Peer workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside say a sustained week of hot temperatures has proven extremely dangerous for unhoused people in the neighbourhood.
“We’re already in a very, very challenging overdose crisis where people are overdosing and dying in this community every day,” said Sarah Blyth, executive director of the Overdose Prevention Society.
“If you add really high temperatures to that, people are passing out in the sun, people are unconscious everywhere.”
Their concerns have been heightened after a tent encampment that lined East Hastings Street was dismantled in April, depriving many unhoused people of shelter and shade.
The workers are speaking out after an unnaturally hot week in Canada, with Tuesday considered
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