Anti-poverty activists are vowing to continue picketing in the Downtown Eastside, even as one of their strongest allies tempers its support over concerns from its own funding source.
“We’re just ramping up,” said Wendy Pedersen, one of the organizers of the protests in front of the upscale Pidgin restaurant opposite Pigeon Park at West Hastings and Carrall streets.
“This is far from over.”
Last week, Pedersen had to clarify her ties to the Carnegie Community Action Project when the Vancouver Foundation raised concerns about CCAP’s connection to the pickets.
Pedersen issued a statement saying she was no longer employed by CCAP, a group that researches housing and gentrification in the Downtown Eastside and receives some of its funding from the Vancouver Foundation.
After several meetings with CCAP, the foundation decided Thursday to maintain its funding — $36,000 this year and $37,000 next year — saying it had been assured the “tone” of CCAP’s statements in support of the pickets would be addressed.
CCAP co-ordinator and longtime Vancouver anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson said the group is “reeling” from negative publicity and did not want to discuss its ties to the pickets.
“Gentrification . . . is a sensitive issues,” Swanson said.
“We put forward that people have the right to live in a neighbourhood that they choose. But there’s a lot of money and a lot of powerful people who have their own agenda for the area.”
CCAP has also run into issues in the Downtown Eastside itself.
Board meeting minutes from the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council (DNR) obtained by The Sunday Province show infighting among some members, as well confusion over CCAP’s financial contributions and authority over the council.
Some of the confusion over the different advocacy groups in the Downtown Eastside can be attributed to the demise of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association in 2010.
Swanson agrees its absence has “created a gap” in advocacy and services.
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