Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on Planning and Environment

FROM:

General Manager of Engineering Services

SUBJECT:

Grant to “Save Our Living Environment”

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

COUNCIL POLICY

City Council has previously approved two environmental grants of $50,000 each, in June 1998 and October 2000, to SOLE for micro-street and lane cleaning in the Downtown Eastside. The source of funds was the Solid Waste Capital Reserve.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to seek Council’s approval for SOLE to continue for twelve months its very successful program of supplementary cleaning of public spaces in the Downtown Eastside (DTES). A grant of $50,000 (which will be matched by others) is requested from the City.

BACKGROUND

SOLE is a non-profit urban environmental group active in downtown Vancouver. The Society sponsors several projects, including “United We Can” and “Crosssroads and Lanes” at 39 East Hastings Street, two self-sustaining enterprises that focus on caring for the urban environment while also creating income and job training opportunities for people of the inner city.

In each of the past two years, Council has approved a $50,000 Environmental Grant to SOLE for micro-cleaning sidewalks and lanes in the DTES. SOLE then obtained matching funds to provide a $100,000 program which last year also included micro-cleaning in three DTES parks and a small amount of power washing and graffiti removal. The original area of 21 blocks was expanded last year to 34 blocks. The program is regularly monitored by City staff and is very effective in supplementing the Sanitation Department’s daily street cleaning in the challenging DTES area.

The program employs residents from the inner city and DTES with barriers to traditional employment giving them valuable job training and self-esteem. This program also encourages community pride and a more responsible attitude towards public spaces among residents, property owners, workers and visitors. By keeping the area cleaner, it is hoped that people will be less inclined to litter.

Proposed Grant for 2001

The amount of garbage and litter that is deposited on streets and lanes in the DTES is far greater than elsewhere in the City. There are many reasons for this, including:

· a large number of premises that have no formal garbage disposal arrangements;

· the drug trade creates constant litter from discarded drug rigs and paraphernalia;

· street people pull garbage from dumpsters and litter containers while searching for food and commodities to sell;

· there is a general lack of stewardship of the public spaces by adjacent property owners and the community.

While there are some property owners in the DTES who are conscientious about keeping the public areas around their premises clean, the Sanitation Branch of the Engineering Services Department and the Park Board provide a higher frequency of cleaning services on DTES streets, lanes and parks than elsewhere in the city. In addition, the Gastown BusinessImprovement Society hires United We Can to do regular cleanups each week of public property in their area while some property owners and the Chinatown Business Improvement Association occasionally use their cleaning services. The Vancouver and Richmond Health Board also pay a number of agencies to perform needle sweeps in the DTES.
These cleaning activities are still insufficient to keep the DTES streetscape acceptably tidy on a consistent basis. The grant which the city has given to SOLE in the past two years has been used to supplement these cleaning activities in the public realm. United We Can has been very effective in cleaning up the smaller or more frequent items of litter such as cigarette butts, bottle caps, drug paraphernalia, condoms as well as litter which accumulates in abandoned entranceways and private alcoves.

For 2001, SOLE is again requesting a civic grant of $50,000 to be used on an expanded program for cleaning public spaces in DTES as follows:

· micro-cleaning of sidewalks;

· supplementary lane cleanups;

· supplementary park cleanups (Victory Square, Pigeon, Oppenheimer, Crab, Andy Livingstone Parks, and the park at Alexander and Main);

· public spaces on private property adjacent to lanes and sidewalks (building setbacks, entranceways, alcoves, loading bays, vacant lots, etc.);

· power washing lane entrances and alcoves to remove smells of body fluids, etc.;

· provision and dumping of garbage containers for disposal of the above wastes when necessary.

In the past two years, SOLE obtained matching funds from the Provincial Government and private foundations to provide a total of $100,000 for this public spaces cleaning program. This year SOLE is embarking on a more ambitious enterprise wherein the community will be asked to make donations to support a wide range of cleanup services for public and private spaces including graffiti, litter and poster removal. SOLE hopes to make this a permanent, sustainable project that will encourage community pride in the DTES and a more responsible attitude towards public spaces.

It should be noted that in 2000, the City contributed $5,000 out of the DTES program funds to United We Can for graffiti removal along Hastings Street. A further $10,600 was allocated to United We Can for expansion of this graffiti removal program to Pender and Cordova Streets. Furthermore, the Federal Government recently promised $120,000 to SOLE for graffiti removal in the DTES to be spent by March 2002.

CONCLUSION

Recognizing the considerable benefits of this public spaces cleanup program to the City and to the DTES in terms of cleanliness and employment training and opportunities for inner city residents, it is recommended that a grant of $50,000 be given to SOLE for 2001. The source of funds would be the Solid Waste Capital Reserve. The DTES Policy and Core Staff Committees as well as the City Manager support this recommendation.

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