The heroic life and tragic death of Trey Helten [Video]

I saw Trey Helten for the last time in September last year. It was a typical day on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A steady drizzle fell. People huddled in doorways, slept on the wet sidewalk or stood slumping like broken dolls as their drugs took hold.

Trey had been there himself. He spent years homeless and addicted on those streets, then more years working in a supervised drug-use site trying to help people survive the opioids crisis. Now he was getting out. He had left his job, exhausted, beat-up and hoping to make a new start.

He showed up for our meeting with his ever-present black dog, Zelda. He tied her leash to a railing and we went into a diner for lunch and a talk.

His story was a familiar one. Trey got into trouble when he was a kid and started smoking crack cocaine when he was 14 years old. …