The non-profit organization that operates the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is opening a new community-run health centre, offering on-demand drop-in and recovery services.
OPS executive director Sarah Blyth said the Ashtrey Recovery Resource Center at 450 East Hastings Street can accommodate 60 people and will provide essential services including restrooms, showers, laundry facilities and healthy meals – along with housing supports and recovery-focused programs.
“It’s very difficult to see people suffering the way they do and not being able to do what we want to do to help them, get them off the streets,” Blyth said ahead of the center’s opening.
Ashtrey is named after Trey Helten, who overcame addiction and spent years managing OPS and caring for the Downtown Eastside’s most vulnerable, before he died suddenly in April 2025 at the age of 42.
“It’s hard to replace Trey but we’re doing what we can,” Blyth told Global News.
Ashtrey will prioritize recovery with space for Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and SMART Recovery meetings, and access to “meaningful recovery support.”
Ken Fellowes, who is in recovery from addiction through Together We Can, said he doesn’t know where he would be without the support system of OPS recovery navigators who were instrumental in creating Helten.
“I started doing cocaine when I was thirteen years old here on the east side,” Fellowes told Global News in an interview.
Now 46, and after several stints in recovery and “many relapses,” Fellowes says he has been clean and sober for nearly five months.
“Trey (Helten) is actually a big inspiration,” Fellowes said. “I just decided at one point, enough was enough, I wanted to change my life.”
Because Helten always checked on him and took him to appointments, and other recovery navigators also helped, Fellowes said he was able to find recovery.
“I’m at the point of despair but I’ve had enough, it could happen,” he said. “I can see there is light at the end of the tunnel – life is getting better and I am grateful.”
“I’ve been on the other side, so I know how it is,” said SMART Recovery facilitator Celina Alec.
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Alec leads meetings at SMART Recovery, a self-empowering addiction recovery support group, according to Vancouver Coastal Health.
The 4 Point Program, which Alec describes as a science-based approach to recovery, offers specific tools and techniques including building and maintaining motivation, overcoming urges, managing thoughts, feelings and behavior, and living a balanced life.
“I can see the change in them (the participants) every time they come to my meetings – and it’s truly amazing,” Alec told Global News.
Blyth said two experienced ‘recovery navigators’ will help connect individuals with detox and treatment services – including immediate access to dedicated detox beds at Together We Can.
“Unfortunately, I had difficulty finding a path to treatment,” says recovery navigator Hali Hoben. “It’s very challenging.”
Hoben quit his addiction two and a half years ago, and said the system is very complicated to navigate for someone who is homeless and deeply addicted.
Most individuals struggling with substance use don’t have a phone or a home, he said, making it difficult for them to find people they can contact to take steps to find recovery, and then follow through on those steps.
Since the OPS recovery navigator program launched about 18 months ago, Hoben has helped connect others with services he didn’t know how to access when he was in the throes of addiction, and then supported them through the process so they don’t feel alone.
“At the end of the day, you know that there is hope that if you run this program, whatever it is, it will work for you – I’m living proof,” Hoben told Global News. “There are a lot of people who often come up to me and say that I am a mentor to them, that I give them hope just by seeing me healthy and capable of doing good things.”
Province-appointed Downtown Eastside (DTES) Councilor Larry Campbell got an overview of the Ashtrey Recovery Resource Center during a tour for community partners on Tuesday.
“They have a space for addiction counseling that is very successful and they have the ability to enable people to get out of the hot and cold,” Campbell told Global News in an interview. “It’s a great place, I love it. I think she (Sarah Blyth) will do very well.”
The former Vancouver mayor and Canadian senator was tasked with bringing the community together to find solutions for the Downtown Eastside, including advancing efforts towards multi-government cooperation on housing in the neighbourhood.
On March 31, the BC government announced Campbell’s six-month contract was extended for another six months to allow him to continue making progress on addressing core issues and planning long-term change in the area.
Campbell previously said Blyth’s organization was open when it came to providing data and figures about its work.
“I think without measurable results we can’t move forward, we don’t know what we really need or what we’re doing that’s not working,” a DTES advisor said Tuesday. “More and more, there is a realization that there has to be some form of measurement that we can measure going forward.”
The Ashtrey Recovery Resource Center will open on July 6.
Blyth said Helten was a friend of everyone at DTES, and if he were still here, he would help people.
“I think he would be very proud of us because we are continuing the work that he did,” he said Tuesday.
The new space at 450 East Hastings Street was funded by B.C.’s ministry of health, and Blyth said services previously provided by the DTES Emergency Supply Center at 144 East Hastings Street have been moved to Ashtrey.
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