Reason due to lack of funding, 40-year-old society says
WISH Drop-In Centre on Alexander Street in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside will close its doors on Feb. 7 for two months, citing funding constraints, ahead of restructuring and service reductions.
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“The upcoming closure is terrible news for our community,” WISH spokesperson Lauren Burrows Backhouse said, “but it is a temporary measure to support the organization’s financial sustainability until the end of our fiscal year.
“WISH is not closing for good. … There is not much more to say right now.”
WISH provides support for sex workers, in collaboration with other organizations in the Downtown Eastside serving women.
In a statement, WISH said the “difficult decision to reduce current levels of programming is related to funding constraints, and necessary to support our financial sustainability through the end of our fiscal year.”
According to the WISH Drop-In Centre Society website, “When a sex worker seeks support at WISH, she knows the other women in the space understand her experiences first-hand, as do many of the staff.
“She is able to get direct, candid, and appropriate information in order to make decisions about her health and safety. She will come into a caring community environment that will support her own self-determined healthy choices.”
When the drop-in centre temporarily shutters on Feb. 7, the society’s Mobile Access Project (MAP Van) will stop providing the daytime service it introduced during the COVID pandemic.
The MAP Van project was making 1,400 “connections” a month with women and gender-diverse sex workers, according to WISH.
The society was established 40 years ago to improve the health, safety and well-being of Vancouver street sex workers.
In an average month, it served 9,000 meals, attended 30 accidental overdoses, and has a staff of up to 110 volunteers.
“News of a closure is very hard to accept, as changes in service delivery will have an immediate impact on the health and safety of the people we serve,” WISH’s statement reads. “At this time we are focused on providing support to participants.”
During the closure, WISH participants will have continued access to services through the MAP Van night shift, open 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., providing food, harm-reduction supplies, clothing and Red Light alerts; housing and meals for 20 residents; and one-on-one support for sex workers.
The drop-in centre bathroom will also be renovated.
According to its last annual report, for fiscal 2023-24, WISH received 65 per cent of its funding from the provincial government ($4.8 million), 30 per cent from foundations and donations ($2.33 million), $209,305 from the city, and $125,000 from the federal government.
This fiscal year, the province’s contribution through B.C. Housing was $3.5 million, spokesman Darren Harbord said, and B.C. Housing has committed about the same amount next year, “to support WISH’s important work.
“The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General also provides funding for a Mobile Access Project and has provided approximately $2 million to continue that service for the next three years.”