The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is perhaps erroneously known as "Canada's poorest postal code". According to the city of Vancouver, the following zoning areas are partly or wholly within the Downtown Eastside: Chinatown, Gastown, Oppenheimer Park (formerly Japantown), Strathcona, Thornton Park and Victory Square, as well as the light industrial area to the North. There are many conflicting definitions of its perimeter but it can generally be viewed as being bordered by Abbott Street to the west, Clark Drive to the east, the waterfront to the north and Venables Street/Prior Avenue to the south, with Hastings Street running down the middle of the neighbourhood.
The area is noted for a high incidence of poverty, drug use, sex trade, crime, violence, as well as a history of community activism. Hastings and Cordova Streets were once the core shopping district in the city, but many of the retail shops that flourished until the early 1980s are now gone. The area has suffered significant urban decay. Since the early 21st century, tensions have arisen between developers and some members of the community relating to gentrification development proposals, which often displace poor people.
The Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) is a non-profit society in the Downtown Eastside area of Vancouver.
The association was founded in 1973 by Bruce Eriksen, Libby Davies, Jean Swanson, University of Victoria professor Calvin Sandborm and other residents of the Downtown Eastside and membership is restricted to those who live within the neighbourhood's boundaries. The association's original aims are outlined in its Mission Statement.
The group was actively involved with opposition to the 2010 Winter Olympics, and was accused of possessing the Olympic Flag stolen from Vancouver City Hall on March 16, 2007. The Association has close ties with the Anti-Poverty Committee, with many APC members having worked for the DERA, and live in DERA subsidized housing.
In March 2010, the association was accused of mishandling public money, and failing to pay $500,000 in property taxes and rents from three government-owned social housing buildings that they manage. Since the suit, the three government-owned social housing buildings were handed over to a court-appointed receiver, and an undisclosed settlement was reached between the DERA and BC Housing. BC Housing is now planning to issue a proposal call in the summer of 2010 to find nonprofit housing societies to manage the buildings in the long term. Former supporters of the DERA, such as Jim Green, a former Vancouver city councillor who led DERA in the 1980s, state this settlement likely means the end of the DERA as a housing provider for the poor.
Residents' associations are organisations formed by groups of people from a specific geographic community who come together to address issues within their local area and act as a voice for their local community. In one form or another they have existed since the mid nineteenth century. In many cases they were founded within newer communities, for example as new settlements were built in British Commonwealth countries, and in the UK many residents' associations were formed by the newcomer-residents of the housing estates that proliferated between the World Wars.
The majority of associations are structured to include a chair, vice-chair, secretary, treasurer and committee members. These positions are decided by way of nominations at an annual meeting when they can be challenged/altered.
Some associations meet to address one specific issue (and quite often some major and controversial local issue is the stimulus to form an association), while others address a wider spectrum of matters. Some residents' associations decide to run candidates for local office to increase their leverage, while others decide to remain as advocacy or action groups independent of any political process. While generally eschewing national party politics, since the reform of UK electoral law in 2000 several British residents' associations have been obliged to register as locality-based political parties to enable them to participate in local elections for borough and county councils.