Latest news with #DTES
Time of India
21-07-2025
- General
- Time of India
NSS launches key surveys in Sivaganga village as part of 75th anniversary
Sivaganga: As part of the 75th anniversary celebrations of the National Sample Survey (NSS), the Virudhunagar sub-regional office (SRO) conducted a community meeting and launched the Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey (DTES) and the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) at Konthagai village in Sivaganga district on Monday. The event, held at the Muniyandipuram community hall, was inaugurated by assistant director V Rethinam, who highlighted the NSS's history and its contribution to national development. Konthagai has been chosen as a sample village for the surveys, he said. Deputy director A Sundar Anand underscored the importance of agricultural statistics and the role of both central and state governments in data collection for policymaking. Officials, including the block development officer, tahsildar of Thiruppuvanam, local panchayat representatives, and villagers took part in the event, which featured a tree plantation drive, a photo exhibition on NSS milestones, and a drama highlighting the importance of statistical surveys. The programme concluded with a vote of thanks by survey supervisor V Rajesh Kumar.
The Hindu
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Domestic travel expenditure survey launched in Sivaganga
As part of the 77th anniversary of National Sample Survey (NSS), Virudhunagar Sub-Regional Office on Monday launched Domestic Travel Expenditure Survey and National Household Travel Survey at Konthagai in Sivaganga district. In his inaugural address, V. Rethinam, Assistant Director, National Sample Survey, spoke about NSS and the various works undertaken by it. Touching upon the importance of their work in nation development, he said data collected through the surveys played a major role in formulating policies and schemes. Hence, local officials and the general public must extend their cooperation to smoothly conduct them. Mr. Rethinam said Konthagai village was also selected as a sample village for DTES/NHTS survey. A. Sundar Anand, Deputy Director, Department of Economics and Statistics, Sivagangai, emphasised the importance of data collections carried out by both State and Union governments. The collected data, which was required for policy-making, was the beginning of any process towards progression. As part of the programme, tree plantation, a photo exhibition highlighting the achievements and history of NSS and drama performances showcasing NSO surveys and their importance were conducted.
CTV News
17-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Cooling bus offers relief from heat
Vancouver Watch During this spell of hot weather, former CRAB Park campers are using what they call a "cooling van" to provide water and other supplies in the DTES.
Vancouver Sun
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Sam Sullivan: Ending Vancouver's Downtown Eastside experiment
For 52 years, the City of Vancouver has facilitated a social experiment called the Downtown Eastside. The city shut down the most important kind of affordable housing, rental bedrooms in single-family neighbourhoods, leaving the main affordable option decrepit rooms in old, mostly empty buildings in the oldest part of the city. Moving people from dispersed housing in healthy neighbourhoods and concentrating them into inner-city substandard rooms was risky. Vancouver's first chief planner, Gerald Sutton Brown, had opposed efforts to concentrate people. Under his watch, 'rooming house' accommodations were available in every neighbourhood. The results are in, and they are disastrous. It's time to end the experiment. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. In 1973, the Vancouver city legal department incorporated an organization called the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA). The public had never heard this name; it was a creation of city hall. DERA was created to manage a federal grant of 10 advocates for the newly named neighbourhood so these staff members could be moved off the city payroll. At the same time, city hall began shutting down hundreds of 'rooming houses' throughout the city, including in Shaughnessy, which had many of the affordable rooms. The people involved with the grant were motivated by counterculture ideologies opposed to free market principles. They wanted to prevent the natural processes of 'gentrification' from revitalizing the area. They wanted a community that could showcase alternative ideals. In March of that same year, city council committed to restricting population growth in Vancouver and redirecting it to the suburbs. Central planning, not market forces, would decide on growth even though it was widely understood that this would cause house prices to rise. Today, our single-family neighbourhoods have fewer people than in 1973. Thousands of small bungalows were demolished and replaced with large houses with more bedrooms and fewer people. A tragic misallocation of resources. For the first time, homeless people appeared on our streets. The first informal homeless counts in the 1990s revealed that most were on the street because their rooming-house accommodations in residential neighbourhoods had been shut down. In the new DTES, the natural processes that stabilize communities broke down as the concentration of vulnerable people increased. The worse things got, the more governments poured housing and services into the area. And the worse things got. A downward spiral. Research shows that most residents of the DTES came from communities throughout B.C. and Canada where they first experienced personal challenges. They were drawn or pushed toward Vancouver's new city-created neighbourhood. But despite the significant free housing and services, conditions of many worsened after they arrived: more emergency-room visits, more illness, more addiction, more arrests, more survival prostitution and more deaths. Studies reveal that most residents don't want to live in the DTES. The majority say they want to live in dispersed independent housing — like the kind they had been pushed out of — not special congregate housing. For those that succeed in moving away into healthy supportive relationships, the results are dramatic. Interactions with the justice system and the health system drop significantly. Switzerland once had the largest open drug scenes in Europe. They shut them down and ended their overdose crisis. When I asked one Swiss expert the optimal number of addicted people to live in one building, he answered: 'Absolutely no more than one per building. Any more than that and you are asking for trouble.' The DTES is a harm production policy, harming not only low-income people, but B.C. as a whole. Despite government rhetoric about reducing stigmatization, government policies are stigmatizing vulnerable people by incentivizing them to live in one area. The City of Vancouver has an opportunity to repeal its stigma zoning through its current DTES plan update process. The Global Civic think-tank has a five-point plan to end the DTES and return it the healthy neighbourhood it once was. First, governments must commit to never again concentrating low-income people. Next, help the residents who don't want to live there to move individually to where they want to live, with supportive relationships. Most importantly, we need to change government policies to enable employment, make tenants safer and housing more affordable for those with addictions. Every day, I watch fresh-faced, nicely dressed young people arrive in the DTES to begin their slow descent into tragedy. How has this become acceptable in Vancouver? Vancouver must end this cruel experiment called the Downtown Eastside and become once again like most normal cities in the world. Join our campaign. Sam Sullivan, a former Vancouver mayor and B.C. MLA, is founder of the Global Civic Policy Society.
Hamilton Spectator
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Continental courage
One wouldn't initially see the relationship between migrant workers and environmental issues, because it's rarely talked about. But there is a connection. The relationship is something that ran as an underlying theme during the Community Climate Justice Forum this spring, a public forum held in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) and hosted by the UBC Learning Exchange. Attendees included the public and several DTES organizations who heard from UBC researchers and community advocates about new findings related to extreme heat, housing, health and urban greening. Participants also shared how to include traditionally marginalized groups, such as the poor and people of colour, in conversations when making policy changes. Ingrid Mendez, a feisty and passionate Guatemalan woman, spoke on a panel and explained the plight of migrant workers in B.C. in relation to climate change issues. Mendez came to Canada in 1991 from Coactemalan, which is a Nahuatl name meaning 'place of many trees.' She fled her homeland because she feared persecution being a university student protesting against the massacres (the mass killing of the Maya Indigenous people during the Guatemalan Civil War 1960–1996) and the disappearances of fellow classmates. When she arrived in B.C., she fought for the rights of migrant workers in the DTES, and eventually took the role of executive director at the Migrant Workers Centre, a non-profit organization dedicated to legal advocacy for migrant workers in B.C. She explained that each year, there are approximately 125,000 migrant workers that come to the province to work in various sectors, leaving their families behind, from countries like Mexico, Guatemala, the Caribbean, Vietnam and South Asia. There is a connection to the environment for these workers. According to Mendez, migrants in B.C. produce the food we eat, take care of our loved ones, grow the plants and trees for our gardens and parks, work in the food industry and clear the spaces we meet in and socialize. 'Without them,' she says, 'the economy would suffer.' Amid growing pressure from the U.S. under Trump-era policies, immigration has moved to the forefront of public debate both north and south of the border, and Canada is being pushed to 'secure its borders' — a move that's fuelling fear and uncertainty, particularly among migrant workers and international students. The reality, says Mendez, is that migrants often take on work that many Canadians are unwilling to do. 'They pay taxes just like anyone living here permanently,' Mendez adds. Yet despite their contributions, migrants are frequently scapegoated — blamed for everything from rising crime to the housing crisis. And their working conditions are often hazardous. Migrant workers have been forced by their employers to continue working through wildfires and floods, Mendez says. 'Once they arrive, many face abuse and exploitation at the hands of their employers or supervisors.' Migrant workers are often compelled to work excessive hours in unsafe, sometimes life-threatening conditions, she adds, including being made to continue farm labour while wildfires burn nearby, with little protection and barely breathable air. Mendez says there have been cases where workers have been left behind by their employers during floods, leaving them stranded on rooftops for hours, unsure of what to do — forced to watch the animals they had cared for, and formed bonds with, perish in the waters below. These experiences leave deep psychological scars that many will carry for the rest of their lives. Workers live in constant fear of deportation, a threat that looms large if they dare to speak up or demand their rights. Some endure emotional, physical and even sexual abuse. There have even been cases, though it's rarely reported on, says Mendez, where workers die or lose their limbs due to lack of health and safety. Instead, mainstream media reports there are too many immigrants that must be returned back home as quickly as possible because they are stealing Canadians' jobs. Mendez says that attitude fuels division and hatred, noting that 'abuse, exploitation, racism and scapegoating' are the realities faced by many migrants. Potential solutions include granting open work permits or providing permanent residency upon arrival. Mendez also advocates for more immigrant-positive and truthful reporting in mainstream media. What often goes unheard, she says, are the stories of emotional, mental, physical and sexual abuse experienced by people of colour who come to Canada in search of a better life. While this country presents itself to the world as an enlightened democracy, it hides dirty secrets — including its treatment of migrant workers. Mendez vows to courageously continue the work, fighting for justice here just as she did in her country of origin, despite today's oppressive political climate. Jathinder Sandhu is a Surrey resident and a published poet, writer, multimedia artist and member of The Shift peer newsroom. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
