{"id":580199,"date":"2026-04-03T19:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/580199\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T19:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:59:13","slug":"downtown-eastside-organizations-admit-we-dont-know-where-the-moneys-going-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/580199\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Eastside organizations admit: “We don’t know where the money’s going” | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Larry Campbell says the deeper he looked into Vancouver\u2019s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood over the past six months, the more he realized the scale of the challenge was far greater than expected \u2014 shaped by decades of policy decisions, evolving drug toxicity, and a fragmented system struggling to respond.<\/p>\n

He made the comments during a press conference earlier this week, providing an update on his work as Premier David Eby\u2019s appointed provincial advisor for the Downtown Eastside.<\/p>\n

Campbell was a longtime Canadian senator, B.C.\u2019s chief coroner from 1996 to 2000, and the mayor of Vancouver from 2002 to 2005 under the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) party.<\/p>\n

In September 2025, Campbell was given a six-month role to bring together governments, non-profit organizations, and other entities operating in the Downtown Eastside \u2014 focusing on recommending solutions for better outcomes and results on delivering housing, healthcare, and social services in the troubled area. His job is to get government entities and non-profit organizations working better together, make sure money and resources are used more effectively, and help create practical plans to address ongoing challenges like homelessness and addiction while advising provincial leaders on what actions to take.<\/p>\n

But this week, he says the work needs another six months \u2014 through late 2026 \u2014 because the complexity of it is far beyond what he expected from the outset.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that I\u2019d be able to gather that information much quicker, and I was wrong. What has surprised me [was] the amount of despair [and] the amount of normalcy \u2014 that\u2019s the one thing that I just cannot get over. And the first couple of months were rough for me. I\u2019ll admit it, it was, you know, I mean, I was a coroner for 20 years, so I\u2019ve got lots of bad things tucked away in the back of my head,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about the amount that we spend. It\u2019s about the results that we get.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complexity, he asserts, stems partly from the exponential growth in the number of organizations \u2014 both non-profit organizations and government agencies \u2014 since his time working in the Downtown Eastside, before he became a senator. He says there is a high degree of fragmentation in the work and investments carried out by these organizations, to the extent that they overlap inefficiently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a certain amount of fragmentation that goes on. There\u2019s a lot of organizations in government that are overlapping. There\u2019s lots of organizations in government who don\u2019t know,\u201d he said, while describing an example of a scenario where a non-profit organization receives a government grant, but there is a shortage of information on whether another government entity is already involved in offering similar grants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a fragmentation going on down there. We spend a lot of money down there. And it\u2019s not about the amount that we spend. It\u2019s about the results that we get. I go down and I look and I don\u2019t see a huge amount of improvement in the Downtown Eastside.\u201d<\/p>\n

He shared that one of his focuses will be to find a strategy to better coordinate the organizations and significant public funding that goes into the Downtown Eastside.<\/p>\n

While there is coordination among frontline workers, he says there are major structural issues within the broader system. He emphasized that the goal is not to reduce public funding for the area \u2014 with some estimates in recent years suggesting it could be anywhere between $6 million to $14 million per day \u2014 but to improve accountability and the use of public financial resources by measuring results through clear metrics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about saving money. This is about taxpayers\u2019 money going in to help a community that\u2019s in dire straits and being able to see what the results are, the accountability of it, how we do the metrics for it and to be able to shift on it. Things change rapidly in the Downtown Eastside\u2026 food, for instance, [and ] shelters, overdose places, all of these, it would be nice to be able to coordinate them. Housing also, the housing end of it,\u201d said Campbell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know where the money\u2019s going\u2026 I don\u2019t think you can buy your way out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, there has been some pushback from certain Downtown Eastside non-profit organizations and advocates on the idea of independent audits of their spending and work.<\/p>\n

That lack of clarity extends to how funds are tracked and evaluated. Campbell said over the last few months, he has spoken directly with organizations about transparency and outcomes, and while he asserts many are willing to cooperate, the system itself lacks consistency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I am supplying funds to an organization and I\u2019m government, that\u2019s taxpayer\u2019s dollars and they need to know where\u2019s going, how\u2019s it being used, and the metrics of success. If it\u2019s successful, we need to help them with that. If it\u2019s not successful, we need to say, \u2018This isn\u2019t working, and what are we going to do?’\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBluntly, it\u2019s a mixed bag,\u201d he continued, with many organizations telling him right from the start: \u201cWe don\u2019t know where the money\u2019s going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the people who are running the organizations. \u2018We don\u2019t know where the money\u2019s going,’\u201d he reiterated for emphasis to highlight the astonishing problem at hand. \u201cSome of them are resistant to it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it should be just a given that if I have a contract and I\u2019m handing it out to somebody, there are expectations and there are metrics. Within that, there has to be an expectation from the people who are receiving the money that I\u2019m going to come and see you and see you and talk to you about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, he suggests, money alone will not fix the problems of the Downtown Eastside if there is a lack of coordination between governments and organizations, no coordination with public funding streams, and no accountability and metrics to measure success. \u201cI don\u2019t think you can buy your way out of this, for starters,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

\u201cA whole generation of people who are going to be severely brain damaged, and they\u2019re young.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Campbell was Vancouver\u2019s mayor, the prevalent drug in the streets was heroin, with the number of overdoses being a small fraction of what they are today. He also said the Downtown Eastside received significant funding from senior governments during his mayoral tenure as it could \u201cpiggyback\u201d on the attention and preparations in the years leading up to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Since 2005, when he left the mayor\u2019s office, he says, many more affordable housing buildings have been built in the area.<\/p>\n

While the overdose crisis turned a dangerous corner with an exponential rise in the number of deaths beginning in the mid-2010s due to fentanyl, that is no longer the case now, a decade later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that actually using the term fentanyl is probably a misnomer because most of the drugs on the street, very little fentanyl. It\u2019s all animal tranquillizers. It\u2019s all stuff that humans should not be putting in. It\u2019s all chemicals,\u201d said Campbell.<\/p>\n

While overdose deaths remain elevated, they have begun to decline slightly or at least level off. Campbell suggested this shift may be partly due to changes in the street drug supply, with dealers possibly recognizing that fentanyl\u2019s high rate of lethality is reducing their customer base.<\/p>\n

With the previous proliferation of heroin, he added, it did not create the same degree of brain damage seen from the more recent fentanyl use. He also asserts that a leading cause of death is a mix of substances, not necessarily the use of any one opioid. \u201cIf you take a look at coroner\u2019s reports, you\u2019ll see multiple drugs. Any which one could have been the one that tipped you over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There is growing concern about the increasing number of people with highly complex healthcare needs, specifically those who have incurred significant permanent brain damage from repeated overdoses that deprive the brain of oxygen \u2014 on top of any other underlying physical and mental health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust simply the fentanyl, the fact that we have a whole generation of people who are going to be severely brain damaged, and they\u2019re young, they\u2019re not old. And we have to start thinking about how do we, what do we do? How do we help these people? How do we house them? How do we, how are we able to treat them in what manner we can treat?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One thing that shocked him during his initial observations was that public disorder is now normalized in the Downtown Eastside \u2014 specifically people laying on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, if somebody was laying on the sidewalk, almost always a citizen or somebody would turn that person over, put them in a recovery position and call for help,\u201d said the former mayor.<\/p>\n

Based on his months-long observations to date, Campbell said the neighbourhood operates on a daily rhythm that reflects the absence of stable living conditions, and described it in stark terms, comparing it to ocean tides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Downtown Eastside is sort of like the ocean. So in the morning, the tide comes in, the shelters close, you\u2019re tired of being in your eight by 10 ft. [SRO] room and you go onto the streets. There is no living room. You don\u2019t have a living room. You don\u2019t have a safe space to sit down and have coffee or talk to people or just do anything. And the street, Hastings Street in particular, by default becomes your living room. And then at nighttime around seven o\u2019clock, usually eight o\u2019clock, you see the tide go out and people go back to their rooms. They go back to the shelters and the street reverts to actually a fairly quiet place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It is well known that a sizeable proportion of the perceived homelessness and public disorder in public spaces stems from people avoiding their SRO units due to the buildings\u2019 dilapidated and unsafe conditions, along with minimal supports for the high concentration of residents with complex needs. During the warmer months of the year, this behaviour can increase from the lack of air cooling in such buildings, with many built in the early 1900s.<\/p>\n

Looking at the broader history, prior to the rise of fentanyl, Campbell pointed to several key turning points that shaped the current situation, beginning with the gradual full closure of Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam and the inadequate replacement approach of providing community services to support its patients \u2014 many instead becoming homeless, ending up in homeless shelters, and finding their way to the SROs of the Downtown Eastside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe closing of Riverview was the first thing. That was the start. We closed it because we should have closed it because science said this is not the way that you treat mental illness. But we promised that there would be community support\u2026 just not enough of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody wants to blame this [BC NDP-led] government, but I take heat on this also. I was mayor, I was the chief coroner. In hindsight, there\u2019s lots of stuff that I could have done at that point to not get to this point. So if we want to blame government, I don\u2019t have a difficulty with that, but you\u2019ve got to go back to the Socreds to start on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second factor, he says, was Prime Minister Jean Chretien\u2019s Liberals-led federal government\u2019s decision in the 1990s to pull away from providing funding to build rental housing across the country due to federal budget constraints at the time.<\/p>\n

Vancouver Police\u2019s new training academy at Woodward\u2019s is the right move, says Campbell<\/p>\n

Campbell says he is very supportive of the recent decision to establish a new Vancouver Police Department training academy at the former London Drugs store space<\/a> within the Woodward\u2019s complex. This decision was later supported by the provincial government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He notes that policing alone is not the solution, but his endorsement of this facility at the location comes from how it will provide the broader Gastown, Downtown Eastside, and Chinatown areas with more foot traffic that supports local businesses \u2014 not necessarily for its increased police presence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a big advocate for the police academy going into the Downtown Eastside. There\u2019s some people who don\u2019t like that, [but] I\u2019m not looking at so much from a police point of view. I\u2019m looking at it from the point of view of putting 200 to 300 people into a space who are gonna get haircuts and shop and do whatever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

London Drugs ended its tenancy at the location after a decade and a half of consecutive annual financial losses and safety issues, which escalated to intolerable levels in the years since the pandemic. Earlier this week, the Nester\u2019s Market grocery store at Woodward\u2019s \u2014 located in the complex\u2019s atrium, just across from the former London Drugs space \u2014 sustained major damage due to an arson incident<\/a> during business hours, with a man walking into the store and lighting a fire.<\/p>\n

During his mayoral tenure, Campbell was highly instrumental in enabling the redevelopment of the former department store complex, with the project intended to become an economic anchor to support the Downtown Eastside\u2019s revitalization, while also providing a significant infusion of mixed-income housing \u2014 not just affordable housing. Westbank\u2019s Woodward\u2019s complex with housing, retail\/restaurant uses, office space, and a public atrium reached completion in 2010.<\/p>\n

\"london<\/p>\n

Press conference on Feb. 26, 2026, announcing Vancouver Police Departments\u2019 (VPD) new training academy at the former London Drugs store space at Woodward\u2019s. (Kenneth Chan)<\/p>\n

Campbell hopes to see concrete action from the provincial government later in 2026, when he releases his full findings and recommendations, which could be summarized in a report if requested.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s just gonna go sit on a shelf, I would much rather make sure the government is actually taking action than just having a report. So I\u2019m prepared, if the government wants a report, I\u2019m prepared to do a report,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In response to Campbell\u2019s remarks and the need to extend his work by six months, B.C. Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Christine Boyle stated that the provincial government \u201cwill have more to share on Larry\u2019s work to bring together all levels of government in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry brings a lifetime of community-based experience, relationships and expertise to this role alongside the people who live and work in the Downtown Eastside. He has been working with people in the community, local organizations, the City, the federal government and others to listen, understand and align the important work being done to address systemic challenges in this community,\u201d reads the statement by Boyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry\u2019s work to date has laid the groundwork for some upcoming next steps \u2014 and we are now at a critical juncture in the work he has been doing. He has been connecting with people in the community week after week, reviewing the co-ordination of organizations and initiatives, such as day spaces, to further support their meaningful impact in the neighbourhood, and leveraging his experience as mayor and senator to advocate for and advance efforts toward multi-government co-operation on housing in the Downtown Eastside. His focus has been bringing the right people together. Now it is time for those partners to take action and create impactful and long-lasting solutions for this community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Larry Campbell says the deeper he looked into Vancouver\u2019s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood over the past six months, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-580199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}