‘The Best Christmas Present We Could Have Asked For’

One generous Tyee reader has donated $300,000 to the Kingsway Community Station, which supports street-based sex workers along the Kingsway corridor.

In November The Tyee wrote about how the station’s future was potentially in jeopardy as the City of Vancouver changed how it funded the service.

“When they read the article, it really provoked them to want to do something,” Moses Mukasa, director of donor services at the Vancouver Foundation, told The Tyee. “They were happy to be in a position to provide that support that was needed to help the organization.”

The donor reached out to the Vancouver Foundation and asked if they could help cover the operational costs for the Kingsway Community Station for a year. The donor, whose details the Vancouver Foundation did not share with The Tyee, regularly gives money to organizations that support marginalized people and youth through the Vancouver Foundation, Mukasa said.

From there the Vancouver Foundation worked with RainCity Housing, which runs the Kingsway Community Station, to figure out how to cover operational expenses and get the money to them before the end of the year.

The money was donated through the Vancouver Foundation’s Red Hibiscus Foundation, which focuses on supporting underprivileged women and children in the Lower Mainland.

“It was pretty much the best Christmas present we could have asked for. It will make a huge difference,” said Amelia Ridgway, program director with RainCity Housing.

In addition to donating $300,000 to the Kingsway Community Station, the donor also distributed an additional $60,000 to several other organizations, including the WISH Drop-In Centre Society, which supports street-based sex workers in the Downtown Eastside, and the Reach Community Health Centre on Commercial Drive.

The donor wanted to work quickly so the Kingsway Community Station could know the funds were coming and wouldn’t “wrap things up” or cut sex workers off from any programs or services, Mukasa said.

Next steps

The funding was a great first step, but Ridgway said more needs to be done to secure long-term funding for the station and ensure there are no program or service interruptions for the sex workers who rely on the service.

RainCity Housing applied for grant funding from the City of Vancouver this week, Ridgway said, and is still working with the city to find a new location to operate out of. Their current lease at Kingsway and Windsor Street is ending at the end of March, and the station has yet to find a new location.

The Kingsway corridor is home to the largest concentration of street-based sex workers in the city, Ridgway said.

She said stigma against sex work can make it hard to find a landlord willing to work with them.

“We are an overnight service and we want to make sure we fit into the community in a good way and make sure everyone is safe and comfortable,” Ridgway said.

Since The Tyee article ran in November, Ridgway said she’s had current neighbours reach out to express their support of the service.

Ridgway said her main goal is to make sure there are no service interruptions for sex workers.

The Red Hibiscus Foundation’s donation is very helpful, but it doesn’t quite cover the operating budget for the entire year, and the hunt for a permanent location continues, she said.

If any landlords in the Kingsway corridor have space available, she asks them to please reach out.

Why these services are needed

The Kingsway Community Station has run a drop-in nighttime centre for sex workers at Kingsway and Windsor Street for five years.

Currently the station is one of two drop-in centres that are available for sex workers at night in the Lower Mainland.

The WISH Drop-In Centre Society, which supports street-based sex workers in the Downtown Eastside, has also reopened its drop-in centre, which operates from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Tuesday to Saturday.

WISH also runs the Mobile Access Project, or MAP Van, which offers mobile outreach and harm reduction services several nights a week.

Overall there has been a reduction in services that support sex workers over the past year. Programs, services and hours of supports have been reduced.

Drop-in centres are important services to protect sex worker health and safety.

They create spaces for women to warm up, use the washroom between clients, check in with community members, check bad-date reports and access harm reduction and other social services.

Without drop-in services sex workers are more isolated, which can make it easier for criminals to prey on them.

After serial killer Robert Pickton was convicted of killing six women in 2007, many of whom were sex workers, commissioner Wally Oppal recommended the province fund 24-hour services to protect the community from another serial killer.

Pickton claimed to have killed 49 women over a span of time between the 1970s and 1990s.

A second serial killer who is believed to have murdered six marginalized women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Mount Pleasant neighbourhoods between 1988 and 1990 was identified by police but died in 2009 before he could be arrested.

Fourteen years after Oppal released his report, there are no 24-hour services for sex workers in B.C. The services that do exist are often funded through annual grant-based funding and run shoestring budgets. During economic downturns, the services struggle to maintain their programming and services.

The Vancouver Foundation has been around since 1943 and manages philanthropic funds, often investing them and using the income to donate to charities across Canada with a focus on B.C.

Last year the foundation donated $146 million through several granting streams, Mukasa said.