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Low-barrier supportive housing, healthcare and harm reduction save lives
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October 25, 2024
Sport builds community in the DTES
Members of a Downtown Eastside Indigenous soccer team, First Nations BC, are looking ahead to...
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Supportive housing providers unite to combat homelessness
More than 20 experienced and innovative providers of low-barrier supportive housing have come together to...
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Pure joy: how it feels like to move into PHS housing after sheltering and homelessness
PHS Community Services Society opened two new housing developments in late 2023. There was 80-unit...
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Housing is healthcare and harm reduction
We’re opening new housing in Vancouver and Victoria to bring people in from the cold....
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The drug crisis demands political unity
If ever there was a non-partisan issue, it’s the drug poisoning crisis. It’s hitting all...
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Nathan Edelson was a champion of the Downtown Eastside
Nathan Edelson was an urban visionary. He was a City planner who advocated for social...
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Insite at 20: Still saving lives, still giving hope
When Insite opened in September 2003, it wasn’t just the first sanctioned site in North...
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Pigeon Park Savings: the Downtown Eastside’s bank
As we come up to our 20th year of low-barrier community banking, Pigeon Park Savings...
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Vancouver study: homelessness is a medical emergency
Research demonstrates the devastating health impacts of homelessness, for individuals and all society. Homelessness is...
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Dr. Perry Kendall: the way forward
The toxic drugs public health emergency is a crisis of incomprehensible scale that has claimed more...
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The Downtown Eastside: complex issues, simplistic headlines
It’s hard for people outside of the neighbourhood to come to know the Downtown Eastside....
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There is no divide between safe supply and recovery
One more time with feeling: it’s not a zero-sum game. Despite the polarized discussion happening...
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Affordable DTES dentistry gives dignity and quality of life
PHS provides a lifeline to a marginalized and under-served community, providing services that go far...
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Lifeguard on duty: raising the alarm on overdoses
PHS is rolling out the Lifeguard overdose alert app in our supportive housing and shelters...
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A PHS community service you can bank on
Pigeon Park Savings is continuously innovating to provide low barrier banking services to the Downtown...
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Mass spectrometry drug checking for the DTES
PHS operates two high-tech drug checking machines in the Downtown Eastside. Based at Insite and...
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Calls for safe supply as B.C. overdose crisis claims 10,000 lives
More than 10,000 deaths have been recorded in B.C. due to unregulated drugs since the...
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PHS provides shelter from extreme weather
The PHS team is innovating to protect vulnerable people from extreme weather. Extreme weather is...
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Pigeon Park Savings: low barrier DTES banking
Opening a Pigeon Park Savings account is easy. The ID requirements are minimal compared to...
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Keeping up with community need – with a little help from our friends
Donations allow PHS to innovate and keep critical programs growing. Generous contributions from B2Gold Corp....
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Make a difference. Join PHS.
“Mental Health Workers are the individuals that can shift and move as needs present themselves.”...
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PHS alumni sings of ‘art and community and chosen family’
Former PHS Mental Health Worker Allison Russell is nominated in three Grammy Awards categories at...
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PHS hiring nurses in Vancouver
Join our expanding medical team and work at the leading edge of addiction medicine. The...
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We’re growing. Join the team.
“I feel like I have something to offer in helping and supporting others” – Matthew...
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Housing homeless people in a pandemic
Throughout the year-and-a-half of the COVID-19 pandemic, PHS’s Victoria operation has created new housing for...
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Healthcare: the heart of PHS
The communities we serve suffer grave health inequities. And since we started in 1993, when...
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‘We are in a trauma crisis’ – Guy Felicella on the overdose emergency
Walking through the Downtown Eastside you see human suffering at its rawest – people temporarily...
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Radical pragmatism: how harm reduction saves lives at a PHS homeless shelter
PHS’s New Fountain Shelter allows open drug use – to save lives. Shelter guests who...
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Insite: an anniversary of hope
Insite, which celebrates its 18th anniversary this month, is both a frontline clinical unit and...
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A race for the community is on!
The Under Armour Eastside 10K brings a real sense of community to runners, and fundraising...
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From marginalized to prioritized: how the community became a vaccination-drive focus
Vaccinations are ending the pandemic – which is why PHS staff are supporting pop-up clinics...
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The case against the war on drugs
The war on drugs has been a 50-year failure. By whatever measure you judge it...
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#ICYMI June news
In case you missed it! There’s always media interest in what we do at PHS....
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Supporters building community in the Downtown Eastside and Victoria one donation at a time
Giving to others gives back to you. PHS Community Services Society is a registered charity...
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Vancouver business inviting customers to support people hit by homelessness and overdose crisis
A community business has a novel approach to fundraising that’s collected more than $25,000 towards...
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Mental Health Workers: where housing meets harm reduction
Mental Health Workers are the heart of frontline PHS operations in Victoria and Vancouver. These...
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PHS has an innovative response to homelessness in store
Vancouver’s former Army & Navy department store will serve as an innovative pathway to housing...
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The PHS Board: volunteers maintaining our vision & values
The public face of PHS is all about the services provided to the community, but...
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East Van Roasters serves up ambitious expansion plans
Award-winning Vancouver artisan coffee and chocolate specialists East Van Roasters (EVR) has a new ownership...
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Applying harm reduction to alcohol consumption on city streets
An innovative PHS program to serve alcohol at an outdoor parklet as a public health measure is now underway...
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Arena offers relief to homeless in Victoria
An innovative temporary shelter operated by PHS Community Services Society at a Victoria hockey arena...
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PHS to deliver multi-year safe supply program
A new multi-year PHS project will provide life-saving pharmaceutical alternatives to toxic street drugs. The SAFER Initiative...
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Sheltering homeless people while they wait for COVID-19 test results
RV trailers operated by PHS to provide temporary quarantine stays PHS Community Services Society is...
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“We’ve lost a true friend and a genuine hero”
Tributes paid to civil liberties icon who helped save Insite “When the Canadian government tried...
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Fast-tracking housing solutions for homelessness
Take a tour of our temporary modular housing units “On a brick-and-mortar build for supportive...
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Decriminalization of Personal Possession of Illicit Drugs Membership at the November 18, 2020 Annual General...
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Safe supply saves lives
Researchers confirm the lifesaving power of a safe supply of drugs “It will come as...
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Seniors homelessness crisis
Seniors are the fastest-growing homeless demographic in Vancouver “The fact that we are letting our...
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Breaking the cycle of survival drinking
Applying harm reduction to illicit drinking A peer-led PHS program that gives people alternatives to...
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CBC: overdose numbers in August 2020
147 deaths recorded in August, as figure remains high during pandemic “The BC Coroners Service...
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Homeless count examines race-based data
Homeless count examines race: minority groups significantly more like to be on the streets This...
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Dr. Bonnie Henry: ‘We need compassionate supports’
Dr. Bonnie Henry: we need supports that meet people where they are at “For those...
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Dr. Christy Sutherland on advances in treatment options
Doctors integrate opioid agonist treatments in their practice PHS medical director Dr. Christy Sutherland talks...
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The Insite story
Supervised consumption services save lives and improve community health Insite was the first legal supervised...
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Tribute to Thomus Donaghy
Thomus Donaghy is remembered for devoting his life to saving the lives of others Tributes...
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