MICHELLE SYNNOT KEEPS USERS SAFE

The woman's guts were hanging out when she arrived at the hotel. She
had walked two blocks to get help after her boyfriend stabbed her
with a bread knife. Although she survived the attack, she wouldn't
say what happened, so the police followed the trail of blood back to
the apartment.

"It's an extreme example, but it happens," said Michelle Synnot, who
works for the Portland Hotel Society, a non-profit organization that
runs Insite, Vancouver's safe injection site. They also own and
operate eight buildings on the Downtown Eastside, including several hotels.

Synnot is a mental health worker who rotates between the buildings
and the safe injection site.

At the site, she says her job is to monitor the wellbeing of
residents and to be a constant in their turbulent lives, referring
them to available services and providing some medical care.

"You get to help other people in a small way by bearing witness to
their lives, and not turning your head," she says.

She has spent the last year dealing with the realities of the
Downtown Eastside, but it has helped her deal with her own demons.

"I used to have a real fear of death," she says. "But you start to
accept it as a part of the way that neighborhood sort of is."

She said she used to be afraid of needles, too.

"I couldn't even watch a person putting a needle in their arm on
television without it turning my stomach. For the first week, I had
to force myself to watch," she says.

She thinks the experience has made her stronger and helped her grow
as a person.

Still, Synnot says there are dangers, such as coming in contact with
tainted needles.

"It's really scary. Your chances of catching HIV are really slim, but
your chances of catching Hepatitis C is fifty-fifty," says the
23-year-old resident of Vancouver. "The rule is, don't reach where
you can't see."

While violence is part of life in the Downtown Eastside, Synnot says
she does not feel she threatened at her job.

"I'm more concerned walking down Granville Street on a Friday night
than I am walking down Hastings on any day of the week."

Apart from her work at the site, Synnot is also a DJ, a musician, and
a former competitive horsejumper, with plans of one day joining the VPD.

She says the police in the neighbourhood are in touch with the
street, and can have a positive affect on the area.

Synnot says she will continue to do her job, even though many people
do not understand it.

"I think a lot of people have lost touch with the compassionate side
of their own humanity.