The Clean Streets Project

Clean streets are something that every neighbourhood wants. This project expands street cleaning to a 65 block area within the city’s founding neighbourhoods. It also engages social enterprise organizations to provide additional recycling at special events.

Clean streets micro-cleaning team

Increased street cleaning in the core area of the DTES was initiated by Council in March 2008 under the Clean Streets Initiative. The program involves additional City street cleaning shifts, the addition of a Street Use Inspector resulting in better education and enforcement, and increased lane micro-cleaning (litter collection on foot using brooms and shovels) by the social enterprise organizations United We Can (UWC) and Coast Mental Health Foundation (CMHF). Both social enterprises provide easy-to-access employment opportunities to those with barriers to traditional employment. Additional recycling at special events is being provided through UWC’s Urban Binning Unit program. The work involves the use of mobile purpose-built recycling carts to collect deposit beverage containers. Collected containers are returned for deposit refunds to the UWC bottle depot on East Hastings Street.

The project has resulted in noticeably cleaner streets, lanes and sidewalks in the targeted area. Thirty new low threshold job positions have been filled by 100 local residents as part of the commitment to supporting social enterprises.

The Clean Streets Project has received positive feedback from the community, BIAs, and staff from City departments. Social enterprises are being approached by individuals commending them on their commitment to cleaning the neighbourhood of needles and litter. Individuals with barriers to traditional employment have been provided with a greater sense of pride and self-esteem, which better enables them to seek, obtain and maintain employment, and also allows them to make a positive contribution to their community. In fact, CMHF has reported that one of their members is now able to survive on micro-cleaning wages alone, without relying on former employment in the sex trade industry.

This project will be ongoing for the duration of the Great Beginnings Project.

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