admitted 379 clients for stays of between five to nine months.
Ninety-two per cent of patients have improved their mental health by the time they are reintegrated into the community, said Mathew, while about 75 per cent have seen an improvement in their substance use disorders.
“Planning is underway, being led by PHSA (Provincial Health Services Authority) in conjunction with regional health authorities, to assess how we can scale up more care and support for people with concurrent disorders across the province,” said Whiteside Tuesday.
The mental health and addictions minister did not provide details on when, or which communities could benefit from the Red Fish care model.
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