Person who is homeless holding a cardboard sign that reads 'you can make a difference'

Homelessness Action Week

Each year in mid-October, we join communities and organizations throughout the region to mark Homelessness Action Week.

Homelessness Action Week grants

Community and grassroots events and projects are an important part of Homelessness Action Week.

We provide grants to non-profit organizations to host events and organize projects related to Homelessness Action Week that:

Help Vancouver residents who are homeless
Create awareness of homelessness
Engage citizens on solutions to homelessness
Decrease the stigma associated with homelessness and the exclusion experienced by Vancouverites experiencing homelessness

Learn more about Homelessness Action Week grants

What the week is about

The week’s purpose is to raise public awareness on issues of homelessness and rally local solutions.

Homelessness Action Week is organized by the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley Council of Community Homelessness Tables. The council is a coalition of community organizations and all levels of government

Learn about the Committee's work on homelessness

Events and initiatives

We are a proud participant in Homelessness Action Week, and support events and initiatives during the week and over the year, including:

Homeless Connect events, where attendees can get everything from health care assistance to bike repairs to a nutritious meal
Events hosted by local non-profit organizations

2021 HAW grant recipients

The City’s Homelessness Action Week (HAW) grant program, established in 2009, supports a variety of community-led positive and engaging initiatives and events that take place in Vancouver during HAW and throughout the year.

Grant funds contribute to uniting Vancouverites in a common goal to raise awareness about and create solutions to the issues of homelessness and to support organizations providing direct services to homeless individuals.

On June 9, 2021, City Council approved fifteen HAW Grants.

View the staff report on HAW grants (146 KB)

View the types of projects that have received a Homelessness Action Week grant over the past 2 years by reviewing previous years reports:

Organization	Project
Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia	Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House (MPNH): Destigmatizing displacement: breaking down the myths of homelessness through connection and dialogue Focusing on destigmatizing and creating awareness, the project seeks to bring together community members to share their stories of colonization, displacement, forced migration locally and transnationally in order to: Break down myths and stereotypes associated with poverty, mental health, and homelessness. Raise awareness about the systemic drives of homelessness. Facilitate intergenerational and intercultural relationship building.
Catholic Street Missionaries Society	Cold and wet weather outreach during the pandemic: When winter comes between October and April, we shall go out to the street to give out things that will keep those who sleep on the street warm. We plan to give out include: Winter response items (including clothes, mitts, blankets, resources, pamphlets) Our primary population is those who sleep on the street
Lotus Light Charity Society	LLCS Winter Charity Drive Care for the Homeless 300 care packages will be distributed to city emergency shelters, and non profit groups in our local community. 300 Care packages will be distributed by partner organizations Vancouver Police Department Homeless Outreach team and BC Ambulance Service paramedics to homeless who need help. 400 Care packages and sandwiches made by charity kitchen will be distributed to groups who work in the homelessness sector in DTES.
McLaren Housing Society of British Columbia	Symposium on the housing continuum McLaren Housing Society will host a one-day event focused on the housing continuum in Vancouver. Speakers along the trajectory of homelessness to independent living will present on their experiences. Speakers will include people with lived experience of homelessness new to supportive housing, individuals who were able to secure portable subsidies.
Movies Move Us Association	V6A for the DTES Given the circumstances brought forth by COVID-19, a free virtual film screening is the best way to bring together communities in the name of a social cause. The educational, inspiring, and empowering nature of film can unite audiences in spite of their differences (physical, cultural, and given the virtual element also geographical) to deliver an emotional experience that taps into human belonging and provides meaningful, educational, inspiring content for free. We have seen great success through our past events. We therefore plan to focus on the lower mainland to raise awareness and support the cause through a virtual screening of V6A during HAW.
A Better Life Foundation	Sharpen up virtual cooking classes Sharpen Up is a project aimed at teaching people living in the DTES cooking skills and nutritional information so that regardless of budget or available resources, they can make educated choices around food. Aim is that this training will also serve as an introduction to developing in demand kitchen skills which may translate to further training and employment opportunities. This project will serve 360 Vancouver residents; the impact will be increased confidence in their skills and ability to learn, a greater connection to their community, and a sense of autonomy and empowerment in being able to make choices around good that are informed and personal to them.
Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia	South Vancouver Neighbourhood House: South Vancouver Community Hub for Homelessness The purpose of the South Vancouver Community Hub for Homelessness is to strengthen the South Vancouver Community Hub committee members & residents of South Vancouver, by: Increasing community partnerships within the South Vancouver Hub Offering training for the HUB members and the community at large Developing a network of volunteers, to help with navigating housing resources for participants in different community agencies Training volunteers as housing navigators to help with administering housing, income, and food resources Continuing work on collaborative resources development work with organizations that can create housing in South Vancouver.
B.W.S.S.: Battered Women’s Support Services Association	Homelessness prevention, intervention, and advocacy workshops: The proposed project includes a 12 session workshop series aimed at providing information, advocacy, and support for self-identified women in need of ongoing, safe, and secure housing who are currently experiencing homelessness, have experienced homelessness, or are at risk of homelessness. 10 workshops will be provided for women in need of housing and cover topics around how to obtain and maintain housing in the lower mainland, specifically within Vancouver. Two workshops will be hosted for frontline workers and housing service providers to collaborate, connect, and create communities of care to address housing instability, homelessness and to share intervention, prevention practices and services.
Employ to Empower Foundation	Engaging community voices to challenge stigma of the DTES The project’s purpose is to spark conversations, community dialogue, and engagement between people experiencing or who have experienced homelessness and other stigmatized conditions in the DTES, and with the local (DTES neighbourhood) and broader population of Vancouverites who may have limited experiences and awareness of these issues. The overall aim is to challenge the stigma of the DTES by creating opportunities for greater understanding, awareness, and self reflection of people’s own attitude and behaviours towards the community and its members. The project will introduce an anti-stigma education and awareness-building podcast series, with the goal of countering inaccurate stereotypes and negative public attitudes regarding the DTES. In addition, two (2) direct contact events (if required by public health orders, these will pivot to virtual events) will foster both community dialogue and community engagement.
Gallery Gachet Society	14th Annual Oppenheimer Park show Our annual Oppenheimer Park show features artists who have a connection to Oppenheimer Park, its surrounding neighbourhood, and the Downtown Eastside. The first Oppenheimer Park show was held in 2008 in anticipation of changes, challenges, and loss in a pre-Olympic city. Since then, artists in the show have addressed international politics, placement and displacement, history, nature, and time, among many other themes. Gachet’s mandate is to centre artists who have lived experience with mental illness, trauma, and substance use, and the Oppenheimer Park show provides us an opportunity to work with artists who may face barriers in navigating traditional juried open call procedures with galleries.
Mount Pleasant Community Centre Association	Hot Soup Kitchen The Hot Soup Kitchen project will provide participants with a nutritious hot soup and sandwich daily if needed during the winter months, October 2021 to March 2022, at Mount Pleasant Community Centre. While we envision it providing support primarily to individuals experiencing homelessness or living in supportive housing, we recognize that it will support other vulnerable and marginalized populations’ struggling with similar food security issues. It is our intent to staff the kitchen with a range of community volunteers to further foster social connectedness.
Powell Street Festival Society	Coming home to Powell Street: Building trust and community through care The purpose of the project is to support the low-income members of the DTES community with care packages and low-barrier employment opportunities and to raise awareness about and help destigmatize homelessness. The Annual Powell Street Festival is a widely attended event where we can reach a large portion of the Japanese Canadian community and the general public. Care packages will be assembled by community members, prior to the 2021 event and handed out at Oppenheimer Park over a two day period.
Street Corner Media Foundation	Speakers Bureau Facilitation training Megaphone’s Speakers Bureau is proposing a training program for three peer facilitators in conjunction with the development of a new stigma audit workshop offering. All facilitators are from vulnerable populations with intersecting identities and lived experience of poverty and homelessness, and all currently live in supportive housing.
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users	A Place to Call Home: Housing justice and the overdose crisis in Vancouver The core purpose of A Place to Call Home (APCH) is to empower VANDU members and people who use drugs (PWUDs) through peer-led education and dialogue on the intersection of the housing and overdose crisis in Vancouver. Through the framework of a direct services project, APCH will take the form of regular weekly meetings with VANDU members culminating in a series of town hall events organized around the principles of housing justice and ending the overdose crisis. The events will be recorded and simultaneously livestreamed for remote participation.
Vancouver Aboriginal Transformative Justice Services Society	VAT JSS 3rd Annual Open House Throughout the week, we will post daily information sessions, contests, and virtual meetings. On the day of our BBQ lunch we will have: An opening prayer provided by an elder Information sharing of VATJSS Housing positions and services "Solution Station” with a questionnaire for feedback Volunteer recruitment Free lunch of BBQ, chili and bannock, snacks, coffee and tea, and water Winter survival kits the warm winter items Traditional medicines and food Prizes
Working Gear Clothing Society	Sustainability of Working Gear’s Community Barbershop program Working Gear is committed to eradicating poverty and socio-economic inequalities. The community we serve is traditionally excluded from equity. Over 40% of our clientele identify as indigenous, we also see an overrepresentation of our clients experiencing racialized poverty. The barbershop program is open to everyone in the DTES community. It is a place for some of the most vulnerable clientele who face many barriers in accessing simple services such as haircare. Our community members are discriminated against by mainstream society who believe them to be unhygienic. Personal hygiene is a right and having the ability to present the way one wishes is basic dignity.

Homelessness Action Week