Residents' Association
The neighbourhood is home to a non-profit Residents' Association, the Downtown Eastside Residents Association or DERA as it commonly known to residents, who have battled what are known as slum landlords, who own a number of hotels and rooming houses in the area and have been accused of failing to fix dangerous problems and contributing to the growing problem of area homelessness by evicting tenants illegally.
The many hotels in the area are single room occupancy, or SROs, and provide housing for people on welfare, often including the physically disabled, those having addictions and those with mental or behavioural problems. Some low-income residents and DTES advocacy groups are concerned about the area's increasing gentrification. Many SROs are being closed, and there is concern that they will be replaced with condominiums and other housing, whose prices will be out of reach for the residents of the neighbourhood.
Read more about this topic: Downtown Eastside