The Gentrification of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside has long been marred by a reputation as one of Canada’s poorest communities and has been characterized by outlets like the New York Times and NPR as the country’s poorest zip code. Although not entirely true (the DTES ranks somewhere closer to eighth based on median income, and this is a common misconception), that’s not to mitigate the extent of issues like homelessness and addiction, which have plagued the DTES since the 1980s. In recent years, there’s been a rapid influx of upscale restaurants, boutique shops, and luxury housing projects, slowly replacing affordable housing and community businesses. This shift is part of a broader pattern of gentrification, a process that, while often framed as revitalization, can have far-reaching consequences for the area’s low-income residents.

What is gentrification, and how is it impacting the Downtown Eastside?

Gentrification is the process by which a poorer urban area changes as wealthier people, higher-end businesses, and more expensive housing gradually replace existing communities. While it can lead to economic growth and development, for many in the Downtown Eastside, it has driven up the cost of living and forced poorer residents out of the area, a far cry from the development they’ve been promised by the city. 

Oftentimes, this looks like the rise of high-end businesses that appeal to wealthier visitors while pricing out locals. For instance, the prevalence of upscale retailers has dramatically increased in the DTES over the past decade. This includes anything from boutique stores and designer clothing to chain restaurants, bars, and lifestyle shops that replace smaller, family-run businesses. Retailers like pricy restaurants, trendy cafés, and makeup stores are largely inaccessible to a bulk of the local population, instead catering to the much wealthier clientele that is gradually moving into the area. 

This also looks like large-scale development projects taken on by the city, like the Woodward’s redevelopment project, which we have an entire article on here: https://www.thethirdview.ca/post/the-price-of-progress-vancouver-s-woodward-s-redevelopment-project 

And of course, the high cost of housing in Vancouver is only amplified in an area where people, on average, are already poorer. While developers are required to have 20% social housing—or “non-market housing”—in large new projects, that doesn’t change the fact that property values in the DTES have jumped significantly since the early 2000s, as young people find it more and more difficult to find affordable housing. 

All of this isn’t even to mention the enormous cultural cost of gentrification. From Chinatown to Gastown, the DTES is home to tons of communities and a rich patchwork of ethnic diasporas, each of which has left a profound imprint on the neighborhood’s history, architecture, food, and public spaces. Chinatown, once a bustling center for Chinese immigrants facing systematic exclusion still holds ancestral businesses, herbal shops, and historic landmarks, but many are now shuttering under rising rents. We’re watching living connections between people and places be severed in real time under worsening financial circumstances. Preserving these cultural landscapes requires more than just keeping buildings intact — it demands active protection of the communities who give them meaning.

What can the city do about it?

It’s an obvious question. How do we maintain opportunities and services for lower-income residents while still stimulating economic growth in the Downtown Eastside?

For starters, expanding social or “non-market” housing is key. The city needs more housing owned by non-profits or the government—places that won’t be flipped for profit or caught up in real estate speculation. Alongside that, stronger rent controls and eviction protections are needed to stop landlords from finding loopholes to remove tenants in favor of higher-paying renters.

And if Vancouver is going to spend money on revitalizing the DTES, that investment needs to go toward harm reduction and social services, not just making the area more attractive for wealthier newcomers. Improving public health resources, expanding shelters, and strengthening social services should be the priority, not making the neighborhood more profitable for investors.

What next?

Gentrification isn’t just something that happens—it’s the result of corporate interests and policy decisions that ultimately erode the cultural identity of communities like the Downtown Eastside, making life more difficult for their most vulnerable residents. But that also means it’s fixable, and that anybody can advocate for the communities they care about. 

At the end of the day, the Downtown Eastside isn’t just a statistic, a problem to be solved, or a blank slate for developers. It’s a real community, home to real people who deserve the right to stay. If Vancouver is serious about making life better for DTES residents, the focus needs to be on protecting them—not replacing them.