<sod>In 1986, [[Woodward's]], an anchor store in the 100-block of West Hastings street, began to lose money and closed in 1993, with devastating impact to the formerly bustling retail district.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 5">Campbell, chapter 5</ref> By the mid-90s, more than a third of the shopfronts along Hastings were vacant.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 5"/> Meanwhile, a crisis in housing and homelessness was emerging. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, there had been a trend in other parts of the city to convert low-income housing into more expensive condominiums.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 6"/>  In that time period, the DTES itself saw a loss of about 60 units per year of housing suitable for low-income single people, due to issues such as conversion to budget hotels, fires, and city bylaw enforcement.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 6"/> In 1993, the federal government stopped funding social housing, and the rate of building social housing in B.C. dropped by two-thirds despite rising demand for it.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 6"/> By 1995, reports had begun to emerge of homeless people sleeping in parks, alleyways, and abandoned buildings.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 6"/> Citywide, rates of homelessness climbed, from 630 to 2002 to 1,300 in 2005.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 16"/> <eod>
<sod>In 1986, [[Woodward's]], an anchor store in the 100-block of West Hastings street, began to lose money and closed in 1993, with devastating impact to the formerly bustling retail district.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 5">Campbell, chapter 5</ref> By the mid-90s, more than a third of the shopfronts along Hastings were vacant.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 5"/> Meanwhile, a crisis in housing and homelessness was emerging. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, there had been a trend in other parts of the city to convert low-income housing into more expensive condominiums.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 6"/>  In that time period, the DTES itself saw a loss of about 60 units per year of housing suitable for low-income single people, due to issues such as conversion to budget hotels, fires, and city bylaw enforcement.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 6"/> In 1993, the federal government stopped funding social housing, and the rate of building social housing in B.C. dropped by two-thirds despite rising demand for it.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 6"/> By 1995, reports had begun to emerge of homeless people sleeping in parks, alleyways, and abandoned buildings.<ref name="Campbell, chapter 6"/> Citywide, rates of homelessness climbed, from 630 to 2002 to 1,300 in 2005.<ref>Campbell, chapter 16/> <eod>