“I didn’t get to work writing the book until the holiday break of 2016. The ideas were starting to percolate through 2014 when the Portland Hotel Society, the non-profit housing provider in Vancouver, found itself in a bit of a financial scandal and the executive team there was eventually forced to resign. It meant that story was coming to an end. The same year, a notable activist on the Downtown Eastside, Bud Osborn passed away. A few months later, Libby Davies, who represented the Downtown Eastside in Ottawa resigned from politics after 17 years. It all felt like these stories were coming to a natural end and that they needed to be put down somewhere.”