By Paula Carlson, Megaphone
Sporting her signature good-natured grin, Julie “Jewel” Chapman expertly steers her shiny blue scooter through the twists and turns of a Downtown Eastside (DTES) office space and takes her spot at the table.
It’s clear that this woman knows her way around. Jewel was born and raised in the Kitsilano district of Vancouver, but she’s spent most of her adult life in the DTES.
“I’m dating myself now,” Jewel says, “but I was part of the Woodward’s Squat.” Her bright yellow hoodie provides a striking contrast to her jet-black straight hair.
The Woodward’s Squat was a three-month tent-city-turned-protest in 2002, in which participants expressed their outrage at the lack of social housing in Vancouver. The new Woodward’s development project subsequently included more than 100 community housing units for people with low incomes.
Jewel is no stranger to activism. She’s a support worker for SWUAV (Sex Workers United Against Violence) and is involved with the B.C. Association for People on Methadone and the B.C. Centre on Substance Use.
Through SWUAV, Jewel strives to educate those surviving through sex work about the dangers of the streets.
“There’s so many young ladies, young girls really, in unsafe positions… fresh out of wherever they come from. If I could take them all under my wing, I would,” she says. “They’re beautiful and they have their wits about them, but that won’t last.” She says there are “way too many young girls out here,” with some as young as 14 years old.
In her experience, Jewel says that almost 100 per cent of those turning to sex work have been sexually abused as children.
As part of her work with SWUAV, Jewel distributes “bad date” sheets and red alerts about known violent offenders or suspicious people who seek to prey on the vulnerable.
As a mother of two grown sons and a pet owner, Jewel also takes care of her own family. “I have two kids and two cats, and I don’t know which ones are messier,” she says wryly.
A hairdresser by trade, Jewel has been a Megaphone vendor since 2003, selling magazines, books and calendars in Gastown near the steam clock.
She also knows her way around the water: she worked as a lifeguard at Kits pool in her younger years. “I’ve always been a strong swimmer,” she says.
A creative soul at heart, Jewel is a self-taught pianist who first started playing at the age of 12. She’s also a prolific writer (her work has been published many times in Megaphone’s magazine and in the Voices of the Street literary anthology), who sometimes sets her poems to music.
She says she feels at home in the DTES, saying that there is no other community like it.
And she has a message for those outside the DTES who are dismissive of its residents and the formidable challenges they face. “Stop acting like it’s not their problem. It is their problem,” says Jewel, adding that the two most pressing issues are the lack of affordable housing and “killer drugs.” “I’ve never seen it like this,” she says.
She also offers encouragement to those within the neighbourhood.
“A lot of people frown upon the Downtown Eastside. They say there’s no hope,” she says. “There have been times I thought that, but the people are what make up this beautiful community, and they’re strong. I’ve never felt defeated.”
