From Downtown East. A special issue of the Downtown East is focused on the summer of 2014 as the summer of tent cities. In this issue Jean Swanson explains how these tent cities lay bare the housing and homelessness crisis in the Lower Mainland as it really exists. The Dignity Village tent city in Abbotsford has been up and running in different places for nearly a year and a half.
Cover: Abbotsford’s Shred-r. Photo by Ivan Drury.
As Dave Diewert explains, and campers affirm in their own words, Dignity Village asserts the existence and rights of homeless people in Abbotsford against a poor bashing city council. The Oppenheimer Tent City has sprung up and continues growing and challenging the city and provincial governments. As Natalie Knight explains, and Herb Varley captures in the words of Oppenheimer campers, this tent city challenges the limits of Vancouver City’s recent acknowledgement of the unceded Indigenous territories Vancouver occupies.
MCC Dignity Village. Photo by JD Archer.
Voices from the Oppenheimer Tent City, by Herb Varley
Voices from the Abbotsford Dignity Village, by Ivan Drury
Homelessness is Still a Huge Problem, by Jean Swanson
“Displace and Disperse”: Abbotsford’s Solution to the Homeless Problem, by Dave Diewert
Asserting Our Rights: Oppenheimer tent city challenges the limits of government talk on First Nations legal rights, by Natalie Knight
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Downtown East newspaper
http://downtowneast.net
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