DTES Street Market opens at new location

WATCH: The City of Vancouver and the organizers behind the Downtown Eastside Street Market are hoping an address change will be good for business. Earlier today, the market opened at its new location on Powell Street — with hopes it’ll stop being a space for stolen goods. Jill Bennett has the story.

This weekend, the Downtown Eastside Street Market opened its new location on Powell Street.

The five year running market, originally located at Pigeon Park, was introduced to help poverty-stricken residents earn money.

Over the years, the market significantly expanded, which raised concerns that it had outgrown the park. Roland Clarke of the DTES Street Market Society says there were also worries the market was a centre for stolen merchandise.

“There’s five or six entrances at Pigeon Park. People would sell out of bags quite often. Our volunteers are constantly chasing people that sell out of bags. That’s where you find the cell phones and brand new clothing with the tags still on being sold,” he said.

Residents of Powell Street petitioned against the market’s move to the vacant lot at 501 Powell near Oppenheimer Park, worried that the market would bring crime to the area.

READ MORE: Planned move of DTES street market causes controversy

But according to the City of Vancouver, the Powell location has some new rules and regulations to reduce the amount of stolen goods being sold, including all vendors wearing ID badges.

Vancouver City Councilor Andrea Reimer says as of now, residents living near Powell street are welcoming the changes.

“The challenge is making sure that if there are problems they feel that there’s an avenue to resolve those problems,” said Reimer.

“So finding a spot that was close enough, but that could accommodate some growth was a bit of a challenge, but here we are at 501 Powell Street. It’ll be happening every Saturday and over time it will grow into this new space so that it will be here permanently.”

– With files from Jill Bennett