Vancouver

Vancouver is often described as one of the world’s most livable cities. The beautiful scenery, however, can’t disguise the fact that Vancouver has one of the highest population of homeless people in Canada. The homeless issue is tied hand in hand with Vancouver’s struggle with heroin. The Downtown East Side, often described as the “poorest neighborhood in Canada� is also ground zero for the drug trade. Residents of the area have pushed for safe injection sites and affordable housing. The abandoned Woodwards building has been citied for years as a logical place for the city to build social housing, and in 2003 a squat was established in the building.