Sex workers who were asked how to make their jobs safer and their lives better said they wanted better access to health care, mental health support, safer bathrooms and different working environments as a way to protect themselves from violence.
A recent survey conducted by Atira Women s Resource Society analyzed the experiences of unhoused women living near Hastings and Main streets. According to the results, 100 per cent of women indicated they do not feel safe and that they were subjected to violence, including sexual assaults.
Women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are warning of escalating levels of violence in the neighbourhood and reporting more frequent, increasingly brutal instances of kidnappings, forced confinements, rapes and robberies, according to front-line workers.
A series of devastating fires in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is causing growing alarm among residents in the neighbourhood, say housing advocates, who are calling for a sharper focus on fire safety in the area's buildings.