For Stephane “Kermit” Bergeron, his dogs Roxy and her brother, the recently departed Roller, have been much more than pets. They have been among his dearest friends and confidants.
“My dogs have been my psychiatrists. Without them, I don’t know where I’d be.”
Bergeron grew up on a dairy farm in Quebec and moved to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in the late 1990s after serving 10 years in the Canadian military. He says that animals, especially dogs, have been a consistent source of comfort throughout his life.
Bergeron is far from the only Downtown Eastside resident to have a special bond with his animal companions.
Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is the epicenter of many complex social issues in the city, including disproportionately high rates of poverty, homelessness, drug use and mental illness. Many of its residents find support and connection in their animal companions. Bergeron says there’s a huge population of dogs, cats, rats, snakes and even lizards accompanying many of the humans in the neighborhood.
Yet, despite the prevalence of pets in the neighbourhood, there has historically been a huge gap in services for Downtown Eastside pet owners.
Bergeron is a member of a new non-profit that is working to change that.
Bergeron serves on the board of For The Homies – Downtown Eastside Pet Support Society, a new grassroots organization offering pet fostering and other pet services for community members and their furry friends.
For the Homies volunteer at the organization’s summer BBQ fundraiser.
The organization was launched by Bergeron’s friend and For The Homies president, Lee Gangbar, who first began assembling a team for the new project around Thanksgiving of 2023.
“It’s something I’d been thinking about for a long time,” says Gangbar, who has worked as an outreach nurse in the Downtown Eastside for the better part of the past decade, and first met Bergeron six years ago at the Insite Supervised Injection Site.
“There just weren’t any resources available for people who are between places or need to go to the hospital, jail or even just need some respite,” she says. “They just didn’t exist.”
Gangbar says for many Downtown Eastside residents, pet care is innately tied to health care. “For a lot of folks, especially those without stable housing, they may not have a safe place to leave their pets,” she explains, noting that someone might miss a court date or avoid going to the hospital to get medical care because they don’t have a reliable place for their animal to go. “For some people, their dog might be their whole world … They may have really great goals, but their pet is their No. 1 priority because they’re so tied to their mental health and emotional support.”
“A lot of the animals in the Downtown Eastside are some of the most loved and cared for pets I’ve seen anywhere.”
The few consistent pet services available to Downtown Eastside residents are largely offered through the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), and while their compassionate boarding program provides space for up to two weeks when they have capacity, Gangbar says that it is a “very overloaded program.”
They are also unable to coordinate pet care on short notice and Gangbar adds that many community members who have felt mistreated by institutions in the past are often hesitant to rely on larger organizations. “There’s definitely a fear [for some people] that they’re not going to get their pets back because someone thinks they’re a bad pet owner.”
For The Homies is the first of its kind to fill this niche in Vancouver, says Gangbar. Though there are dozens of vet services programs across Canada, and some fostering services found elsewhere, like Toronto’s Through Ruff Times program and Paws For Hope in B.C.’s Maple Ridge, flexible – and highly personal – long- and short-term pet fostering services are in short supply.
Well before launching For The Homies, Gangbar had been trying to fill the gap in pet-related services herself. Over the years, she has informally fostered dozens of animals from the community, hosting all manner of critters from cats and dogs to snakes and ferrets.
The trust she has nurtured over years is undeniably at the heart of the service that For The Homies provides. “We really wanted [the organization] to be run by people on the frontlines and those who live in the neighbourhood,” says Gangbar. “That way, it might be less of a scary call [for folks] to make.
Attendees at For the Homies’ summer BBQ fundraiser.
“It’s just such an honour and privilege to have trust from the community and to be able to meet that need.”
After registering as an official charity in last January and hosting various fundraising events, the team was able to start connecting foster families with community members just a few months ago.
Gangbar recently fostered a dog for someone going into detox, where he would not be able to take his pet. “We were able to coordinate visits for the dog to go in and see him while in detox and then we were able to reunite them once they were out,” Gangbar says. “He mentioned to me that he wouldn’t have stayed in the program if [we hadn’t been able to] support him through that.”
Bergeron adds that since working with For The Homies, he has noticed a shift in how people from outside of the community interact with him as a pet owner. In the past, he has had the SPCA called on him and been reprimanded by strangers for innocuous things like letting his dogs swim in the ocean, he says. “I’ve been getting treated a lot better when they find out I’m part of this society. They look at me a lot differently, like I can actually take care of [my dogs].”
For Bergeron and Gangbar, educating the public and reducing stigma has become a welcomed addition to the work that For The Homies has set out to do.
“There’s a lot of preconceived ideas out there among people who don’t live or work in the neighbourhood … It feels really important to spread the word to people outside of the community [and dispel] the stigma surrounding people who use drugs and their ability to care for pets,” Gangbar says. “I can say from many years of first-hand experience that a lot of the animals in the Downtown Eastside are some of the most loved and cared for pets I’ve seen anywhere.”
The evidence backs what the pair have to say about homeless pets. International research based out of the University of Guelph shows that the animal companions of those experiencing homelessness will still prioritize the health of their pets. The study analyzed more than 1,100 records and found that pop-up vet clinics designed for homeless pet owners produced similar health scores as animals that were seen in private clinics.
Gangbar and Bergeron are now working on a short video aimed at tackling stigma that will showcase some of the pet owners in the community with their animals.
The biggest obstacle they currently are facing is finding more families to add to its roster for short- and long-term fostering.
Those interested in fostering can sign up on their website and go through an intake process to ensure a good fit. “[Once people sign up], we’re mostly looking to make sure that they can provide a safe and responsible place for that pet,” Gangbar says. “We just don’t want to put anyone’s pet somewhere that we wouldn’t put our own pets.”
“It’s such a long-time dream [to run a charity like this]. Sometimes working in the Downtown Eastside, there’s so many issues within the system that just feel too big to change as one person. It can be easy to get caught up in the burnout,” Gangbar says. “It just feels really nice to be able to deliver a service in the way that folks in the community want and need it to be.”
You can find more information about For The Homies at their website, www.forthehomiesdtes.com and their Instagram, @forthehomiesdtes
A version of this article first appeared in the January 2025 edition of Megaphone magazine.
Photo credit: Greasy Dart on Instagram @greasydart
