Haven't been down along E. Hastings in a while, so maybe I'm wrong, but, things seem to have changed. Big time. There was nobody there. A once-lively (I can't use "thriving", given that no one down there has more than a nickel to his/her name) community seems to have vanished. There was almost no one there. Places that were once populated were empty. What happens to people with no home when even their "no home" is taken away from them?

And, now, this important up-date! Of course, that little ray of sunshine has to be tempered with this. As incredible as it may seem to our totally out of touch provincial government, some of these folks really do prefer the street to life in the shelters. Why? Because they're regularly robbed in the shelters, for one thing. Note, too, that the province gets to define "extreme weather" any way they like. I'm betting there's going to be some very extreme weather hitting Vancouver this February. That that's when the Olympic Circus comes to town for real, bringing millions of tourist dollars, would be merely coincidental.