A group of over 500 Downtown Eastside (DTES) residents and their supporters gathered at Pigeon Park in Vancouver today at a rally called "No More Empty Talk, No More Empty Lots." A five-storey high banner describing the protest's aims: "Homes Now: Tent to End: Homelessness, gentrification and criminalization of the poverty" was draped over a neighbouring building.

Rally participant Mysa Kaczkowski, a waitress who's lived in the Downtown Eastside for three years, told rabble.ca: "I love my neighbourhood, I love my community and I don't want to see it taken away.

"I have an income, I have a roof over my head and I can barely afford to live here -- how can anyone else?"