Category: General

How a made-in-the-DTES software tool called Linkvan provided paths to citizenship and confidence. Read more

There is a race among public health agencies at all levels to provide timely, accurate information about COVID-19 that is essential to support physical distancing policies and to maintain quarantine and stay-at-home rules. New, ambitious, vital social programs and anti-poverty policies have emerged in an effort to patch a frayed social safety net, save lives and livelihoods during the crisis, and make it possible for people to comply with all-important physical distancing and social isolation. Read more

We are working to keep Linkvan up to date, but recognize the status of services in and around the Downtown Eastside continues to change rapidly in response to the COVID-19 situation. We are doing our best to keep it updated daily, but can’t guarantee up-to-the-minute accuracy. If you find any out-of-date information or we have missed an agency can you please email us at info@linkvan.ca which is being monitored daily.

We have made a few changes to Linkvan over the past few days to make it a more useful tool for community members and agency staff during the covid19 pandemic.  These changes include:

• A banner at the top of the app showing when it was last updated
• We have hidden any organization that is closed due to Covid19.  Only organizations that are open or providing services will appear, for the time being, their open close hours will be reflected in the app.  This is so that people are not going to places that are closed or unable to help them.
• Agencies can also sign-up to “own” their page content in the app.  This will allow agencies to update their own information when they need too.  The Linkvan team will continue to vet or verify that people signing up to own a page are staff at those organizations and that information is correct before it is pushed live to the app.
• A new category is being added today called “Covid19” – This section will have links to Municipal, Provincial, and Federal pages related to Covid19.   We want to point people to accurate sources as these sources will often be the most up-to-date and the information is changing constantly.

The Linkvan team is hesitant to phone agencies/organizations to ask if they are open or what the changes to services are knowing that your organizations are probably getting a lot of these calls in addition to calls from clients and we want to respect everyone’s time.  If you have any questions you can also email me at Dionne.pelan@ubc.ca.

The extreme weather alert that was activated for Vancouver has now been cancelled due to improved weather forecasts.

• All Vancouver EWR shelters are now closed.

Additional Information:

• BC Housing has developed a COVID-19 Fact Sheet for Housing & Service Providers to assist with preparations for COVID-19.  Also please visit BC Housing’s COVID-19 Update Page for the latest information about COVID-19 in BC: https://www.bchousing.org/COVID-19
• In light of the growing concerns around COVID-19, HSABC has launched a series of webinars to support shelter, drop-in, and outreach workers. Please visit the HSABC website for more information https://hsa-bc.ca/COVID-19_Resources.html
• The Canadian Network for the Health and Housing of People Experiencing Homelessness (CNH3) is collecting resources to help homelessness service providers respond to COVID-19. For more information please visit the CNH3 website.

An extreme weather alert has been issued for the Municipality of Vancouver commencing March 23, 2020. Based on the available forecast, it is expected that this alert will be in effect for three nights (March 23, March 24, and March 25)

Please see the attached list of open EWR shelters.

Also attached is a list of Temporary Winter Shelter Beds currently open in the City of Vancouver. Temporary Winter Shelter sites will be open nightly regardless of whether an Extreme Weather Alert has been issued. Please be sure to call ahead to confirm Temporary Winter Shelter bed availability.

The extreme weather alert that was activated for Vancouver has now been cancelled due to improved weather forecasts.

All Vancouver EWR shelters are now closed.

The extreme weather alert issued for the Municipality of Vancouver has been extended through Wednesday night (March 18, 2020).

Please see the attached list of open EWR shelters.

Note that the Powell Street Getaway EWR program is now closed.

Also attached is a list of Temporary Winter Shelter Beds currently open in the City of Vancouver. Temporary Winter Shelter sites will be open nightly regardless of whether an Extreme Weather Alert has been issued. Please be sure to call ahead to confirm Temporary Winter Shelter bed availability.

As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Please see the updated information below outlining resources pertaining to the current COVID-19 outbreak.

The extreme weather alert issued for the Municipality of Vancouver has been extended commencing March 16, 2020. Based on available forecasts it is expected that this extension will be in effect for two nights (March 16th and March 17th). This alert may continue beyond Tuesday night, however conditions will be reviewed and confirmed on Wednesday morning.

Please see the attached list of open EWR shelters and COV Warming Centre activations.

Also attached is a list of Temporary Winter Shelter Beds currently open in the City of Vancouver. Temporary Winter Shelter sites will be open nightly regardless of whether an Extreme Weather Alert has been issued. Please be sure to call ahead to confirm Temporary Winter Shelter bed availability.

Please see the additional information in this link outlining resources pertaining to the current COVID-19 outbreak.

At this point, clinics will not test if an individual does not have the symptoms.

Clinics are asking for self-isolation from Level 2 and 3 countries (some 2 and 3, some 3 At the moment these countries are: China, Iran and Northern Italy, and Japan but they change daily. See more info here

What clinics do we recommend our students or staff go to?
Go to Medimap.ca or your family doctor. Medimap: Can see wait times, hours and phone numbers, links to clinic websites so you can call ahead. Imperative to call ahead to see if the clinic can see you as there is criteria (will not see anyone with no symptoms at this point).