By Suzanne Fournier
The Province
June 14, 2011
The public pay phone has become an endangered species, especially on the Downtown Eastside where 82 per cent of people live alone and many are homeless.
The phones that do exist are “few and far between and are turned off at 9 p.m. so no further calls can be made,” notes Caitlin Williams, who works at Spartacus Books. Other area phones will only accept a 911 call.
Now a group of people has banded together to create a “People’s Phone Booth,” located outside Spartacus Books at 684 East Hastings.
The phone uses VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) which is free, so there will be no charge for local phone calls, day or night.
The phone is wired to a wooden stand and covered by a tarp.
“A group of us saw the need for a phone in this neighbourhood because people are constantly asking to use our phone, and we’ve never overheard anything really sketchy going down,” said Williams, 21, who says she is with a loosely-organized group called the People’s Phone Booth Collective.
“The phone company thinks people use a pay phone only to make drug deals or for prostitution. There are lots of sex trade workers in this area but they don’t ask to use the phone for work, it’s to connect with friends or family.
“One guy comes in every day to call his boss to see if he can get work, another lovely social woman is just trying to reach out to her friends.”
Williams notes that it’s a stereotype to think that the only emergency call anyone might make from the Downtown Eastside (DTES) would be to 911.“So many women went missing from this area and it was probably getting harder and harder for them to find a phone to keep in touch with family,” said Williams.
In fact, the vast majority of women who became victims of serial killer Robert Pickton, who preyed on drug-addicted women in the DTES, were revealed at trial to have kept in touch regularly with at least one family member.
Williams notes that the few area pay phones that do exist are mainly behind locked doors, in the Single-Room-Occupancy (SRO) hotels or public buildings.
Gentrification sweeping through the eastside has meant more businesses and upscale condos, but most of those new residents are cellphone users.
“Businesses will not let someone use the phone who looks marginalized,” said Williams. “And people here can’t afford cell phones let alone land lines.”
“The DTES should have equal access to the tools of communication that other neighbourhoods enjoy,” said Williams. “We think the People’s Phone Booth will be a great asset to the community.”
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Photo by Jason Payne, PNG
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