Jim Evans introduced our speaker, Mike Harcourt. Mike was an Alderman in the 70s, mayor in the 80s, and provincial Premier in the 90s. Quite a political career.
Mike has been active in the area of social issues since 2010. His focus is to help transform the downtown eastside, working with a group of likeminded, influential, and connected Vancouverites with the Building Community Society, (
CLICK HERE for their website) and the Street to Home Foundation (
CLICK HERE for their website).
Street to Home have an innovative program that they picked up from San Francisco. They help people voluntarily move back to their hometowns, this is just one example of their great programs.
The two organization have together been quietly succeeding in getting decent shelters for approximately 5000 people in need. It is an extraordinary success story that most people don’t know about.
The groups quietly raised $30M from private donors to be used as leverage to secure about 1/3 of a billion in supportive housing. Included in the housing initiative are services to deal with the very serious challenges faced by those in need. Up to 5000 people got housing with mental health supports and other services. However, as you know, there is a constant influx and the well filled up again. There is another approximately 2200 homeless in the city of Vancouver and many more beyond.
They have teamed up together with Coast Mental Health (
CLICK HERE for their website) and have decided to hone in on the mentally ill, chronically addicted individuals. There are about 300 in the city, 1500 in the province. Also part of the team is SFU, with whom they are working very successfully to serve around 300 people in and around the downtown eastside, most of whom we have so far failed. This accounts for about 20% of the homeless.
Watching the cycle continue is heartbreaking. There is no lack of money being thrown at the problems. We see time and time again, someone shoots up and overdoses, they get revived, taken to an emergency ward, treated, and then released onto the street again to continue the cycle. They are not given any hope or help to end the cycle. Or if a crime is involved someone may end up in community court, released, re-arrested, and around and around. As a society we have failed these people by not staying with them.
40% of the people they want to help are aboriginal so the program will have a strong aboriginal component. Joy McPhail, former MLA, has put them onto some of the best to help them with culturally appropriate treatment.
It is a daunting task, trying something unique. Providing a:
- Continuum of service; never let go of these people’s hands through their challenges, the ups and downs to recovery
- Continuum of housing; through shifts from detox, halfway houses, supportive housing, etc.
- Portable amount of funding that stays with the person; versus the starts and stops that normally happen, ensuring there is no interruption for rent and treatment fees.
They are working with the minister responsible for housing, which has been given a strong mandate by Premier Horgan to pursue. There are many, many key people who are moving this initiative forward – Dr. Bill MacEwan and Joy McPhail, are only two examples.
The Mayors committee have agreed to take on this issue. They are working closely with them with the hope that if this initiative works, they will be able to develop a similar methodology throughout the province via this committee as they work through the successes and challenges of the program.
Everyone involved believes that they will see success where other programs haven’t. They are sincerely hoping for reasonable quick results. This is a pioneering effort of how to deal with seriously addicted, mentally ill people. All will be documented with some very good fact based research to measure outcomes. Mike and others in the invested organizations will be happy to provide updates to our club as they move along.
In closing, we need to never give up on the person. We need to resist using stereotyping, everyone is unique, their story is unique. What treatment is missing for them? We think that we’ll be a city leading the way with this initiative.
Additional links:
- CBC The Current, How a B.C. doctor’s plan to treat 300 people with addictions, mental illness could tackle overdose crisis, Oct 30, 2020 CLICK HERE
- UBC Faculty of Medicine, In the Vancouver Sun: A New Proposal by Dr. Bill MacEwan and the BCS Urges Government Action to Address Overdose & Mental Health Crisis in the DTES CLICK HERE
- Government of BC, Expert Panel on Housing Supply & Affordability, Joy McPhail Chair CLICK HERE
