Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s COVID-19 Update for March 26, 2020

The following is the full text of Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s March 26, 2020 update to the city on COVID-19.

Check against delivery.

Good afternoon and thank you for everyone for being here.

Before I continue, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered upon the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

Ever since this crisis began, I’ve said our City’s top priority must be protecting our most vulnerable.

This is the top priority of our entire Council and I thank them for the extraordinary measures they have already taken.

Today, I want to speak directly to the thousands of people in and around the Downtown Eastside who are understandably worried about how they can protect themselves from COVID-19 and don’t know what to do if they get ill.

We have been working non-stop to develop systems and deploy resources to minimize transmission of COVID-19 and enable self-isolation for anyone infected.

This has been a huge challenge, but our staff at the City have worked tirelessly and so have teams from provincial agencies like BC Housing and Vancouver Coastal Health.

I also want to thank the all of our first responders, health workers, peers, volunteers and non-profit partners. Everyone is stepping up to keep people safe and I want you to know we are grateful.

Our General Manager who is leading this effort, Sandra Singh, will go into more details about what the City of Vancouver has been doing to support our most vulnerable neighbours, but I want to quickly touch on some of the key points.

Our first priority is to make sure residents have the resources they need to stay safe and healthy.

That is why our staff have been working around the clock to deploy two community centres: Coal Harbour and Roundhouse, as referral only response centres that will help create additional capacity and provide a safer place for those experiencing homelessness.

General Manager Sandra Singh and Vancouver Coastal Health Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Daly will speak more about how these will operate, but they are an unprecedented collaboration between Coastal Health, BC Housing, and the City of Vancouver to rapidly respond to this crisis and do what we can to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

My wife Jeanette and I live steps away from Roundhouse. We know our neighbourhood is proud to be part of this urgent response — and I know the same goes for those living in Coal Harbour.

Because Vancouverites know that we’re all in this together.

These facilities will be staffed 24/7 by excellent non-profit operators selected by BC Housing.

Coal Harbour is operational now, and we expect Roundhouse to come online over the next few days.

Now for people in the Downtown Eastside who are already housed

We have increased tenant supports and cleaning protocols at Publicly managed SROs and are working with Vancouver Coastal Health on making sure privately managed SROs increase hygiene access and help residents able to self-isolate in their rooms.

I know there is concern about front line workers, both in terms of keeping them safe and also trying to prevent staff from carrying the virus into places of work.

That’s why we’re working with BC Housing to increase access to supplies and equipment, and that’s something that Janice Abbott will be able to speak to more later.

We have already deployed eleven handwashing stations with more on the way, as well as seven portable washroom facilities with dozens more to come.

The Downtown Eastside market was also closed to try and limit the risk of community spread, and we have worked to try and redeploy vendors to help in the community with physical distancing measures.

I want to pause for a moment and recognize the peers and front line workers who helped distribute funds yesterday on cheque day while maintaining physical distancing and keeping workers safe.

That was a massive undertaking and I can’t thank everyone enough for their hard work.

Now, turning to those who do become infected and need to be in isolation.

The City, Coastal Health and BC Housing have been working hard to secure hotel spaces and I’m happy to announce today that several hundred rooms have been retained and work continues to find more.

The final two items I will touch on are food security and safe supply.

First on food: we are working hard to ensure everyone continues to have access to food.

The City of Vancouver continues to distribute take away meals and we’re working with Coastal Health to develop guidelines to make sure non-profit organizations are ready to dramatically ramp up food distribution.

And finally, safe supply.

The Downtown Eastside is struggling with two health emergencies: COVID-19 and a poison illicit drug supply.

To properly battle the COVID epidemic, which must tackle the poison drug epidemic ­– something that has already cost us more than 1,000 lives in our City alone.

So I am grateful to the Federal Government for fully enabling safe supply to move ahead and now the Province is hard at work to determine the roll out.

We are standing by with the Community Action Team to help the roughly 20–30% of drug users not connected to the health care system make sure they can access a safe supply once we have details.

For everyone else, our understanding is that safe supply will be enabled through existing physician relationships but like I said, more details will be coming soon from the province.

On that note, I’d like to stress how unprecedented this is.

Cities like ours do not have the authority, much less the resources, to develop and deploy guidelines around medical care and access to safe drugs on our own.

During the past few weeks, the power of collaboration between the City and the Province — especially with their agencies like BC Housing and Vancouver Coastal Health — has never been more clear.

We all need to work harder than ever before, more closely than ever before, dealing with scenarios we’ve never seen before.

This is hard work, but everyone — and I mean everyone — has risen to the occasion.

I also want to stress we’re still in early days.

As these systems are rolled out and the impacts and spread of COVID-19 continues, we will continue to introduce new measures and new supports to keep people safe.

But that’s what all of this is about. Keeping people safe.

So to all residents who are worried right now, who might not have proper shelter, who might not know what to do if you get sick, I want you to know that we have an army of people working to keep you safe.

And we won’t stop.

With that, I’ll turn it back to City Manager Sadhu Johnston for more details.