[antiwar-van] Support - Women's Action in the DTES on Tues March 22

[Harsha W.]

- this action requires your support, please read below on ways to do so,
including sample letter to email in -


No More Stolen Sisters:
Safe Shelters, Safe Housing, Safe Services!

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Tuesday March 22 at 1:30 pm (ongoing - join when you can!)
Gather at Main and Hastings in the DTES
for March AND Women's Action
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"Come on, shit happens, look at Rwanda, look at Libya" - Margaret McNeil,
BC Housing when asked about BC Housing's role to ensure women's safety in
their shelters after numerous reports of sexual assaults at the First
United Church were made public.


For decades women have gone missing and been murdered from the Downtown
Eastside. Recently, it has come to light that women are being sexually
assaulted in shelters in the neighbourhood, but the response from service
providers and BC Housing has largely been muted. The silence and
normalization of violence and sexual assault against women in this
community is unacceptable. Women should be free from racialized, gendered,
colonial violence. As condos overrun this neighbourhood, women should not
have to "choose" between the indignity of homelessness and being
warehoused in shelters, and the high-risk of assault associated with both.
Women have a right to physical, mental, emotional, spiritual safety – this
includes more beds for women in shelters, a 24-hours women’s drop-in, and
housing for all women and children. BC Housing must act immediately.

Beatrice Starr, an Indigenous woman who stayed at the First United Church
Shelter for over 8 months says “All of us are someone’s mother or
someone’s daughter and deserve to be treated with respect. Warehousing
hundreds of people in a shelter is unacceptable; it is like residential
schools. Also, increasing police presence in the shelters only makes the
problem worse because mistrust of the police runs deep. Instead, all
Downtown Eastside residents should have adequate housing and access to
safe services.”

“BC Housing and the City of Vancouver are responsible to ensure that safe
services are equally available to women in this community. Women should
not have to choose between the indignity of homelessness and violence
within publicly funded institutions” states Alice Kendall, Coordinator of
the
Downtown Eastside Womens' Centre.

Background info: http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/6390 and
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/6496


* WAYS TO SUPPORT:

1) We are requesting all DTES residents, women and women-identified
groups, DTES organizations, and friends to join us in a march AND women's
action on Tuesday March 22. Your presence is vital! Please bring any
organizational banners.


2) We are gathering at 1:30 pm at Main and Hastings. To find out where we
are during the day and evening please call Alice 778 322 4594 or Nassim
778 848 0722 or check on Harsha's twitter here
http://twitter.com/HarshaWalia


3) On Tuesday morning we are requesting everyone to please send an email
along the lines of the below to all of the following email addresses

Shayne Ramsey, CEO of BC Housing
sramsay at bchousing.org

Minister of Housing Rich Coleman
rich.coleman.mla at leg.bc.ca

Mayor Gregor Robertson
gregor.robertson at vancouver.ca



RE: Safe Housing and Safe Services for Women in the DTES

It has come to my attention that for the past two months a coalition of
women in the Downtown Eastside and women-serving organizations has been
raising the urgent issue of women's safety in shelters in the Downtown
Eastside. This comes in response to a number of reported sexual assaults
at a shelter in the Downtown Eastside.

I have been dismayed by the lack of response by all levels of government
about the ongoing violence committed against women in the Downtown
Eastside. Sexual assaults against women in this neighbourhood in
particular are normalized and their safety is not considered of highest
priority as we have seen with the ongoing tragedy of missing and murdered
women. This would never be acceptable in any other part of town.

This community of women has been calling for a 24 hours drop-in space and
shelter for women in the Downtown Eastside, as well as housing for
homeless women and children with at least 100 units to be made available
immediately. I would like to add my voice to that call.

Sincerely,
(NAME, ADDRESS, CONTACT INFO)