When Our Streets asked questions related to what kinds of housing options will be offered to tent city residents they were met with no response. No plan has been formulated by the city other than decamping the tent city, leaving residents with no place to go and violating the city’s MOU on decampment (“Support for Unsheltered Residents – Memorandum of Understanding between City of Vancouver, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, and Provincial Government”).

Today is truly a tragic reminder of the stigma that fuels the hatred and violence towards our most marginalized members of society. Our hearts are with unhoused individuals who are victimized through direct and political violence. We denounce the conditions that manufacture poverty and homelessness - including white supremacy, settler colonialism, anti-drug user and anti-homeless stigma.

We must develop a flexible definition of Social Condition that includes an element of disadvantage and explicitly identifies housing status.

An analysis of how stigma informs police violence and failures of the justice system and social services

Keep up to date on Anti-Stigma Campaign and all of Pivot’s work

Anti-Stigma & Poverty: Exposing stigma in the fight to enshrine human rights protections for people living in poverty