Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

City Manager

SUBJECT:

Downtown Eastside Community Revitalization Program -
Interim Report

 

RECOMMENDATION

POLICY

There is no applicable Council policy.

BACKGROUND

The Downtown Eastside is an area of overlapping neigbourhoods and diverse communities, including Gastown, Chinatown, Strathcona and the area bounded by Burrard Inlet. (See Appendix A : Map of Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods). It is the oldest part of the city and for most of this century was a stable low income community comprised mainly of older, single men, immigrants and urban First Nations people.

The area has traditionally welcomed and provided support for many of the region’s disadvantaged people. The median household income in the Downtown Eastside is lower than any other community in the City.

In the last few years, Hastings Street has been taken over by a younger, rougher crowd attracted by a very active drug trade. The recent drug trade, and the criminal activity supporting it, has brought many new problems to the Downtown Eastside. Stores have closed and buildings have been boarded up and left vacant. The street-level businesses which remain often exist solely to support the drug trade. Increased injection drug use and needle-sharing have contributed to an HIV and Hepatitis C epidemic. These illegal activities and drug trade have also attracted people from other municipalities into the Downtown Eastside who are taking advantage of the vulnerable populations who live there. Much of the media attention and public reporting has focused on the negative elements in the community and has ignored the strength of many long term residents and community groups in the neighbourhoods. On the positive side, a number of people are finding stability through better housing, employment and training options, caring neighbours and support workers.

Low-income residents are also feeling the pressure of “gentrification”— new development encroaching and displacing the disadvantaged and further marginalizing the poor. This has led to the fear of losing many of the remaining single resident occupancy units and the displacement of low income people.

Some people have spent much of their lives in this community; others find shelter there when other parts of the city become unaffordable. Some have been released from nearby correctional and mental health institutions; others simply hide out there. Still others stay there because it is the only place to call home. While there is transience and hopelessness in some parts, there are other parts of greater stability where people struggle to retain a quality of life that, unfortunately, is being threatened by the intrusion of drugs and crime.

To address the issues of crime, safety, poverty, substance abuse, homelessness, health,
and economic revitalization, City Council approved a five year comprehensive Downtown Eastside Revitalization Program in March 1999 with the goal “to create a safe and healthy community.” The City believes that all residents should be able to walk the streets in relative safety; that the Downtown Eastside should have a lively streetscape with active businesses and services; and that community residents should have the opportunity to make the best of their lives and have access to secure affordable housing. The underlying philosophy of this program is to build on the strength of the community and integrate community capacity building and leadership development into all activities planned.

There are many challenges in attempting to meet the diverse needs of different neighbourhood groups. This requires balancing competing interests, while upholding the goal of providing a safety net for the disadvantaged. It also requires resolving complex jurisdictional and mandate issues involving senior levels of government. The City has

undertaken a four-prong approach in the development of the Downtown Eastside Revitalization Strategy, they are:

- The Vancouver Agreement (Tri-level government agreement)
- City of Vancouver Strategic Actions

(See Appendix B : Graphic description of the Downtown Eastside Revitalization Program and its areas of initiatives)

The first two prongs involve building relationships and partnerships with the community. City staff worked closely with the Vancouver Coalition’s for Crime Prevention and Drug Treatment to bring in support from the wider community at large. The Coalition also co-sponsored the City’s application to the National Crime Prevention Centre to support a community development/social development process in addressing the root causes of crime and implementation of appropriate intervention strategies. At the same time, efforts are being put towards supporting capacity building and leadership development within the Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods. The third prong engages senior levels of government to work with the City and the community in developing common goals and co-ordination of all government efforts and resources to achieve maximum benefits. The Vancouver Agreement commits the three levels of government to response to the needs of Downtown Eastside in a co-ordinated manner. The fourth prong is to continue intervention and improvement efforts in the community that are within the City’s mandate to bring about visible and significant changes, while developmental work with senior governments and the community are evolving. The collective processes are complex and complicated, and will be the only way to bring governments and community
working together in the Downtown Eastside.

DISCUSSION

Vancouver’s Coalition for Crime Prevention and Drug Treatment

In October 1997, Mayor and Council, with the support of the Chief of Police, formed the
Vancouver’s Coalition for Crime Prevention and Drug Treatment to build and strengthen community partnerships in order to address crime and safety issues. Today the Coalition has over 60 community partners throughout the city. Coalition partners embody a diverse group of individuals and organizations including government agencies, business organizations, social service providers and community groups.

Coalition partners support the Downtown Eastside Revitalization Program by helping to raise public awareness about crime prevention, drug education and drug treatment. Coalition initiatives have included creating a Drug Prevention Awareness flyer for children and their parents, sponsoring a Community Crime Prevention Forum, and developing a Discussion Paper focusing on the Continuum of Care approach to drug treatment. This spring the Coalition will be hosting public forums throughout the region to explore the Four Pillar drug strategy – a model that incorporates prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. The Coalition supports and co-ordinate with City’s initiatives by participating on the City’s Downtown Eastside Core Staff Working Team, the Community Crime Prevention/Revitalization Project Policy Committee and the Evaluation Steering Committee.

DTES Community Crime Prevention / Revitalization Project_- Building a Sustainable Future Together

This project is funded by the Department of Justice - National Crime Prevention Centre to address issues of justice, safety, crime prevention, victimization and crime reduction. The goal of this project is to create a safe and healthy community using a community development/social development approach . The project managed by the City and the Vancouver’s Coalition for Crime Prevention and Drug Treatment attempts to achieve long term crime prevention outcomes by addressing the root causes of crime such as poverty, housing , health, safety, family violence and economic development.

There are many overlapping neighbourhoods and communities within the Downtown Eastside geographic boundaries. The four larger neighbourhoods on which this Project will focus are Chinatown, Gastown, Strathcona and the central Downtown Eastside. They are extremely diverse in terms of population makeup, ethnicity and socio-economic status. While there will be crime prevention goals for the community as a whole, there also exist unique crime prevention interests, needs and solutions within different neighbourhoods. The aim of the Revitalization Project is to involve the neighbourhoods and the area collectively in such a way that each neighbourhood in partnership with government and the private sector, decides which kinds of crime prevention strategies to pursue in the creation of a safe and healthy community. This will be achieved through a mobilization process, including focused facilitation and mediation to help resolve conflict and reach agreement on actions.

Community groups and residents in Strathcona and Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods
have joined together and formed a coalition named “ Community Directions”. This brings together of residents and community organizations to ensure that any initiatives for the neighbourhoods benefit the people who live there. Community Directions has adopted a principle to put the needs of the most vulnerable residents first. It’s goal is to unite the diverse residents and organizations in the area, and to work together to shape its future.

The Community Direction’s objectives include:

- outreach to engage the diverse community residents and develop an inclusive process for participation;
- to seek improvement of services in alcohol and drug treatment; maintain secure affordable housing; enhance community economic development initiatives; improve and enhance services for children, youth, women and family;
- to develop long term sustainable strategies to improve the conditions and quality of life for all residents in the community.

The City has agreed to support the community mobilization effort outlined by Community Directions and provide necessary resources through the available National Crime Prevention Centre funds. A community organizer has been hired to start the process.

At the same time, City staff also initiated several planning discussions with Gastown, Chinatown and Strathcona groups and residents. Gastown neighbourhood discussions resulted in the development of a “Heritage Management Program” to develop new incentives, regulations and enforcement procedures to conserve this historic area’s heritage resources. Other proposals under consideration are implementation of a business strategy, including a marketing plan, addressing graffiti removal and the improvement of physical street conditions and tidiness, and piloting the H.O.M.E.S. (Housing Order Maintenance Enforcement Safety) program in problem SRO buildings.

Chinatown neighbourhood groups identified their working priorities to include issues such as: developing a long term vision for Chinatown; having a communication and public education strategy to discuss health, crime and safety issues; developing drug treatment programs for users; treatment and support for residents with mental illness; participating with other neighbourhood groups in the re-design of the Main and Hastings Streets corner; and developing and implementing a business strategy.

Strathcona merchants and property owners are organizing to form a business improvement society to further discuss issues of drug treatment, crime reductions and business revitalization.

In addition to supporting and facilitating community mobilization, discussions and planning; City staff in co-operation with Tradeworks Training Society are implementing a research project to gather baseline data on crime and victimization patterns, and involving the community to identify success indicators. In this training project, ten local youths from diverse backgrounds in the Downtown Eastside will be hired and receive research skills training to work on the project. This initiative is part of our commitment to community capacity building and leadership development in the Downtown Eastside.

The City supports social development planning processes throughout the Downtown Eastside with the hope that it will be able to identify common visions and develop joint plans and strategies within areas of agreement .

Vancouver Agreement

The City has worked hard to strengthen relationships between all levels of government. The Vancouver Agreement is a five year agreement, committed to by all three levels of government, to work together to support sustainable economic, social and community development in Vancouver, with the initial focus in Downtown Eastside. The draft agreement was announced in July 1999 under the leadership of Mayor Phillip Owen, Minister Jenny Kwan and Minister Hedy Fry. The announcement was followed by a series of community feedback sessions and focus group discussions in five languages: English, French, Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish. Feedback received from the community consultation process guided the revisions to the draft Vancouver Agreement. The final agreement is now in place for approval and signing by the Municipal, Provincial, and Federal governments. (See Appendix C: The Vancouver Agreement)

There are three proposed components in the Vancouver Agreement, with the overall goal of bringing health and safety back into Downtown Eastside:

· Economic and Social Development, which includes neighbourhood economic and social development and housing; and
· Community Capacity Building, which includes consultation with members of the community and finding ways for the community to meaningfully participate in decisions that affect their lives

Staff from the three levels of governments have started to identify service mandates, gaps, priorities and program opportunities. The next step will be to design an inclusive community participation process in order to develop strategies to address the gaps and needs in those areas.

The revised version of the Vancouver Agreement has been completed, and staff is seeking approval from City Council to proceed with the official signing together with the Provincial and Federal governments. This co-ordinated approach and commitment from all three levels of government is essential to bring all partners to the table, to break down jurisdictional barriers, to obtain inter-governmental co-operation, and to enable access to collective resources in order to implement a variety of revitalization strategies in the Downtown Eastside. Once the official signing has occurred staff together with community partners will begin to draft strategic actions with realistic timelines. The community mobilization processes that are in place may become the basis of the Vancouver Agreement community participation process. In order to realize the strategies and plans developed from the community processes, the City will have to bring them forward to the Vancouver Agreement for support and seek resources for implementation. Integration and linkages between these two components will be closely monitored and facilitated.

City of Vancouver Strategic Actions

The City’s Downtown Eastside multi-dimensional strategic actions are developed based on the “Program of Strategic Actions for the Downtown Eastside”, approved by Council in November 1998, with the following guiding principles :

- reduce the incidence of drug addiction
- reduce drug related crime
- improve conditions at the street level

- improve existing SROs and build replacement low- income housing
- help community members to find allies and seek a common future

Over the past year, City staff have continued to implement strategic initiatives and activities in the City of Vancouver mandated areas of responsibility in the Downtown Eastside. An overview of these activities follow.

Reduce the Incidence of Drug Addiction

At present, the City continues to work diligently on development of a Vancouver Drug Strategy. City staff are currently in the discussions and education stage on a continuum of care services for drug users. This strategy recognizes drug addiction as a health issue that needs treatment and support. At the same time, a multi-pronged enforcement initiatives target drug traffickers and begin to take action to close down the open drug scene in the Downtown Eastside. The strategy proposes that low threshold harm reduction services such as a street outreach program, needle exchanges, detox,

counselling, methadone, peer support, and employment training are necessary interventions in reducing drug related harm to the individual and the community. In the development of these services we are committed to decentralization of drug and alcohol services throughout the Lower mainland. A planned co-ordinated approach among all level of governments and the community to address health, mental health, housing, employment, poverty, crime and violence is the only way we can respond effectively to the drug problems in the Downtown Eastside.

City staff is currently working closely with Vancouver Richmond Health Board in the development of an integrated health plan for Downtown Eastside which includes a continuum of care services to address the social and health needs of drug addicts. This integrated continuum of care plan will include support services such as the proposed “Resource Centre”, providing a drug free drop in centre with laundry and showers facility and counselling support on site. Sobering, detox, and treatment services are also being planned to be part of the continuum. At the same time police enforcement will be strengthened to target drug traffickers, particularly those who traffic for profits.

Under the auspices of the Vancouver Agreement, the City together with Vancouver Police Department, Vancouver Richmond Health Board, Provincial and Federal governments are beginning to co-ordinate our efforts in the development of an integrated Health & Safety Strategy. It is proposed that this strategy will embrace the four pillar approach modelled after the current Swiss and German program efforts to deal with crime and drug problems in their respective countries. The four pillar approach includes enforcement, prevention, treatment and harm reduction. (See Appendix D: Summary of Comprehensive Systems of Care for Drug Users in Switzerland and Frankfurt, Germany).

Increase Enforcement Initiatives

· Three additional Permits and License inspectors were hired to increase inspections of hotels, liquor licensed premises, and identified problem businesses and hotels. This resulted in the suspension of 22 business licenses in 1999 (see Appendix E: Business License Reviews – Problem Premises 1999)
· The business license application process was tightened to include a criminal record check, an interview by license co-ordinator, review of the business plan, and the signing of a good neighbour agreement where applicable
· Regular joint inspections by the Neighbourhood Integrated Services Team were increased

· The Show Cause hearing process was streamlined to effectively deal with businesses involved in illegal activities in an expedient manner
· A new by-law closes all businesses between 2am and 6am
· Rice alcohol was removed from grocery stores and markets and moved into liquor stores
· Temporary moratorium on expansion of pubs and cabarets
· By-law changes and enforcement procedures to make it difficult to develop new second hand stores and pawnshops and to prevent existing stores from selling stolen property

Improve Street Conditions

· Funding United We Can to carry out detailed clean up of streets, sidewalks and alleys, and some graffiti removal
· Improved street lighting on Hastings Street between Main and Cambie
· Carnegie Centre has implemented an outdoor street program to work with residents in creating positive street activities such as street painting, music in the park, street concert at Main & Hastings, outdoor health information
· Pay phones were placed at numerous locations to increase personal safety

Housing

· Over 800 social housing apartments are in the development process, including about 200 units for singles announced as part of a three-year Provincial/City housing partnership
· Over 300 social housing apartments for singles are in the development process in the City outside the Downtown Eastside
· Close to 200 market condos and live/work studios have been completed by the private sector in the Downtown Eastside
· A revised application is in the works for market housing at 65 Water Street in Gastown

Economic Development

· Held over 40 meetings with different community and business stakeholders to brainstorm and discuss community economic development ideas
· Assisted D.E.R.A. in piloting a successful Downtown Eastside Street Market initiative on Abbott Street in August and September 1999; the market will run again this summer
· Facilitated the development of Business Mentor program, linking community members in Downtown Eastside and Strathcona with mentors in the business community to assist with business planning and implementation
· Started work on a Enterprise Development Initiative to provide “high risk” funding and repayable loans for new or expanding businesses
· Sponsored workshops on starting small businesses and on self-employment
· Provided assistance in developing business plans for several potential new businesses including a locally based laundromat, an aboriginal artisan centre and an aboriginal longhouse
· Initiated development of a lease subsidy program and a tenant improvement program to assist local community business in the start-up phase

Community Policing

· The community safety funding program is currently under review with the goal to improve and strengthen the program and explore means to address sustainability issues
· Increased involvement of Downtown Eastside community groups and residents in the discussion and planning of police initiatives, ie., Closed Circuit Television
· Continued support of community policing effort and increased resources to the Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods

Public Education and Communication

·Currently in production on an episode of Greater.vancouver TV show dedicated to exploring the issues around a comprehensive drug strategy for Vancouver. (This show will air around the same time as the Coalition for Crime Prevention and Drug Treatment undertakes its community forums on a continuum of care approach to drug problems).

·Currently in production on a DTES newsletter that will be widely distributed throughout the City. The newsletter will update Vancouver residents on what has been happening in the DTES, and our plans for the future. The issue will be released in early March.

·Re-designed the City's Downtown Eastside website to better

1) reflect the Policy areas and
2) highlight achievements by all partners working in the DTES.

·Published several articles on the DTES in the City's newsletter City News -- sent to all property taxpayers.

·Produced an episode of Greater.vancouver TV show dedicated to looking at positive stories in the downtown Eastside. (aired in April).

CONCLUSION

City staff intend to facilitate broad public discussions to develop a Vancouver Drug Strategy that is built on an integrated health and safety approach, embracing a continuum of care principle, including the four pillar approach to address drug addiction. At the same time we need to develop partnerships and plans in order to work more effectively with the judicial system.

The City Downtown Eastside Core Staff Team has developed a workplan for year 2000 (See Appendix E - DTES Core Staff Workplan 2000). Some examples of significant objectives are : redesign the Main & Hastings street corner; remove graffiti on all buildings along streets and in alley entrances; enforce clean up of deteriorated vacant buildings by owners; implement lease subsidy and tenant improvement programs to facilitate the creation of local business, and implement the Gastown Heritage Management Program, and the Chinatown business assessment and community safety plan. This workplan has been supported and approved by the City’s senior management.

In the coming year City staff will work to ensure building strong partnerships between the three levels of governments and the diverse communities. The City wants to have an effective drug strategy supported by the public, that will provide necessary treatment and support to drug users as well as take control over the open drug scenes on the streets. The City will continue its commitment in taking a community development/social development approach to implement crime prevention initiatives with residents and organizations in the Downtown Eastside. There is a need to continue supporting community capacity building and leadership development among community residents and to bring back positive economic activities to the neighbourhoods. Above all, the City is committed to working with residents from all neighbourhoods to identify common goals, areas of agreement for revitalization actions, and the development of sustainable strategies to build a safe, healthy, viable and vibrant community.

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