Leaked document shows new plan by Vancouver city council to alter the Downtown Eastside

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A secret plan laid out by Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s chief of staff last fall for fixing the city’s poorest neighbourhood called for allowing quick approvals of private development in the Downtown Eastside, facilitating the return of people to their home communities for those that want to move and launching a “comprehensive review” of the non-profits providing services.

The draft memo, dated Oct. 30, 2024, is marked “Confidential” in red on every page, and was obtained by The Globe and Mail. It was distributed to councillors with the mayor’s ABC party and was intended as a proposed roadmap for better public safety, more resources for drug-use recovery, and an effort to “reinvigorate the DTES.”

When asked to comment on the plan, the mayor’s office forwarded an updated version late Friday from January which contained softened language.

Both versions include the new policy on housing that Mr. Sim announced last month when he said the city wouldn’t permit any more “net new” supportive housing until the rest of the region steps up. They also include some of the measures the mayor and police announced recently about cracking down on street vending and going after drug dealers more aggressively.

In the section outlining plans to return Downtown Eastside residents to their home communities, the second draft refers to the struggle of people who are disconnected from prior support networks.

But the October memo obtained by The Globe specifically referenced Indigenous people under a section entitled “Re-unification roundtable with First Nations, Métis and other Indigenous groups.” The paper notes “many members of the Indigenous community have expressed a desire to live in their home Nations.

“Some local Nations are open to welcoming their members return to the community. Re-unification is a meaningful step forward toward reconciliation.”

The updated document forwarded to The Globe on Friday afternoon removes the specific reference to returning Indigenous people.

The October memo notes that there are some 60 or more not-for-profit organizations working in the neighbourhood and their services should be subject to a “comprehensive review.” It says the city “attempted” to do this in 2008, but adds that “part of breaking the poverty cycle will be to reassess how city funding is granted and, if possible, work with the province and federal governments to track their funding envelope as well.”

The paper notes the current official plan for the Downtown Eastside is “broken,” but creating a new one would take too long. The October paper suggests the city conduct spot rezoning – quick rezoning of individual sites.

“This is a tool that we would typically not use,” the paper states. “However, to be smart about how we bring this about, we will have to make hard decisions quickly to get the outcome we desire.”

The updated language from the January draft simply calls on city council to “review the Downtown Eastside area plan implementation.”

The policy sets a substantially different tone and approach from one adopted in November, 2023, introduced by then-ABC Councillor Rebecca Bligh and titled “Uplifting the Downtown Eastside and Building Inclusive Communities that Work for All Residents.”

Her policy also suggested changes to the 2014 Downtown Eastside plan that has restricted development in a big part of the area for the past 10 years to social-housing and rental buildings. But Ms. Bligh’s plan laid out a more collaborative approach to tackling the problems in the area and to working with other cities on providing supportive housing more equitably throughout the region.

It also emphasized doing more work on economic development for existing residents and businesses in the area. Ms. Bligh’s initiative got unanimous approval by councillors from all parties. Council is due to receive and discuss a 42-page report from staff next week that is a response to that 2023 vote.

Trevor Ford, the mayor’s chief of staff who sent the paper to the mayor and council, said in a statement the paper is an “internal working document meant to inform discussions and explore ideas.”

“It has not been presented publicly because it is not a finalized strategy. Any actions taken from this document would be presented publicly as a motion through the standard processes,” Mr. Ford said in a statement.

The document suggests past efforts to improve the conditions in the Downtown Eastside have made things worse, not better, despite millions of dollars spent and many different city efforts on mental-health and substance-use issues, called MHSU throughout the document.

“The impacts on community, resources, and finances are no longer sustainable for the city and its residents and businesses,” the document says.

“In fact, our efforts intensified the dual crises at the DTES. The disproportionate distribution of MHSU services across the region create the necessity for people who use substances to either go without these life-saving services or to travel to Vancouver to obtain these services.”

Ms. Bligh said the mayor’s actions recently show his office intends to follow through with the plan. She said she believes that it was her concerns about the plan that led to her expulsion from the party last week.

“This is cutting the area up into pieces and moving people out of the Downtown Eastside, re-traumatizing people. This IS a gentrification plan. Every aspect of it is to gentrify the Downtown Eastside,” she said in an interview.

Green Party Councillor Pete Fry, who had also obtained a copy of the confidential plan some weeks ago, said he too was concerned about the overall framing of the issues in the Downtown Eastside and some of the specific strategies.

Mr. Fry said it is also disturbing that the whole plan was included only in a confidential memo to ABC councillors.

“They are making these decisions behind closed doors.”