New methadone clinic in Chinatown counters efforts to revive district

New methadone clinic in the core of Chinatown counters efforts to revive the historic district: community

December 2, 2022 protest against the planned methadone clinic at 523 Main Street in Vancouver's Chinatown. (Daily Hive)

Business and community groups in Vancouver’s Chinatown are up in arms over a new methadone clinic that is set to open in the heart of the struggling historic cultural and retail district.

The clinic will be located at 523 Main Street — a mid-block location between Keefer and East Pender streets, replacing a storefront space previously used as Integrative Rehabilitation’s physiotherapy and massage therapy clinic. Prior to Integrative Rehabilitation’s use, up until 2019, this space was a longtime family physician clinic with an attached pharmacy.

Clinics that specialize in prescribing methadone are a strategy for harm reduction, with the medication used to treat chronic pain and those experiencing addictions issues.

However, there is no shortage of methadone clinics within and near the Downtown Eastside, nor is there any apparent capacity issue in the area.

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According to the BC Centre on Substance Use, as of last month, there are 18 Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT) clinics across Vancouver accepting new patients, including eight locations nearby within the Downtown Eastside. Furthermore, there are at least eight OAT clinics within a three-block walking radius of 523 Main Street.

At the time of writing, an online petition created four days ago against the approved clinic has already amassed over 800 signatures in opposition.

According to opponents of the methadone clinic, the issue at hand is such uses are incompatible with Chinatown, and the ongoing efforts to revitalize the district as a safe and friendly area with pedestrian vibrancy, active storefronts with retail and restaurants, and events.

Location of the planned methadone clinic at 523 Main Street in the heart of Vancouver’s Chinatown. (Google Maps)

Location of the planned methadone clinic at 523 Main Street in Vancouver’s Chinatown. (Google Maps)

“The community is extremely concerned about a methadone clinic at this location. These last four years, Chinatown has experienced rapid deterioration of the neighbourhood, resulting from graffiti, vandalism, and general social disorder,” Jordan Eng, the president of the Chinatown Business Improvement Association, told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“The Chinese community has suffered long enough from the effects of the Downtown Eastside drug market, and the City’s goal should be to promote policies that bring new life to Chinatown and build a healthy environment to live and work.”

He notes the methadone clinic’s location is half a block south of East Pender Street, the main cultural spine of Chinatown, with its distinct heritage and attractions. As well, Main Street is a major street in Chinatown with an active retail and residential community.

“The neighbourhood’s vision includes promoting a family-oriented, mixed-income community in a pedestrian friendly environment. In addition, Chinatown is looking to reestablish its lustre as a major tourist centre in Vancouver. The proposed use lends no compatibility to the neighbourhood’s vision,” said Eng.

Over a decade ago, the federal government declared Vancouver’s Chinatown as a “Historic Site of Canada.” In more recent years, the City of Vancouver and provincial government have been developing a pitch to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to designate Chinatown as a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is an effort that has already seen millions of dollars in public funding spent — a decade-long process with no guarantee of approval.

Chinatown’s rapid deterioration in recent years is a direct result of the spillover of the Downtown Eastside’s escalating social issues during the peak of the pandemic, and more recently the formation of the neighbouring Hastings Street encampment.

For those working on revitalizing Chinatown, this feels like taking two hard-earned steps forward, but then being forced to take one step backward; moves such as the methadone clinic go against the efforts of the UNESCO campaign, and other investments — by both public and private entities — to create new cultural, retail, and dining attractions in Chinatown, including the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation’s Chinatown Storytelling Centre just half a block away, and the provincially-funded Chinese Canadian Museum opening in 2023. They complement Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and Chinese Cultural Centre just to their west.

The two blocks of East Pender Street that span between Carrall Street and Main Street are the centrepiece of the UNESCO World Heritage Site application.

Within these two city blocks of East Pender Street, provincial and municipal governments, cultural non-profit organizations, and other community groups and businesses have focused their time, resources, and investments to create an active cultural and retail cluster to provide Chinatown with a semblance of an anchor. This area is essentially Chinatown’s last stand.

2009 condition of 523 Main Street’s block:

523 main street vancouver chinatown 2009

2009 condition of the Chinatown city block where 523 Main Street is located. (Google Maps)

2022 condition of 523 Main Street’s block:

523 main street vancouver chinatown 2022

Deteriorating 2022 condition of the streetscape of Chinatown city block where 523 Main Street is located. (Google Maps)

Providing urgent and effective support to address Chinatown’s immediate needs and long-term revival is one of the key civic election campaign promises made by Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver party. Last month, shortly after being elected into office, the ABC-led City Council approved a motion directing City staff to urgently create effective measures and policies for implementation to aid Chinatown.

“We are hopeful that the new City Council will help to restore our community. The business community has always been vocal against having methadone clinics and cannabis stores,” continued Eng.

Glynnis Chan, a community organizer, was part of a group who hit Chinatown’s streets on Friday to protest the methadone clinic.

“We are not against methadone clinics for people in need of such services, but why does it need to be here, next to family doctor clinics, shops, and restaurants? How can we rebuild Chinatown for both locals and tourists?” Chan told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“Family doctors in nearby clinics tell me their patients are really worried about the methadone clinic. We need people to come back to Chinatown. How do we get people to have the confidence to come back to Chinatown?”

Chan says she is part of a group hoping to change the mind of the tenant that will operate the methadone clinic, and work with the building’s owner, who has expressed a desire to find ways to help Chinatown.

According to Chan, the City of Vancouver granted the permit to perform renovations to the space to open the methadone clinic two years ago. Work on renovating the space for its new controversial use is now underway, but it was delayed due to the pandemic. Legally, there is no wrong doing by the tenant, as they have followed all bylaws, regulations, and rules.

On Friday, a group took to the streets of #ChinatownYVR to protest the planned methadone clinic for a location deep within the historic district, where major investments have been made in recent years to bring back cultural institutions, retail, and dining. pic.twitter.com/HvJuF7s6JI

— Kenneth Chan (@iamkennethchan) December 3, 2022

In a statement to Daily Hive Urbanized, the City of Vancouver says there is technically “no change” from the previous use of the space as a healthcare office with ancillary small-scale pharmacy.

“This application was reviewed and processed as a change of operator and not a new application. This is consistent with current practices and the reason why this application was not processed through Development Review Branch with neighbourhood notification,” stated the City, noting there was a two-year, time-limited approval for the development permit.

“The City does not determine or restrict what the pharmacy can and cannot sell or dispense; that is done at the College of Pharmacists level. We also note that the new pharmacist is in good standing with the College of Pharmacist in BC. The proposed use also complies with the applicable zoning for the property and design guidelines.”

After being inquired by Daily Hive Urbanized, Vancouver Coastal Health indicated they are not funding this particular clinic location.

While such services do fill a dire need for their clients, the high concentration of “small-scale pharmacies” within the Downtown Eastside that operate as methadone clinics has historically been deemed problematic by the City of Vancouver.

Even in 2005, City staff asserted there is a “negative impact on residents and businesses in the community” from having over four small-scale pharmacies located within a single block in the Downtown Eastside.

This pattern of such services being clustered so closely together has only grown in number over the nearly two decades that have since elapsed, and many of City staff’s findings at the time still hold true to this day.

“Methadone as a treatment for opiate addiction is an important component of the City’s Four Pillar approach to drug addiction issues. However, the distribution of methadone through small-scale pharmacies can have negative impacts on the surrounding community when concentrated in a particular geographic area,” reads the report.

It is noted most of the issues are the result of small facilities unable to accommodate line-ups and excessive client volumes, a lack in diversity of products sold, and neglectful management that does not address neighbourhood impacts of these facilities.

“By locating in the Downtown Eastside, a pharmacy is able to take advantage of the area’s inexpensive market rents and small storefronts, maintaining low overhead costs while receiving considerable revenues by primarily filling methadone prescriptions,” continues the report, while noting that “a number of pharmacies do little to reduce their community impacts.”

“Many of the small-scale pharmacies also have disproportionately high methadone client volumes when compared with the client volumes for larger pharmacies and drug stores in the area. This results in line-ups and gatherings outside of the storefront, pedestrian traffic congestion on the adjacent sidewalk, and excess garbage littering the area outside.”

In addition to the methadone clinic at 523 Main Street, the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre (DEWC) has eventual plans to open a new location within Chinatown at 161 East Pender Street — a mid-block location between Main and Columbia streets. Members of the Chinatown community expressed some concern over their believe that this building would be used as a drop-in centre.

Elody Croullebois, a coordinator for DEWC, told Daily Hive Urbanized that while their newly acquired building is not intended to be a drop-in centre, it will be used by their staff as a kitchen and administration offices, and the basement will be used to host events that are part of their programming.

She says over 30% of the women who access DEWC’s services at the nearby drop-in centre at 302 Columbia Street are Chinese seniors — members of the Chinatown community.

Various retrieved records, including the land title, show DEWC acquired 161 East Pender Street for about $3.6 million in June 2021, with a mortgage provided by Vancity Credit Union.

The 1983-built, two-storey commercial building at 161 East Pender Street underwent significant renovations in 2017. A previous building on this same lot was home to the legendary Bamboo Terrace restaurant.

2009 condition of 161 East Pender Street:

161 east pender street vancouver chinatown

2009 condition of 161 East Pender Street in Vancouver’s Chinatown. (Google Maps)

2022 condition of 161 East Pender Street:

2022 condition of 161 East Pender Street in Vancouver’s Chinatown. (Google Maps)

Location of 161 East Pender Street, within the two city blocks of East Pender Street between Carrall Street and Main Street, which forms the cultural core of Vancouver’s Chinatown. (Google Maps)

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Editor’s note: This article has been revised with more details from the DEWC.