Pete McMartin: The high cost of misery in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun, January 5, 2016
SFU study calculates average costs incurred by high-frequency offenders.
It is not news that treatment of the addicted and mentally ill in the Downtown Eastside is expensive. In a series of stories in 2014, Sun reporter Lori Culbert and I calculated that the 260 (!) social service agencies and social housing sites located within the borders of the DTES received and spent $360 million in 2013, or just under $1 million a day. Almost $265 million of that came from the three levels of government.
An SFU study shines a light on issues facing the Downtown Eastside.
Photo Credit: NICK PROCAYLO , Vancouver Sun
