Short-Term Cart & Belongings Storage

Vancouver’s homeless and under housed population often have appointments they must keep, including job and housing interviews. Unfortunately, many service organizations are not able to accommodate this population’s bins, shopping carts and totes carrying their belongings.

Providing a storage facility in the DTES assists by establishing a place where the homeless can take their belongings rather than leaving them out to be stolen or block sidewalks. The Short-Term Cart and Belongings Storage facility, which opened in October 2009 and is located at the DTES’s First United Church, offers safe, short-term storage to those with carts or other belongings.

The facility also provides an opportunity to connect clients with social services in the area. The facility was able to connect a client who suffers from mental health disabilities and is a chronic hoarder with a Community Worker. The Community Worker worked with the client and liaised with a mental health practitioner and brain injury clinic. This approach led to the client finding secure housing  in the newly renovated Rainer Hotel.