Vancouver City Council

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: December 3, 2002
Author/Local: Bob Ross/7302
RTS No. 03130
CC File: 2251
Meeting: January 16, 2003

TO: Standing Committee on Planning & Environment

FROM: General Manager of Engineering Services

SUBJECT: Grant to `Save Our Living Environment'

RECOMMENDATION

THAT Council approve a grant of $60,000 to Save Our Living Environment (SOLE) for supplementary cleaning of sidewalks, lanes and public spaces in the Downtown Eastside in 2003, as outlined in this report, with funding provided from the Solid Waste Capital Reserve.

COUNCIL POLICY

City Council has previously approved four grants of $50,000 each (most recently for 2002) to SOLE for micro street and lane cleaning in the Downtown Eastside. The source of funds was the Solid Waste Capital Reserve.

Approval of grants requires eight affirmative votes.

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 $60,000 (which is expected to be matched by others) is requested from the City.

BACKGROUND

Save Our Living Environment (SOLE) is a non-profit urban environmental group active in downtown Vancouver. The Society sponsors several projects at 39 East Hastings Street, including United We Can and Crossroads and Lanes, 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 2002, United We Can added several more ventures, including a commercial bottle collecting service, Binners Brokers and Bikeworks. Using a grant from Western Economic Diversification, SOLE also participated with the Gastown and Chinatown BIA's in a project called Neighbours First. This project trains local residents to provide a `block watch' style street presence and to offer assistance to pedestrians, while continuing to remove graffiti and litter on Hastings Street, Gastown and Chinatown.

In each of the past four years, Council has approved a $50,000 grant to SOLE for micro-cleaning sidewalks and lanes in the Downtown Eastside (DTES). In the latter three years, SOLE then obtained matching funds to provide a $100,000 program, which now covers approximately 43 blocks and several parks. 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 enhanced 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 2003

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 have no formal garbage disposal arrangements

· the drug and sex trades create litter from discarded drug paraphernalia, etc.

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

· there is, generally, a 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 very conscientious about keeping the public areas around their premises clean, the Engineering Department's Sanitation Branch and the Park Board provide a much higher frequency of cleaning services on DTES streets, lanes and parks than elsewhere in the city. In addition, the Coastal Health Board also pays a number of agencies to perform needle-sweeps in the DTES.

But 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 three 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 and condoms, as well as litter which accumulates in abandoned entrance ways and private alcoves.

Furthermore, the Gastown and Chinatown BIA's hire United We Can to do regular cleanups of public property in their areas. The higher level of street and lane cleanliness that results from United We Can's activities is believed to be creating incentive for merchants and property owners to pitch in and help keep the public spaces around their premises tidier.

For 2003, SOLE is requesting a civic grant of $60,000, to be used on an expanded program for cleaning public spaces in DTES, as follows:

· micro cleaning of sidewalks

· supplementary lane clean-ups

· litter pick-up on public spaces on private property adjacent to lanes and sidewalks (building setbacks, entrance ways, alcoves, loading bays, vacant lots, etc).

In the past two years, SOLE has 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 will again solicit matching funds.

The current request for $60,000 contains an increase of $10,000 over the previous three years' grants. The increase is requested because of the uncertainty of funding to SOLE from the provincial government and other sources, and the potential loss of matching funds. Furthermore, in the past two years SOLE used up the City's grant in the first ten months, and had to rely on other contributions to complete the annual program.

It should be noted that the recent loss of the earnings exemption for welfare recipients has reduced the pool of potential labour to include only welfare recipients with disability exemptions. However, SOLE was able to give seven street-cleaners permanent jobs at their bottle recycling depot and in the street-cleaning project. All seven are now off welfare completely, and all seven have been able to adapt well to this change.

SOLE's cleanup program provides a very effective contribution to the cleanliness of the Downtown Eastside. It complements the City Sanitation Branch's street-cleaning program by providing a level of `micro-cleaning' under and around parked vehicles, garbage containers, in alcoves etc which the City's mechanized equipment cannot do as efficiently. There is no question that without SOLE's efforts, the Downtown Eastside would be messier and more unattractive.

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 $60,000 be given to SOLE for 2003. 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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