The Community Builders family is deeply saddened by the passing of Spike Harris, one of our Directors and an unsung hero in the housing and harm prevention community in Vancouver.

Spike started at PHS as a casual support worker in 2000, before joining the Insite team, North America's first legal supervised consumption site. From there, they migrated into managementpositions with PHS and Vancouver Coastal Health, landing at Community Builders in 2025. Brief as it was, Spike's time on our leadership team had a positive impact on the residents we serve.

A self-proclaimed "harm reduction rockstar", Spike will be remembered for their tenacious commitment to saving lives and reducing stigma, and for their decades-long efforts on behalf of the Downtown Eastside community.

Reflecting on their first job in housing, working graveyard shifts at the Portland Hotel, Spike used to think: what would this world look like if we didn’t do this work? For many of the people Spike supported then—who are still alive today—the answer is simple. They might not be here.

From them, and all of us at Community Builders, we say to Spike: thank you. Rest in power.

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