03-05-2025
‘Nobody can ever replace Trey'
It's hard to imagine how the Downtown Eastside will function without the steady force for good that was Trey (Ashtrey) Helten.
What's not hard to see is how deeply he was loved — by the community he served, his partner and their son, his dog Zelda, his former employer Sarah Blyth at the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS), his good friend Smokey D, and by the many, many people he helped in the latter part of his short life of 42 years.
When Helten failed to show up to a training at OPS on the morning of Tuesday, April 22, Blyth and a colleague went to his Strathcona home and found him unresponsive. At the time of this writing, the cause of death is unknown.
Since his passing, an outpouring of love and remembrance has flooded social media and the Downtown Eastside streets he served with such integrity. Murals have begun to appear in his honour, and there is a growing movement to name one of the neighbourhood laneways — Ashtrey Alley.
Helten was publicly up front that his early years were characterized by addiction; he didn't mind being called an addict, he once said on Garth Mullins' Crackdown podcast.
In his recovery, he built relationships with hundreds of people and, as manager of the OPS, saved the lives of hundreds more. Blyth, who is the organization's executive director, has given many interviews since Helten's passing. For CBC Radio's Early Edition and As It Happens, Blyth recalls Helten's fierce dedication to the people he was helping.
Over and above his tireless work at OPS, he was willing to drive people to appointments, detox and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. He took people to lunch or for coffee at the Ovaltine Cafe. He was passionate about doing everything he could in aid of a person's safety, recovery and comfort. In an interview with Megaphone, Blyth once said: 'I can't find words to describe what a unique person Trey is.'
Helten began working at OPS in 2018. Megaphone featured Helten on the cover in September 2023, along with his dog, Zelda. Zelda — part pit bull, mastiff and king corso — like Helten could expertly detect drug overdoses. As with many extraordinary pets in the Downtown Eastside, Zelda reflected qualities of her human: intuition, compassion, intelligence and love.
In the CBC As It Happens interview, Blyth acknowledged that Helten sometimes tried too hard, to the detriment of his own self-care. At one point, he relapsed into his addiction and needed to step away from his job as manager of OPS.
But as his partner, Amanda Jane Rose — who is expecting Helten's second child — said on Facebook, 'Trey NEVER gave up on his recovery.'
'Trey believed that recovery was always possible. It doesn't matter if it takes you one try or one hundred. Keep coming back, keep coming back, keep coming back.'
Before Christmas, Helten gave a naloxone training session to photojournalist Amy Romer, who then worked with him to write a 'Naloxone 101' for Megaphone magazine, published just last month in the April issue — in time for the nine-year anniversary of the toxic drug overdose crisis being declared a B.C. public health emergency.
Helten's dedication never stopped.
'Nobody can ever replace Trey,' said Rose. 'Not in this community, not in the hearts of so many people and certainly not in my life. He was the most unique, wonderful person in the world. To me, he was perfect.' Trey Helten tributes:
A tribute to Helten can be found in the latest episode of the
Crackdown
podcast.
There will be an all day memorial in Helen's honour on Saturday, May 10 in the parking lot of the now-demolished Balmoral Hotel (100-block East Hastings Street), from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Artist Smokey D has created a memorial piece near OPS.
