Stories

Real Vancouverites. Real experiences.

Real reasons to vote yes.

The people you’ll meet here have lived what this plebiscite is about. Frontline nurses and paramedics who respond to the same crises again and again. Business owners watching their neighbourhoods change around them. >Residents who see their neighbours caught in a revolving door of care, in a system that hasn’t worked for decades. And people in recovery who know, better than anyone, what it takes to break that cycle.

They didn’t have to come forward. They did it because they believe Vancouver can do better, and they want you to hear why.

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I live one block away from the corner of East Hastings and Gore avenue. There are people constantly doing hard drugs in front of the door to the building that I pay over $3,000/month for.

Children and families walk right on the sidewalk that people are overdosing on, and I have to step over people on the sidewalk to go on a run. Needles litter the sidewalk, as well as human feces and other paraphernalia that is unsafe to breathe in and step on.

I am a proud second generation Vancouverite, and I love Chinatown and the Eastside, but something needs to change immediately for the health and wellbeing of rent paying, law abiding citizens. We need to be proud of our city and take care of it the way we need to, or in 5 years this area will no longer be livable and walkable.

I am calling for the Mayor and other elected officials to MAKE A CHANGE, to step up and make the hard decisions that need to be made.

—Lindsey H., Vancouver Resident

I don’t want to take beds away from people that have been injured or infected by other ailments. That’s why open drug use has to go. It does nothing for the residents that pay taxes, and it’s clogging our emergency rooms. Get rid of it.

—Anonymous Vancouver Resident

I have lived in this area for 45 years, have seen several overdoses and had to talk to my children about bad choices people make.

I was in loss-prevention when the mental hospital was closed and am aware of how quickly the area went down hill. Now it’s like the patients run the asylum. We need to come back to reality, stop this insanity and go back to what is the right choice for all involved.

—Barry B., Vancouver Resident

My husband ran a gym on Hastings. One time while walking out with my newborn, crack smoke was blown right into my child’s stroller.

There have been endless incidents growing up in Van that have made me sick to my stomach. The needles found in children’s play areas are probably one of the worst. We need to clean up our streets for our future generations.

—Anonymous Vancouver Resident

Addiction is a life devastating disease. It needs professional medical treatment. It is long overdue. Somebody dies everyday.