‘Decampment isn’t a solution to anything’: Report looks at toll of eviction on people who use drugs

A new report is providing insight into the impact people who use drugs face after an eviction.

A new report is providing insight into the impact people who use drugs face after an eviction.

The report titled, “It's no foundation, there's no stabilization, you're just scattered”: A qualitative study of the institutional circuit of recently-evicted people who use drugs,” surveyed dozens of people on the Downtown Eastside.

It found that evictions led to an institutional circuit of homelessness.

Study author Ryan McNeil, an associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine, told CTV News the research is timely, given the City of Vancouver’s decision to remove tents in the neighborhood.

“People are either going to cycle constantly to new camping locations trying to eke out survival as they’re perpetually and constantly displaced,” he said. “They're going to temporarily stay with friends, placing them at increased risk of eviction and creating a further cycle that only worsens the whole of the situation. Decampment isn’t a solution to anything.”

Karen Ward, a drug policy advisor said since the decampment began on April 5, residents have been displaced and some are facing numerous barriers — including accessing drugs.

“If they use drugs, they have someone that they go to — their supplier and then they get something similar all the time or at least regularly,” she said. “They have to break up that connection if they don’t find them and they’re at very high risk of an overdose. Very high-risk, because they don’t know what their dose is.”