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CITY OF VANCOUVER ADMNISTRATIVE REPORT |
Date: |
November 17, 2003 | |
Author: |
Bob Ross | |
Phone No.: |
604-873-7348 | |
RTS No.: |
3667 | |
CC File No.: |
2251 | |
Meeting Date: |
December 11, 2003 |
TO: |
Standing Committee on Planning and 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 2004, 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, and in the last year, $60,000 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 (to be matched 100% 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 the United We Can Bottle Depot and Crossroads and Lanes. A primary objective of the Society is to create 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 2003, SOLE continued developing several ventures, including its commercial beverage container collection service, which now serves approximately 60 customers in Vancouver. With funding support from Partners in Economic and Community Help (PEACH) the Society has been able to open and operate a bicycle repair shop, a new social enterprise on East Hastings Street called Bikeworks. With a grant from Western Economic Diversification, SOLE has also been able to participate with the Gastown and Chinatown business improvement areas in a project called Neighbours First. This project trains local residents to provide a `block watch' style street presence and assistance, while continuing to remove graffiti and litter on Hastings Street, Gastown and Chinatown. This project has also allowed SOLE to provide morning and afternoon cleaning along Hastings and the cross streets on a daily basis. In addition, SOLE has been working over the past three years to plan and develop a model of residential recovery for inner city residents working with the Society.
In each of the past five years, Council has approved grants to SOLE ($50,000 per year 1999-2002 and $60,000 during the past year) for micro-cleaning sidewalks and lanes in the Downtown Eastside (DTES). In the past four years, SOLE has been able to raise matching funds to double the amount of the City's grant and in some years has even been able to exceed this level. The program now covers approximately 65 blocks and several parks. The work 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 2004
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.
- Dumpsters are left unlocked and become overfilled, which results in spillage when the dumpsters are emptied.
- There is, generally, a lack of stewardship of the public spaces by adjacent property owners and the community.
While there are some businesses 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 Vancouver and Richmond 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 five years has been used to supplement these cleaning activities in the public realm. SOLE's project 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 entranceways and private alcoves.
Furthermore, the Gastown and Chinatown and Strathcona BIA's hire SOLE to do regular cleanups of public property in their areas. Movie Production companies also contract SOLE's cleaning services. It is hoped that the higher level of street and lane cleanliness that results from these activities helps encourage merchants and property owners to pitch in and help keep the public spaces around their premises tidier.
For 2004, 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, entranceways, alcoves, loading bays, vacant lots, etc.).
- Collection and separation of discarded needles as part of a monitored needle collection system implemented through the City and Coastal Health Authority.
This year SOLE will solicit matching funds to support this work. During the eight years that SOLE has been engaged in sidewalk and lane cleaning in the inner city, it has been able to raise approximately $275,000 from sources other than the City of Vancouver to assist with the cost of doing this work. 92 % of the dollars spent on the project go directly to pay the workers who do the actual cleaning work. 8% of the funding is used to cover administration, overhead and supplies.
Last year, SOLE contracted with the provincial Ministry of Human Resources to operate a community assistance project (CAP) which allowed the society to offer support to more than 200 people in the inner city who are seeking opportunities to make a positive contribution to their community by engaging in this work and in the other projects operated by SOLE. Ministry regulations and CAP program guidelines have allowed people with disabilities who receive income assistance to earn up to $400 per month without deductions, people with persistent multiple barriers to earn up to $300, and people who are considered employable according to Ministry employability screening to receive up to $100 as a training allowance while participating in the project.
SOLE now employs 33 people, 28 who do not receive income assistance and four who are employed on a permanent part-time basis. Eight full time employees work primarily in the lane and sidewalk cleaning project. SOLE's pool of active casual labour participants currently stands at 71, of whom 66 participate in the cleaning program.
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 far messier and less attractive.
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 2004. 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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