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March 4, 2025
Vancouver, don’t stop building supportive Housing
Rationalizing that the city has a disproportionate number of supportive housing compared to its population,...
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Recognizing the frontline of the homelessness response
An Open Letter from the Board of PHS Community Services Society Regardless of how you...
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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...
Read More Letter of support to Mayor Stewart
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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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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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. 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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