PROTEST TARGETS DROP-IN CENTRE CLOSURE

Downtown Eastside Resident Says Centre 'Kept Me Alive' Last Winter

More than 100 protesters shut down traffic on Hastings and Main
streets for an hour Monday afternoon to rally against the closure of
the Health Contact Centre located next to the Carnegie Centre.

The 24-hour facility, which had served as a drop-in centre primarily
designed to give homeless people and drug addicts a respite from the
streets, was closed by the health authority May 3.

Anna Maria D'Angelo, senior media relations officer at Vancouver
Coastal Health, said nearby services such as Insite, a supervised drug
injection site, duplicated and improved on the services provided by
the Health Contact Centre.

Marvin Dennis, who spoke at the rally, said the centre was an integral
part in his recovery from drug addiction.

"I was stuck in the alley for four years," he said. "They helped me
clean up. I had a needle in my arm and now I have no marks. I haven't
touched a needle in a year."

Dennis said the shelter's location, adjacent to an alley frequented by
drug users, allowed staff from the Health Contact Centre to call 911
and offer medical help to users who were overdosing. "I think without
that centre a lot of people are going to die," he said.

Dennis, who said he volunteered at the centre after kicking drugs,
said many addicts are too sick and high to cross the street and find
their way to Insite.

Elaine Durocher, a volunteer at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre
on Columbia Street and one of the organizers of the protest, said the
Health Contact Centre was one of the only options in the neighbourhood
offering a bathroom late at night. "People are going to use the alleys
for bathrooms," Durocher said.

Lorene Oikawa, vice-president of the B.C. Government Employees Union,
attended the rally to support the centre and the 12 employees who were
terminated when it closed. Oikawa said they were fired with no notice.

The employees will receive 60 days pay as a result of the layoff,
according to Oikawa.

Joyce Raweater, who wore a sign reading "People Over Profit" at the
rally, said during the time she was an addict, the centre was open to
her after she was denied entry at the Carnegie Centre. She said the
centre supplied needles, gauze, condoms and tampons.

John Dodge, a Downtown Eastside resident, passed by the rally and said
he spent a lot of time at the centre last winter.

"It kept me alive," he said. "I'm a diabetic, I was pretty
sick."

Dodge said he wouldn't feel comfortable going to Insite. "I'm not a
heavy drug user," he said.

Dodge said the health contact centre got him to a shelter. The rally
ended with calls for another rally, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday
after press time.