DRUG MAYHEM 'WORSE,' BUT DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE MAN'S LIFE BETTER

Real People, Real Lives Exhibit Challenges Stereotypes

Mike Leland has good news and bad news.

The good news is he has a place to live in the Downtown Eastside and
he collects enough money through a disability pension and binning to
survive.

The bad news is that a small percentage of residents in the former
commercial fisherman's neighbourhood continue to cause drug-fuelled
mayhem on the streets.

"It's worse down here," he says, when comparing the level of drug
activity 10 years ago. "The trouble is there if you want it, but
there's so much more to the Downtown Eastside than drugs and all that."

Leland, 51, is one of 12 residents from the Downtown Eastside who
agreed to tell his story for an exhibit that opened last Friday in the
rotunda at Pacific Centre mall.

Called "Real People, Real Lives," the exhibit's aim is to challenge
viewers to look beyond stereotypes of Downtown Eastside residents
often portrayed in the media.

The project was a collaboration involving Atira Women's Resource
Society, its property management company, photographer Michael Bednar
and the provincial government.

Leland said he agreed to the project because he was tired of the
negative portrayal of his fellow residents, many of whom have families
and jobs.

Until last fall, Leland worked part-time unloading transport trailers.
The company shut down, leaving Leland to resort to binning to
supplement his $900 per month assistance from the government.

Leland looks older than his 51 years, a fact he attributes to "hard
living," which included alcohol and drugs. He's had three heart
attacks, his first at 39. He suffers from heart disease and recently
had three stents inserted into his arteries to keep him alive.

He lives at the Marr Hotel near Oppenheimer Park, where he will stay
for another month while the Orwell Hotel in the 400-block East
Hastings is renovated. There, he will have access to support workers
for his medical needs.

"There's a million hands reaching out and it's up to you whether you
want to grab them or not. It's making a difference for me, it really
is."

When asked what he thought politicians, police or social service
agencies could do to improve the mayhem on the streets, Leland didn't
have a solution.

"I don't know really what more they can do."

The exhibit comes amid claims made regularly by activists that
governments and the police have a plan to "sweep the streets" for the
2010 Winter Olympics in February. Housing Minister Rich Coleman and
Police Chief Jim Chu have told the Courier in previous interviews
there are no such plans.

Janice Abbott, executive director of Atira, said the exhibit was not
done purposely to show a different view of the Downtown Eastside
before the Olympics.

"I can only tell you that the Olympics wasn't in my mind when we
started this," said Abbott, noting the project began more than a year
ago.

Around that time, the provincial government continued to buy Downtown
Eastside hotels and fix them up. Support services are attached to the
hotels. Atira manages 17 of the hotels.

"Whatever reason is behind the government buying the hotels, I don't
really care," Abbott said.

"People have housing and that's the bottom line. And if it took the
Olympics, whatever. People have clean, decent renovated housing and
that's what matters."

The exhibit can be viewed at the rotunda at Georgia and Howe. It will
move to the Interurban Gallery at 1 East Hastings Oct. 30 and run
until Nov. 14.