Below the Radar Transcript
Episode 80: End the Drug War — with Eris Nyx
Speakers: Fiorella Pinillos, Am Johal, Eris Nyx
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Fiorella Pinillos 0:05
Hola oyentes. Mi nombre es Fiorella Pinillos, y esa es Below the Radar and a knowledge democracy podcast. Below the Radar is created by SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement and is recorded on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Today our host Am Johal is joined by Eris Nyx, an artist and community organizer who advocates for the rights of drug users and tenants in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. She and Am discuss what policy interventions are needed to protect tenants of SRO, hotels, and how the COVID 19 pandemic has compounded risk for drug users in the neighborhood already dealing with an unsafe supply of drugs. Hope you enjoyed the episode.
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Am Johal 0:51
Hi there, welcome to Below the Radar. Really excited to have Eris Nyx with us today. Welcome Eris wondering if you can begin by introducing yourself a little bit?
Eris Nyx 1:03
Yeah, my name is Eris Nyx. I'm a project coordinator with the Coalition of Peers Dismantling the Drug War. I also work with the Downtown Eastside SRO Collaborative, as well as its subsidiary program, The Tenant Overdose Response Organizers. Yeah, that's, that's pretty much all the important stuff.
Am Johal 1:25
[laughs] Yeah, I'm wondering if we can begin a little bit with the work that the SRO Collaborative has been doing and obviously, like all of the organizations here in the neighborhood have been impacted by COVID 19, that has sort of jumped on to existing crises that already exist in the neighborhood that have been exacerbated in this exceptional situation, it'd be great to get an update from you for so what the SRO Collaborative is what research you were doing, and also kind of how the present situation has has impacted the work there.
Eris Nyx 2:02
So the SRO Collaborative was designed, I guess you could say formed five years ago or so. The primary goal was to do tenants rights advocacy for folks living in single room occupancy hotels, which are predominantly on Granville Street and within the Downtown Eastside. There's about 106 of them. Many of them have been gentrified past the point of being on our radar, but the vast majority of them are not in the best condition. Let's just say folks have very tiny rooms, in most cases, eight feet by ten feet with a sink, shared bathroom. Sometimes a kitchen, if you're lucky, maybe laundry, you know lots of infestations, bugs, blah, blah, blah. But you know, this is where people live. And a lot of people have called these buildings home for a long time. So we, you know, we do a diverse range of things. Ranging from like, you know, working with a lot of folks around harm reduction, overdose, reversal. You know, if someone's getting evicted, we'll do light advocacy for them. We do walk through the buildings, do outreach group trainings, and I think it's important we try and ensure everything, we're doing everything through a lens of decolonization. Because, you know, a vast majority of the folks living in these hotels, a lot of elders, a lot of drug users, a lot of youth and a lot of Indigenous folks across the many different buildings and from like, vastly diverse backgrounds. It's a real melting pot.
Am Johal 3:42
Yeah. Now, in terms of the current situation in the SRO, hotels, I can remember, you know, historically in the 80s, during expo 86, there were you know a thousand evictions that happened in the 90s, there were a number of conversions into youth hostels that was kind of the gentrification of that period. And certainly in the run up to the Olympics, there were mass evictions and conversions into condominiums and other things. And there were a number of hotels that were bought by the government and put under nonprofit management, but they're still a group of privately run hotels, and as you said, it's such an important housing stock, because oftentimes, it's the housing of last resort for people if they're evicted from these hotels, there's not really another option of where to go. How would you characterize the situation in the privately run SRO hotels and from a community perspective what are your policy demands related to fixing the situation?
Eris Nyx 4:49
I mean, in a lot of cases, there's no, you know, folks kind of just want things to continue as they are. And I think it's important to remember not everyone, you know, these are folks' homes. Not everyone wants to leave or change what they're doing. It's an interesting system, because although the hotels may be privately owned, they could have nonprofit managers, there's a couple of big ones, many of whom are enforcing policies, especially under COVID, that are increasing isolation. For instance, that right now is a guest restriction on folks being able to go into these buildings. But what that's going to do is further isolation. A lot of times, you know, people's family live across town, my brother lives in the Astoria, I live in the Aften kind of situation. And when you can't go visit someone in their home, it's going to increase the, you know, the amount of isolation. And this is blended with service closures, which just leads people to, you know, frequently, if you're a drug user, such as myself, your amount of use is going to increase, you know, you're going to get more depressed, you're gonna have less access to services. It's kind of like a vicious, aurabora cycle. So compounding people's isolation by not allowing them to have guests, I think, is very, very dangerous, especially given the current drug supply. Another big thing and I think this is going to Vancouver city council, October 8, but it could be the third is a rent freeze, rent control proposition. We're in, you know, if a landlord evicts someone, they will not be able to increase the rent of that room as much as they want. Because that both incentivizes evictions and allows these, you know, many of these buildings are rented at shelter rate, which is $375 a month, but we're seeing them go up to $700, $800 You know, all the way to $1,700 if it's in gas town, you know, what is the Downtown Eastside. So it's really gentrification merged with isolation and a lack of access to services, essential services and a drug supply that because of a regime of prohibition is wildly chaotic in its content. We're seeing a lot of folks die.
Am Johal 7:20
A few years ago, Muldoon, Qatari the former UN Special Rapporteur on housing, came through town on the 10 year anniversary of his report, he visited the Balmoral at the time and of course, the Balmoral and the Regent have been shut down, there's organizing going on in the background in terms of the future of those sites. Do you have a sense of where some of that conversation is going?
Eris Nyx 7:47
I've talked to a lot of folks about it, there's actually a report that CCAP, the Carnegie Community Action Project, and the FROC collaborated on called vision for the 100 block. And in that we kind of addressed those buildings, because many folks, you know, first of all, the relationship to you know, missing and murdered Indigenous women, men, you know, children, and like the building should be treated like crime scenes. First, you know, I talked to someone whose niece's ID and clothing was found, like in the wall who had been missing. Things of that nature, catches , swing a wrecking ball into the buildings. And then I think there's a bit of contention over if they should be knocked down. Which, you know, if you talk to Indigenous elders in the neighborhood, it seems like the general theme is to destroy the buildings because of their significance. It's a complicated issue. And I mean, the other thing is, you have to remember many of those people who were evicted out of that housing, despite how awful it was. There's nowhere else, they don't have housing anymore. They're the folks that are roaming around, you know, Oppenheimer Park to Crab Park to Strathcona park now, and like, if you push them out of their housing, they're aren't gonna have anywhere to go. So I think part of what needs to be addressed to this entire situation is thinking about new models of housing for people with complex and intersectional needs, you know.
Am Johal 9:24
Now, there's been a public health emergency that was declared since 2016, related to deaths related to fentanyl contamination of the drug supply, but also has been further exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic situation where drug supply routes have been affected. And so the last three months, the number of deaths have been the most ever in the province of BC. And in your other work with other organizations, how has that advocacy been going with Vancouver Coastal Health and other health authorities?
Eris Nyx 10:14
A couple things to address. I don't think when when we say, you know, it's an opiate crisis or it's fentanyl contamination, I think that's a misnomer. It's about the volatility of the content of the drugs, not what the drugs are themselves, a lot of folks are still going to want fentanyl. You know, regardless of if you can give them Dilaudid are heroin diacetylmorphine, whatever you want to call it, you know, everyone has their own drug of choice. So I think really, what we're seeing is like the systemic failure of the regime of prohibition and the war on drugs play out in a hyper accelerated, I think the economic term for it is a balloon effect, where if you blot out one part of the market, you're just going to push it into a different area. And I think, you know, coalition appears dismantling the drug war, which I mentioned earlier. We advocate that they should just regulate every narcotic, everything that's labeled under the CBSA, just like alcohol, you know, I'm like, you can go into an alcohol, alcohol is the most dangerous drug both to yourself and to society. So I think, if we can have that be legal, because prohibition of alcohol failed, we should be able to do the same thing with all drugs. And I'm not saying don't have public education or a continuum of care for folks who develop problematic relationships with drugs, it's just when you cannot tell the content of your drugs, because of supply side volatility, you're going to end up in a situation like this. The other point that I wanted to address is I think a lot of these deaths. You know, it's it's an intersectional thing, because I'm like, if you cannot go to an overdose prevention site, if overdose prevention sites have reduced capacities, you know, gentrification is actually just pushing some of them right out of the neighborhood. As these things happen, and you have less access to services, and you, you know, to go back to this guest, guest bar issue, I'm like, if your friend comes from across town every day and you shoot dope with, you're gonna be a lot safer if one of you as a Naloxone kit and is watching the other one us. But if that person can no longer come to your house, they are still going to be just as dope sick and want to use just as much. So that element of safety in your life has disappeared. And the thing we need to remember about drug use is for most people very ritualistic. Like people have patterns and routes and ruts. So when you start disrupting those things, and putting them into isolation, I think you're putting their lives in higher Jeopardy. And absolutely, the other thing you brought up to was that COVID border closures, for instance, are increasing the price of street drugs, which means people are having to cut them with more and more intense, you know, adulterants to conserve money, like the you know, as a drug user, I'm like, the price of the drugs I use has increased exponentially, and I've watched it happen. So I think there's all these intersecting factors that are kind of creating problems, very, very severe problems. And I don't think the government wants to address it, because, you know, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the war on drugs and the prison industrial complex, medical industrial complex, you know, the entire colonial regime, kind of, they're intertwined. And as soon as you pull one piece out of the game of Kerplunk, everything starts falling, if you kind of catch my drift.
Am Johal 13:51
And you certainly see how the government approaches other health emergencies like COVID, in terms of mobilizing resources, changing, adjusting policies, alongside other emergencies that aren't dealt with in quite the same way or the similar type resources aren't put behind it. I'm wondering, from your perspective, sort of some of the unintended consequences of the pandemic period where certain policies and things were rolled out quite suddenly, how they've impacted the neighborhood on the ground from your perspective.
Eris Nyx 14:29
Well, part of me it's like, I don't know how unintentional it is. I, you know, I'm like, it's ridiculous. It's something like a guest ban, which violates Residential Tenancy Act, and it's just out rightly illegal and like, it gets you thinking. But in terms, you know, COVID just shut everything down. Every service shut down, but people still act exactly the same in the neighborhood. There were a few key, you know, bad risk analysis decisions, in my opinion, I think for instance, Since initially at the start of the crisis, they went into question whether you should give someone rescue breaths if they were having an opioid overdose. So someone, someone is somewhere in the Health Authority decided it would be more dangerous for you to give people the breath of life, like you are more at risk of contracting COVID than giving someone air when they're having an opioid overdose, which, you know, you need air in your brain to keep living or you go brain dead. So these kinds of policies, which I'm not sure, and the logic behind them, who's making these decisions, but they just come down in a top down way to the point places like PHS, were telling their staff not to breathe for folks, you know. And I think that that accelerated the rate of death quite substantially. But the rate of misinformation, like is COVID, you know, can you contract it from surfaces? Is that not true? Like, how there's so much misinformation about it, and then also just so much incorrect, just blatantly incorrect information circulating that I think a lot of folks specifically in the Downtown Eastside feel burnt out and unconcerned about it at this point.
Am Johal 16:16
If you were going to throw out some policy ideas, to different levels of government that you think could make a difference on the ground right now, what would some of those be?
Eris Nyx 16:31
I mean, the first one would be to totally dismantle the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and provide amnesty to anyone that's been charged under it. I think it's preposterous, that that's even a piece of legislation. It's both, you know, it's outdated. It's not scientific. As I said, Before, the prohibition of alcohol didn't work. Again, the federal government will never do that. Another thing would be to have some kind of, you know, rent, freeze, and rent roll back even to set all the rates of SRO rooms at you know, $375 a month. I think those kinds of buildings could be run by the tenants themselves. I don't think they need management or anything like that. I think they could be run as cooperatives. You know, I think a lot of folks do want to stay in those buildings, but I'm like, the way things are going right now, gentrification will absolutely destroy them. And you see, you know, you see models like this in places like Berlin for social housing, Robert Ross. So I think we need innovative and new policies, defund the police, just get rid of the police, I think very simple answers that intersect with many, many problems, that, you know, they won't, they won't even give credence to. There's no convincing the government of that, because, and in my opinion, and I'm sure the opinion of many others, the government itself is just a colonial apparatus connected to resource extraction that's trying to, you know, play this game of chess in which we have very few pieces. So the intentionality behind a lot of this decision making, you know, regardless of how conspiratorial it sounds, you have to remember what the Government of Canada is. And the reason you know, drug laws are just founded in racism. [sighs]
Am Johal 18:30
In terms of going into the fall and the spring, as the weather gets colder, the rainier period and the pandemic still upon us, what are some of your concerns? And what additional services do you think need to be put into place in terms of preparation for that, particularly as it relates to the neighborhood?
Eris Nyx 18:57
I mean, hygiene standards, and, like I, I do have a very distinct worry that at this point, nobody's taking it seriously. And given the, you know, obscurity of the information, Vancouver Coastal Health has been floating out, it's become very difficult to actually track where outbreaks are moving through the neighborhood and how at risk people actually are. So there needs to be much more public education, which I feel like has fallen off, there needs to be more funding going into institutions to ensure proper hygiene standards are being maintained. Food security is a giant issue. The closure of overdose prevention sites. Just other kinds of bad public policy that get instituted, things having delayed hours. I think there are solutions for these things. But again, because it's an inconvenience to you know, the majority of society, it's always the poor who have to suffer. For instance, I'm like Hastings. St. at Main just close the whole block down so people can walk around and set up crap in the middle of the road. I don't understand why, you know, it might be an inconvenience to traffic, but to who for how long? And is it worth the community, you know, being crammed together in these little hotels, and not having any space to go and do anything, really. And it's a huge concern to me that should something happen, it'll be too little too late, you know, and that there should be more preparatory work going in to ensuring folks are safe. And the other thing is the city just arbitrarily makes decisions and when you know, when they're cleaning buildings or whatever, they'll just go, you know, people in like beekeeper suits with buckets of pesticide or whatever. You know, disinfecting, they're spraying on unknown chemicals, people come to me and they're like, Yeah, my SRO. These people are walking around spraying and stuff now everything's really sticky. So, and if you ask people, they're like, "We can't tell you. We don't want to cause pandemonium" and I'm like, "this is going to cause pandemonium", you know. So confidentiality policy under this whole thing, I think is going to be vastly detrimental to the Downtown Eastside as a community.
Am Johal 21:18
Thank you so much for joining us. Eris, is there anything else you'd like to add?
Eris Nyx 21:25
I think one of the most important things folks can do right now is trying to advocate to make things a bit better for people in this community. I mean, you know, I don't feel like the democratic process necessarily works, but go to City Hall in October to talk about these, the way these things are going to affect people, you know, write, all levels of government to tell them that more needs to be done to address this crisis that has been caused by prohibition. And things, if direct action events are happening, attend them and put your body, you know, put your money where your mouth is, because a lot of folks are. And I can only speak to the drug user liberation front element of this but a lot of folks are putting themselves heavily at risk to try and make policy change. And I think the support of the general public needs to be more upfront and center.
Am Johal 22:25
Thank you so much for joining us on Below the Radar.
Eris Nyx 22:29
Thanks.
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Fiorella Pinillos 22:36
Thank you for listening to this episode of Below the Radar with guestEris Nyx. Head to the links in the show notes to learn more about her work with the SRO Collaborative, the Coalition of Peers Dismantling the Drug War and to listen to the 100 Block rock album. Keep up with Below the Radar by following us on Twitter at BTR underscore pod. Thanks again for tuning in. And Estella Proxima.
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