This document discusses revitalization efforts in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) area of Vancouver over time. It notes some initial successes from 2004-2010 through programs like facade grants and supporting social enterprises. However, it says the approach could have been more inclusive and lacked a long-term strategy. From 2010 onward, funding priorities changed and gentrification concerns increased. The Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Area was formed to take a more collaborative, entrepreneurial approach focused on social impact and inclusion through partnerships, events, and programming benefiting local residents. However, tensions remain regarding balancing community development and preventing displacement.

2. Once upon a time…

3. DTES Today

4. Revitalization Without Displacement
(aka Inclusive Revitalization)
 2004 Revitalization Strategy
 The Vancouver Agreement
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Façade Grants
Olympic Village CBA
Business and Social Enterprise Development
Supported Employment
Building Opportunities with Business Inner-City Society

5. Not bad….but
 Top down heavy bureaucratic approach could have been
more inclusive
 Millions of dollars invested in projects and programs but
not a long-term strategy
 Some Successes
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Façade Grant Program
Social Enterprise and SME Loan Fund
SOLEfood, Save On Meats, Olympic Village CBA
Supported Employment Program

6. What may have had more impact
accelerating change

7. Didn’t you get the memo?
 2010 Federal Government reprioritized
economic development funding away from
urban to rural ridings regions
 Vancouver Agreement comes to an end…

8. A Blessing in Disguise?
The Downside of the RFP Model
 What other models are out there funding-wise that we
could apply in the DTES where we didn’t have to snake our
friends and allies for RFPs or grants?
 How could we better tap into the free market and leverage
a renewed interest in investing in the DTES for social
impact?

9. Get Entrepreneurial
 Found a new BIA with social innovation at its core
 Provides us 5 years of a guaranteed non-competing budget to
leverage
 Could turn people’s heads (Media, potential businesses, NY – IDA,
academics)
 Develop BIA programming that is both culturally relevant to the
area and inclusive oflocal population (not focused on social mix or
gentrification as much as social capital generating and social
inclusion/social impact)
 Leverage the new social-entrepreneurial direction of both nonprofits and SMEs
 Building Opportunities with Business Incubated and aided
Hastings Crossing BIA in forming

12. A fast changing & politically charged area
(to say the least)
 2013 concerns about gentrification and displacement
reach a fever pitch
 Anti-Gentrification Movement (anti-capitalist movement)

13. So what’s a new BIA to do?
 Invest in people first
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Partnerships
Collaboration
Consultation
Dialogue
Build social capital
No big physical changes (shocks)
Events, events, events
Dispel misinformation
Clear communications &
engagement strategy

14. Change the conversation

15. Change the channel away from the dominant black
and white narrative

16. leverage the new entrepreneurial
focus of non-profits
 Intensely collaborative approach to program development
 Social Innovation embedded in our constitution and
bylaws
 Combine a strict focus on both “ value for money” and
“social impact” or “social return on investment”

17. Programming creates jobs for
residents with barriers
 MP Neighbours Community Patrols - Crime
prevention, street debris removal, business and
property owner support

18. But still we get attacked and
slagged by some

19. Impact of MP Neighbours
 Sep 2012-Nov 2013
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Needles and street debris removed – 5650 items
Illegal dumpings reported to COV – 667 cases
De-escalated hostile situations – 132 incidents
9 Part-Time flexible jobs created for residents with
barriers
 COV Police Foundation now interested in our MP
Neighbours Program Stream as those 78 incidents deescalated often involve someone with a mental health
barrier in need of local resources…think of the tax dollars
this saves by avoiding VPD calls

20. We’re collaborating with a lot of others too…
 Partnerships we’ve created and community organizations we’ve
collaborated and/or consulted with to develop our programming
Vancouver Public Spaces Network, Space to Place, Strathcona BIA, W2, Inner City Safety
Society, Downtown Vancouver Association, Climate Smart, Our Social Fabric, Indian
Summer Festival, Word on the Street (now Word), Central City Foundation, Recipes for
Success, DTES NeighbourhoodHouse, Portland Hotel Society, UBC Forestry, Downtown
Eastside Neighbourhood Council, Pigeon Park Street Market, VANDU (Vancouver Area
Network of Drug Users), Ninja Training, Ray Cam, Carnegie Community Centre, Mission
Possible, ALIVE, UBC SCARP – School for Community And Regional Planning, Fast Track to
Employment, EMBERS, East Side Artists Company, WISH, Vancouver Board of Trade, DTES
Round Table, SFU, The HiVE, LOCO BC, Potluck Café and Catering, Open Door Group, HAVE
Café, Our Place, Strathcona Residents Association, GastownBIA, StrathconaBIA, Climate
Smart, Metro Vancouver Zero Waste Challenge, Heritage Foundation of Vancouver, Work
BC, Vancouver Economic Commission, SFU Centre for Sustainable Community
Development, SFU Public Square, Healing Cities Institute, Vancouver Police Department,
Vancouver BIA Partnership, City of Vancouver , Vancouver Heritage Foundation, an more…

21. Also working with SMEs on social
impact and inclusion

22. New business attraction and retention supports to assist
SMEs and property owners in general

23. Addition of SpaceList – comprehensive
commercial lease aggregator

24. Addition of map-based and social media
integrated business directory

25. Striving for brand authenticity
 Inspired by the existing built environment, edginess & counterculture history
not trying to reinvent or encourage disneyfication of the area

26. Use of imagery in social media strategy to
associate our brand by “feel” & “resonance”

28. Investing in the human and
cultural capital of our area
 Numerous and ongoing networking events, guest
speakers, dialogue
 Free events in public spaces

29. Networking, dialogue, performance,
community building – outdoor

30. Networking, dialogue, performance,
community building – indoor
Two cats
high-fiving


31. While also investing in the
physical capital of our area

32. Investing in human capital while investing
in physical capital, that’s the stuff!
Incremental steps to public realm improvements

33. But back to the anti-gentrification
folks for a minute…
 CCAP (Carnegie Community Action Project)
 DTES Not for Developers
 Anti-Poverty Committee
 Anti-Gentrification Front
 MAWO
 The Mainlander, Vancouver Indie-Media Co-op, Rabble.ca
*A fundamental ideological divide between a conflict based anticapitalist perspective and a social capital building community
economic development perspective and an outright market focused
development perspective (terra nullius, carte blanche, tabula rasa
etc.)

34. Popular conflict theory narrative
 Restaurants and high-end stores are “foot soldiers” or
“paratroopers” in the battle for our streets, our public
spaces, our city etc.
 They “make it safe” for developers and others in the
wealthiest strata of society to displace low-income
 Developers likewise take risks to remake spaces in the
interest of higher income earners and capitalist culture
 The DTES is a low-income community and it should
remain so. By resisting new businesses it mitigates further
development (in theory)

35. Community Economic Development
Social Capital Theory
 Communities that build social capital across strata are more
resilient, able to change, able to leverage new opportunities
 We need to ensure that our properties create spaces that ensure
a range of income levels are being served (ownership matters)
 Community Development Corporations, Land Trusts, Social
Impact Bonds, Social Enterprise, all leverage markets but for
social impact so the market can have negative externalities but
we can also create positive ones too
 Not all “land lift” needs to cascade into a totalizing
transformation of communities – we need to seek a balance and
retain local low-income assets but we can’t let other assets
deteriorate in the process

36. Policy can be more powerful than
the purse
 Improving flexibility for approved uses
 Multiple business types sharing space (co-working)
 Permit and license delays
 Inconsistency with COV staff and departments
 COV procurement policy (buy local)
 Industrial Lands Strategy
 Retail Strategy for Hastings and other Commercial
Corridors

37. Businesses are interested in social
impact and inclusion
 We can leverage renewed interest in the DTES
 We can support SMEs in hiring locally and in providing
goods and services that are needed and wanted by the
more than 12,000 low-income residents who call the DTES
home
 We can raise the profile of social impact purchasing with
larger purchasers (support non-profits and social
enterprises or social impact businesses that hire residents,
including residents with barriers)

38. Vancouver a tough town to raise capital in
We want to grow these social ventures and support these
social entrepreneurs for their impact in the DTES

39. Thank you
 Wes Regan, Executive Director
 604-805-3591 wes.regan@hxbia.com
 www.hxbia.comwww.shapecontent.com