Business appears to be benefiting from four temporary emergency homeless shelters that opened in November and early December in Mount Pleasant, Kitsilano, Downtown South and the West End.
The perk is both panhandling and trespassing were way down in December compared with the monthly average between September and November.
Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) statistics show panhandling incidents dropped 59%, to 129, in December compared with the monthly average of the previous three months.
Trespassing incidents experienced an even steeper drop. There were a mere 20 trespassing incidents in December. That’s 88% less than the average of the past three months, according to DVBIA statistics.
“The reductions in street disorder are directly related to the opening of new homeless shelters this winter,” said Charles Gauthier, who is the executive director of the DVBIA.