1. There are approximately 5,000 injection drug users living in the 10 city blocks that make up Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
2. In 1975 the minimum wage in BC was 122 per cent of the poverty line for a single person in a city. Today the $8 an hour minimum wage is only 78 per cent of the poverty line.
3. Homelessness doubled in Greater Vancouver between 2002 and 2005 alone – there are now more than 2,000 people living on the streets or in shelters.
4. The Downtown Eastside, has an HIV infection rate of 30 per cent – the same as Botswana.
5. The Economist Intelligence Unit deemed Vancouver among the three “most liveable” cities in the world for four years running (it ranked number one in 2005).
6. The Downtown Eastside has a Hepatitis C infection rate of just below 70 per cent.
