The Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver is the subject of considerable research due to high rates of drug use, poverty, crime, infectious disease, and mental illness. This paper first presents a brief background to the DTES and then presents a survey of literature addressing the issues in this area from 2001 to 2011. The literature surveyed includes a range of publications such as those from peer-reviewed journals and the grey literature of reports and dissertations. This survey investigates the themes and outcomes of the extant literature and highlights the notable lack of research on mental health in the DTES.