A meal and a place to store your things: a society offering basic social services in the Downtown Eastside

What happened: Last week, the city presented an extensive report at city council on the Downtown Eastside (DTES), covering everything from land-use and housing policy, economic development, social infrastructure, and regional approaches to homelessness, mental health, and substance use issues. 

While there were no action recommendations made by staff, ABC Coun. Brian Montague took the opportunity to add an amendment to the report that asked staff to work with the provincial government to create a comprehensive list of all non-profits and NGOs working in the DTES and their total funding. 

• The amendment is an audit ABC Coun. Lisa Dominato pointed out, rather than something like service mapping that would link and identify gaps in services.

The audit: “It’s critical to understand whether dollars are being spent optimally… we know there is some programming that is not as effective,” Montague said, with his amendment requesting the review include which services enable recovery and improve mental health. 

“You want to figure out, ‘who’s doing it best’… can we lift up more of those [successful strategies]... I think this is really good information to get back,” ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung said. 

However: A list of names and a list of dollar amounts isn’t meeting the stated goal of getting a comprehensive understanding of service delivery outcomes, Green Coun. Pete Fry argued, adding that getting a comprehensive overview is a laudable goal, but this isn’t the tool to do it. 

“There’s no merit to this, and it’s an absolute waste of time,” Coun. Rebecca Bligh said. The services are not the problem, Bligh said, noting that 45 DTES-serving organizations already coordinate to make the best use of the limited resources they get. 

• “So what if we learn that an organization gets a certain amount of money for food programs from the city, and gets a different amount of money for rent subsidies… what are we going to do with that information then?” Bligh questioned. 

Bligh, who was removed from the ABC caucus in February in part due to disagreements about the party’s approach to the DTES, said the amendment is politically motivated and amounts to “myths and blaming,” of crucial service providers.

• The amendment passed 6-3 with Bligh, Dominato, and Fry in opposition. 

Pivot point: We’ve been covering some of the extensive discussion, policy, and political intrigue revolving around the Downtown Eastside lately. But that focus on 12th and Cambie means we haven’t heard as much from the many service providers working in the neighbourhood. 

• Dive deeper: We did feature another group – Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen – which serves free meals every weekend on Main and Hastings. However, historically, this group hasn’t gotten any government funding and wouldn’t be included in the city’s audit.  

First-person perspective: Today, we’re presenting part of a conversation Vancity Lookout had in early 2025 with Chris Livingstone, executive director of the non-profit Aboriginal Front Door Society [ABFS], which is mostly run by volunteers.

Livingstone shared about some of the organization’s social services — including its popular meal program, well-used storage service, and emergency shelter space — and its funding situation, while providing an informed perspective on community needs. 

• Aboriginal Front Door Society is an Indigenous organization operating in Vancouver on the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh lands, Livingstone noted. 

A busy food truck: “We've had a food truck outside for a couple of years, and we found it's an amazing success in the Downtown Eastside,” Livingstone said.

ABFS serves about 800 meals from the food truck every weekday, which adds up to about 4,000 meals per week Livingstone estimated, adding they also give out bottled water and cups for the nearby water fountain during hot weather. 

“It's very humanistic to be able to feed our people out of a food truck. They don't feel bad about getting food. [The truck] was painted by a guy that used to work on the TV show Reboot, so it's a very nice painting. It's been vandalism-free for a couple of years, which really says something, considering that it's at Main and Hastings, and everything is tagged up around here, but the food truck has kind of come out of it unscathed. I think people respect it and they don't want to lose it. So I'm really happy that it's stayed in good condition,” Livingstone shared.

• They get a lot of their food through donations from groups like United Way, Costco, and food bank. While they can prepare a lot of the food into meals in their converted kitchen,  Livingstone said they also put groceries out for people to take with them. 

“Every once in a while, we'll get donations of fish from [First Nations], so we're able to barbecue fish. One time, we sent a hunting expedition up north, and we got sea lion. We brought a sea lion back and served the sea lion to people down here. So getting food that will connect people to their own culture is something that not everybody always thinks about,” Livingstone said. 

A well-used storage space: Livingstone described how the organization’s storage program got started during the decampment of East Hastings Street in 2023. 

• The building where the group runs some of their social services is a former bank provided by the city. 

 “A couple of years ago, the city started doing street sweeps. There were a lot of tents and a lot of people out on the streets. [The city] decided that they would help support us to be able to store people's belongings. It was a little bit of a disruption, but we're kind of doing part of the city's work anyways, and helping to keep people's belongings safe. 

There's a lot of people that are sleeping outside, and we know that they have a hard time to keep their belongings safe, without having them being lost, stolen or thrown away, in some cases,” Livingstone said, estimating they’ve got about 1,000 bins of various sizes. “This whole bank is filled with people's belongings,” he said.

Shelter services: AFDS also provides temporary shelter services in emergency situations, as well as a daytime drop-in centre. “We’re part of [Homeless Services Association of BC’s] programming for emergency weather response [EWR]. So when the temperature gets to zero or below, or if there’s [a weather event] like lots of rain, that can trigger an EWR. So we've got 34 beds in here. 

• During the day, we have a drop-in centre. We serve non-stop coffee and tea every day. There's six beds over there that people can sleep on during the day, so it's usually really full here,” Livingstone said. 

Interconnected issues: “We're here in the Downtown Eastside, and there's always access problems, almost no matter what we're talking about,” Livingstone said. 

• Located near the northeast corner of Main and Hastings, Aboriginal Front Door is “kind of at ground zero,” Livingstone said. 

“If we looked at our clients from our storage side, we would see that a whole bunch of them are homeless, and then a lot of them are staying in the shelters around us. I would say housing is the number one need that's not being met. Then there are some people with mental health problems as well that kind of get ignored,” Livingstone said. 

Asked specifically about food, Livingstone said while they try to get as much food out into the community as they can, a lack of dependable access to food can be a huge issue for people. That’s exacerbated by people living in single-room accommodations not having access to kitchens, while some people have other physical or psychological needs that sometimes may take precedence over food. 

Funding situation: “We're always looking to increase our service as much as possible. We're thankful that [the city and province] do support us, so they are able to cover some of those costs,” for space and programming, Livingstone said. 

• The former Bank of Montreal location at 390 Main Street, which is part of Aboriginal Front Door’s operating space, is rented free of charge to the organization by the city. Meanwhile, the province provides some operational funding through BC Housing. 

“I don't really diss it. I don't want to put it down, but it would be great if we could get some multi-year funding for this site,” Livingstone said, saying they’ve been operating on year-to-year contracts with the city. 

“Every February and March is when everybody gets worried around here. We've got this family of 50 volunteers and a small staff that do all this work. We don't really know what's going to happen beyond March 31,” Livingstone said in late January. 

•  “Usually, the nature of community help comes from a dire need that's being unmet. So I'm kind of happy with the levels of support that we get, and I'm hopeful that governments will be able to keep supporting community groups to do this work that's really hard to do,” Livingstone said. 

Personal experience: “I'm just happy that we are able to kind of get this family together. That's really what it is — people that are kind of like-minded [who] want to help the community. They want to help other people. A lot of us have faced the same sort of circumstances as the people on the street. I know I have. I've slept outside, I've been in a tent, I've been in a tent city, I've been in encampments over the years. I'm just happy if we're able to make the situation better,” Livingstone shared. 

What it means: The answer to Bligh’s rhetorical question, asking what council will do with a list of service providers and dollar figures, is uncertain. But it seems that, until there’s substantial progress on systemic, decades-long issues around housing and poverty in the Downtown Eastside, there will be a continued community need for basic services like food, shelter, and a place to put your things. 

• That’s not to say things can’t be done in a better way, but previous decisions by this council majority, like the pause on supportive housing, indicate they may be willing to sacrifice helpful services in the name of disrupting business as usual.