A program that deep cleans a strip through the core of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is in jeopardy due to a lack of funding.
Teams with the Public Realm Cleaning Initiative patrol East Hastings Street between Abbott and Dunlevy streets twice daily, picking up thousands of needles and bags of trash and pressure washing the sidewalks.
“We are talking kilos and kilos of garbage that is being removed by them every single day,” said Wally Wargolet, executive director of the Gastown Business Improvement Association.
“If we don’t continue to do this work, well I think we can understand what the impact will be.”
The program is operated by Mission Possible, a non-profit that helps DTES residents struggling with poverty to reenter the workforce. Along with cleaning, teams offer referrals to social services and provide meal tickets to people in need.
Since 2023, it has removed more than 18,000 bags of litter and 55,000 needles, according to Mission Possible executive director and CEO Matthew Smedley.
It also helps ensure health and safety through its pressure washing efforts.
“Feces, vomit, urine, all sorts of bodily fluids and other things that are on the sidewalk,” Smedley said.
“It’s such a densely populated part of the city … the sanitation needs are really high.”
Mission Possible street cleaner Sven Golinski said the needs of the neighbourhood keep both his team and the City of Vancouver engineering crews busy every day.
Losing his program would have an immediate impact, he said.
“I really honestly wouldn’t want to imagine what it would look like after a week or just a few days unattended.”
“I know it would have a serious impact on the overall corridor … It would be terrible, terrible, not to mention potentially more rats.”
The program was funded through a Union of B.C. Municipalities grant amounting to $70,000 per month, which has now expired.
Smedley said it’s the same batch of funding that covered the operation of two public toilets in the Downtown Eastside, which are also at risk of closure.
“That will also increase the amount of urine and feces on the streets because there are just not enough public washrooms in the Downtown Eastside. And it creates real sanitation and health hazards for the people that are here.”
Wargolet called programs like Mission Possible’s “imperative” in keeping the area attractive to visitors.
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“One of the things that we have worked really hard on this area and really all downtown areas is really to get folks coming back to our neighbourhoods,” he said.
“We’ve seen that this summer and it’s awesome. But if we don’t have continued cleaning in our neighbourhoods it’s a detriment.”
He said street cleanliness is a municipal responsibility and that it’s up to the city to find a way to fund it, either through programs like this or through the engineering department.
In a statement, the City of Vancouver said it was “actively exploring” options to extend funding for the Public Realm Cleaning Initiative.
“We thank Mission Possible for their ongoing work in Gastown and the Downtown Eastside and will have an update to share as soon as feasible,” the statement reads.
In February, the City of Vancouver voted to renew $2.6 million in street cleaning grants to non-profit groups, including to other programs run by Mission Possible.
In 2023, that program covered micro-cleaning services covering a seven-square-kilometre area, and the removal of 35,400 bags of trash and nearly 20,000 instances of feces.
Golinski, meanwhile, said he’d hate to give up his patrol.
“I love my city,” he said.
“I just like knowing I am doing my part to help keep it clean because it’s such a wonderful place and we all share it together.”
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