When Jamie Sinclair realized staff hadn’t seen Joy Phelps in 24 hours, she wasn’t worried about the resident of the single room occupancy (SRO) hotel she managed.
Phelps was a harm reduction worker who had saved hundreds of lives in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and “used smart,” according to Sinclair.
But when she knocked on Phelps’ door in November 2021, no one answered.
Like dozens of residents Sinclair had checked on before, Phelps had died of an overdose.
“It doesn’t matter how many times you go through it … when you open that door and you find someone that you care about and you know that they died alone from drug poisoning,” said Sinclair, who
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