Strathcona, BC. Block Study | July 2020

BLOCK REPORT: EAST HASTINGS STREET, STRATHCONA - VANCOUVER, B.C.

This is one of a series of seven Block Reports developed by Canadian Urban Institute, Vancouver City Savings credit union (Vancity), Vancity Community Investment Bank, as part of Bring Back Main Street. Block Reports are hyper-local portraits of the impact of the pandemic that combine storytelling with data. This report was prepared during the week of July 6, 2020 based on conversations with Strathcona BIA and local business owners. It will be updated in September 2020 with new data.

Photo credit: Google Street View

Summary • Strathcona is a residential neighbourhood and commercial district located east of Downtown Vancouver. East Hastings Street is a busy six-lane thoroughfare, and the main commercial strip in Strathcona. • This block includes part of the Downtown Eastside, one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods comprising residents facing complex social issues including addiction, homelessness, extreme poverty, mental illness, and sex work. • There are a wide variety of businesses – including restaurants and cafes, a mix of retail, industrial and personal and professional services. The area is known for being a home to many entrepreneurs and social enterprises. • One long-time diner that served low income residents closed permanently since COVID. The BIA expects that more businesses may close over the next weeks and months. • The reduction in social services and the closing of rooming houses during the lockdown phase of the pandemic resulted in high incidences of public drug use and drinking. There has been an increase in assaults and graffiti, verified by police statistics. • Looking ahead, the BIA is working on developing placemaking strategies in the time of COVID and is looking to increase their street cleaning efforts in order to address the additional issues that will result from more street and sidewalk activity.

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About This Block Strathcona is a residential neighbourhood located east of Downtown Vancouver. The Strathcona Business Improvement Area (SBIA) operates on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Their cultures and economies have shaped the community and remain a part of the Strathcona community.

East Hastings Street is a busy thoroughfare with six vehicle lanes of fast-moving traffic plus parking. It runs through Strathcona, to the entrance of Highway One, and eastwards through East Vancouver and Burnaby.

This block includes part of the Downtown Eastside, one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods comprising residents facing complex social issues including addiction, homelessness, extreme poverty, mental illness, and sex work. It is also one of Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhoods, with an average household income of about $28,000, less than half the city average. There are several social services agencies on or near this block, including the United Gospel Mission, which operates a shelter, social enterprise, and feeds 600 people a day.

Storefronts on East Hastings Street have large frontages and include a mix of shops and services. There are restaurants and cafes and a wide variety of retail, including a restaurant supply store, corner store, laundromat, thrift shop, craft brewery, art gallery and cannabis shop. There are also professional service firms such as architects and interior designers, personal wellness services and a coworking space. There are even a number of light or soft industrial/manufacturing spaces. A branch of the Vancouver Public Library and a community garden run by the University of British Columbia (UBC) is also located on this block.

Strathcona is known for being a home to many diverse entrepreneurs and social enterprises. There is a good mix of business owners who are racialized Canadians and small number of social enterprises serving, employing and run by indigenous peoples. The BIA characterizes the area as a community with strongly articulated values that together work to care for its residents.

Photo credit: Strathcona BIA 2 Strathcona, BC. Block Study | July 2020

Block Profile

Business Mix (as of June 30)

General Service 17%

General Retail 24%

Number of % independent Food Retail 2%

businesses businesses Food Service 5%

42 93% Professional Service 7%

Other 45%

* High proportion of “Other” services includes community associations, galleries, and wholesalers. Food or general Recent Permanent retail/services with % offering online Temporary permanent closures & online presence ordering closures closures vacancies 11 of 20 33% 3 1 8 Occupancy Definitions: Temporarily closure: Business has signage that indicates it is temporarily closed and will re-open at a future date Recent permanent closure: Business has signage to indicate that it permanently closed or will be closing during the pandemic Vacant: Storefront looks to have been vacant prior to the pandemic Estimated number of visits Estimated change from Estimated change from to block in April 2019 April 2019 to April 2020 April 2020 to June 2020 81,989 -42% -9%

Estimated visits data provided by Environics Analytics MobileScapes, a privacy-compliant database that estimates population-level travel patterns based on location-enabled mobile devices. Socio-Economic Profile Within 800m of Block City of Vancouver (2016 Census) Population 20,382 631,485 Population growth since 2011 31.7% 4.6% Proportion 65 years and over 19% 15% Estimated median age 46.7 39.9 Estimated household income $27,532 $65,434 Proportion visible minority 39% 52% Proportion immigrants 36% 43% Proportion Aboriginal Identity 9% 2% Top 3 immigrant places of birth China China Vietnam Philippines Hong Kong Hong Kong

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Block Profile (continued)

Real Estate Profile Strathcona BIA City of Vancouver (as of June 21) Market rent per square foot Current: $33.48 Current: $43.82 YoY Change: +2.8% YoY Change: +6.1% 24-month lease renewal rate 93.4% 88.1% Market sale price per square foot Current: $745 Current: $834 YoY Change: +6.0% YoY Change: +5.0%

Provincial COVID Context British Columbia has fared best among Canadian provinces, with 13 percent of Canada’s national population and only 2 percent of Canada’s national COVID-19 case count. Beginning March 18th, the provincial government declared a public health emergency and required non-essential businesses to shut down, while requiring the safe operation of a broad range of businesses designated as essential services. As of June 24th, B.C. moved into Phase 3 of the government’s Restart Plan, which allows a broader range of businesses to reopen, including hotels and resorts, and select entertainment venue, providing that they develop provincially mandated COVID-19 Safe Plans. People can take part in ‘smart, safe and respectful’ travel within B.C.

Strathcona During COVID-19 Key Impacts: • During lockdown, restaurants, cafes and food shops laid off staff and generally operated with minimal resources to provide take-out and delivery options. Most have reopened, but the BIA predicts that those that have not added online service options will be challenged over the long term. • One long-time diner that served low income residents closed permanently since COVID. • Social service agencies had to pivot quickly and close some of their services during the lockdown. For example, the United Gospel Mission continued to serve hundreds of meals every day for residents, but had to temporarily discontinue some of its other services. • Residents living in rooming houses in Strathcona could no longer have visitors due to physical distancing rules during the lockdown. This led to more people congregating on the street, resulting in a rise in open drug use and public drinking. There has been an increase in assaults and graffiti, verified by police statistics. The lack of public toilets and handwashing facilities continues to be an issue for the street population. • The coworking space and professional services businesses on the block continue to see tenants and staff work from home. This impacts neighbouring businesses, who relied on the foot traffic and daytime visitors.

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Block Story: Enterprising Women Making Art

Enterprising Women Making Art (EWMA) is a non-profit business developed under the Atira Women’s Resource Society. EWMA was established in 2003 as a means of providing women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with an alternative form of employment. EWMA doubles as both a studio and a store in order to provide women with the space to sell their art, create new works, and learn new skills through the provided workshops.

EWMA had to shut its doors for over 2 months but was able to re-open in mid-June. Since then, approximately five artists use the studio each day, whereas previously, the studio would see between 15 and 20 women. EWMA has been unable to run workshops during COVID. They are exploring the possibility of running Photo credit: Enterprise Women Making Art workshops in a nearby public park, given that many women lack the internet access that would be required to participate in online programming.

EWMA’s artists are also suffering from the lack of customers and, subsequently, the lack of revenue gained through the sale of their art. The store traditionally benefits from the high number of tourists who visit Vancouver during the summer months. In normal times, several women would also volunteer in the shop on a weekly basis. These women are unable to find steady employment for a variety of reasons and are usually ‘gifted’ some money for their work. EWMA is trying to get as many of these women back into the store as possible. However, they must balance the number of volunteers with the number of artists working in the studio in order to maintain physical distancing.

EWMA did not access the government financial support programs. They had applied to receive rent relief program but did not meet the criteria. Instead, EWMA has applied to the Red Cross’s COVID-19 Emergency Support for Community Organizations Granting Program for Non-Profits. They have yet to hear back and are frustrated by the slow application process.

Bright Spots: • One of the live music venues on this block that boarded up their storefront during the pandemic invited a well-known community artist to create a public mural that communicates facts about the coronavirus. There are discussions about commissioning more murals. • The social enterprises on this block typically bring a lot of energy to the street. One of them, Mission Possible, runs two programs that support individuals who are challenged with poverty to navigate their journey to a sustainable livelihood. The first provides a neighbourhood watch that extended its hours during COVID to provide additional support to

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the community in the evenings. The second program employs people challenged by homelessness and poverty to undertake micro-cleaning of the Strathcona BIA and many other BIAs across the city.

What’s Next: • The BIA is working with the City of Vancouver to activate sidewalks, side streets and parking spaces with seating areas, washrooms and handwashing stations. Efforts are also underway to create two parklets on side streets for additional public space. Given the fast moving traffic on this part of East Hastings, it may not work to have on street patios. • To ensure this block is safe and welcoming, strategies for placemaking in the time of COVID are under development. They will include increased street cleaning to address the additional issues that will result from more street and sidewalk activity. • The BIA is preparing to roll out grants to its commercial district members that will support their efforts to innovate, fortify and activate new ways of running their businesses in the face of COVID.

Key Takeaways

• Safety is critical and the foundation of a healthy main street. Social service agencies play a key role in ensuring the safety of main streets and the success of local businesses. Main Street BIAs, and even streetfront businesses themselves, may need to work more closely with social service agencies, outreach workers and police to ensure community safety. • Entrepreneurs and social enterprise business owners play a key role in animating this main street. There is an opportunity to support these businesses and leverage their ingenuity to support the recovery and long-term resilience of the main street. • Creative approaches to placemaking – community-based approach to planning, design and management of public spaces – are needed to support block-level adaption during the next phases of the pandemic.

About Bring Back Main Street The study is part of Bring Back Main Street (www.bringbackmainstreet.ca) - a nationally coordinated research and action campaign to ensure the people, business and organizations that that call Canada’s main streets home can recover and emerge from the crisis more resilient than ever. Bring Back Main Street is developed in the public interest by the Canadian Urban Institute with the support of partners from across the country. About Vancity Vancity is a values-based financial cooperative serving the needs of its more than 534,886 member- owners and their communities in the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka'wakw territories, with 59 branches in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Victoria, Squamish and Alert Bay. Van City is the funding partner for the Block Study.

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About VCIB Vancity Community Investment Bank (VCIB) is a subsidiary of Vancouver City Savings Credit Union (Vancity). As Canada’s first and only values-driven bank, VCIB is committed to driving positive social and environmental change within the communities in which it operates. About Strathcona BIA The Strathcona Business Improvement Area (BIA) is a non-profit association, with an aim to support the industrial lands, foster sustainability, revitalize East Hastings Street and continue to provide opportunities for new entrepreneurs.

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