Exclusive: Aboriginal Front Door Society, Watari lose provincial funding for “critical” DTES services

Two service providers in the Downtown Eastside will soon receive less financial support, threatening the viability of some of their programs, and the jobs of their staff and volunteers. The Aboriginal Front Door Society (AFDS) and Watari Counselling and Support Services will be getting less government funding in September, according to AFDS executive director Chris Livingstone. 

Starting in 2023, the province and the city partnered with AFDS and Watari to provide storage for personal belongings, as well as food, laundry, and shower services at two city-owned sites in the Downtown Eastside, after the city moved to clear the encampment on Hastings Street in April 2023 and instituted street sweeps in the area. 

“The province sent us a letter saying they've extended [funding] until September to give us time to [thoughtfully] shut down the service,” Livingstone said. Current funding for both agreements will expire at the end of September 2025, the City of Vancouver said in response to questions from Vancity Lookout.  

“The City made extensive efforts to seek ongoing and/or longer-term funding for [the] service[s] from the Province and BC Housing, however they were unable to identify a funding source,” they explained. Starting in August 2022, the city had already begun funding storage and drop-in programs at AFDS and Atira in response to the encampment on Hastings.

For AFDS, the operational funding for the storage and food programs from BC Housing amounts to $115,000 per month, while the city has donated building space at 390 Main Street, a former bank that’s “kind of at ground zero,” in the DTES, Livingstone said. 

The city-owned site, which sits kitty-corner from Carnegie Community Centre, is filled with the personal belongings of between 500 and 700 people, 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,” Livingstone told Vancity Lookout in early 2025.   

“The ongoing partnership with BC Housing has significantly improved access to critical services and support for individuals with complex needs, while also contributing to the City’s public realm management efforts,” the city told Vancity Lookout, adding they recongize that AFDS provides secure and culturally grounded support, which helps people maintain dignity, access services, and reduce the need for people to store personal belongings in public spaces.

“Staff do anticipate that the closure of this service will result in increased personal belongings in the public realm as people without housing will no longer have access to this storage,” the city said. 

Watari will also lose funding for its Wellness Hub at 320 Alexander Street. Similarly to AFDS, the operational funding for Watari’s program was paid through BC Housing, while the city provides the space. 

Watari’s Wellness Hub provides hygiene and wellness services for community members who need it, including food, laundry, and shower programs, as well as activities, events, classes, on-site counsellors, and peer work programs.

The city “continues to identify [the] wellness and hygiene hub [and storage] as critical service[s] in discussions with the Province and hopes that funding will be found to continue the service[s],” they added.

Watari had not responded to Vancity Lookout’s request for comment at the time of publication. 

Now, with the threat of operational funding expiring in September, Livingstone is concerned for his clients, staff, and volunteers. 

“I've got almost 50 volunteers that are running the program. They all get like $20 an hour [as an honorarium], so they come to rely on it for sure. They treat it as a job, even though it's volunteer,” Livingstone said. 

The Society’s food program, which serves about 400 meals per day from its Common Bowl food truck out front, would probably be the easiest part of their social services to maintain without the government funding, Livingstone said.

Next door in their permanent space at 384 Main Street, AFDS has converted one of their rooms into a kitchen. Continuing to use that space, and getting most of their food through donations from groups like United Way, Costco, and food bank, and partnerships with the Heart Tattoo Society, means they just need to find a way to keep paying their cooks, according to Livingstone.

The former bank where AFDS operates also serves as an emergency weather shelter, providing 34 beds for unhoused people during extreme weather events. While that program is funded separately by BC Housing, Livingstone is concerned that when the province stops funding the storage and food program in September, the city could stop letting AFDS use the building. 

“It's sort of a cascading effect. If we were to lose our site, then that means that there could be no shelter, or we'd have to find a new shelter spot, which would be impossible,” Livingstone said, adding that the city haven’t made it clear what will happen with AFDS use of the bank after provincial funding expires in September. 

The city said they’ve “not yet determined” how the site will be used in the future once the AFDS storage program ends.

Livingstone said there may be other service providers in the neighbourhood outside of themselves and Watari that will lose provincial funding around the same time, but Vancity Lookout was unable to confirm if that was the case or which organizations it might apply to. 

When reached for comment, BC Housing staff were working to provide a statement but were eventually told that the communications team with the province’s Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs would be responding to Vancity Lookout’s questions instead. 

“Since 2023, BC Housing has provided funding to five drop-in programs and other amenity services,” in the DTES, the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs said, adding that the latest provincial budget is “focused on carefully managing our investments and spending.”

“BC Housing works closely with service provider partners to determine funding needs year-over-year based on individual program needs. Program operators will be notified directly once any final decisions have been made about future funding beyond current term dates,” the Ministry said. 

The Ministry would not provide any specific information about the funding status for AFDS social services or any of the four other programs. It also denied Vancity Lookout’s request for a list of Vancouver-based service providers who will be losing some or all of their BC Housing funding in September 2025.  

The city said BC Housing notified them that they couldn’t find further funding to continue the two services before city council’s contentious decision this March, led by ABC Councillor Brian Montague, to have staff work with the province to create a comprehensive list of all non-profits and NGOs working in the DTES and their total funding. 

“The City will continue to raise with the Province the need for hygiene and drop-in spaces for people experiencing homelessness and the importance of storage services for people without housing to help them maintain and protect their belongings,” the city said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Friday May 16 to reflect the city’s initial funding of storage at AFDS in 2022, and to correct the name of the Heart Tattoo Society.