At The Salvation Army, we believe in people, believe there is hope, believe people can overcome adversity to move forward on a new life path. We give hope where there is none – and we share the journey home when people feel alone.

For 68 years - with your help - The Salvation Army has been working on the Downtown Eastside providing compassionate, practical support to our communities' most vulnerable. Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is the provincial epicenter of lives derailed by poverty, trauma, substance abuse and mental illness. People are drawn here because they hope for something better. While Vancouver Harbour Light has been a vital presence in the community for more than 65 years, in reality it serves a community extending across BC in communities large and small. 

Vancouver Harbour Light was built in an era when the response to homelessness was vastly different than it is today, and knowledge about what would make the greatest difference in people’s lives was limited. The four buildings that comprise Vancouver Harbour Light date back to the 1920s. Never designed for their current use (the building at 128 E. Cordova was originally a theatre), all have been redeveloped over the decades to provide programs and services.

Vancouver Harbour Light, for all intents and purposes, at the end of its useful life, and no further renovation can create the kind of environment needed to support best practices and deliver the best outcomes. The building risks hampering what The Salvation Army can offer in the future — reducing the positive impact on people’s lives.

The new, custom-designed Vancouver Harbour Light will be purposefully built to support clients in their journey to healthier, happier lives. Welcoming and safe for clients, staff and the community as a whole, it will move beyond an old “institutional” model, to one that supports leading-edge practices proven to provide the greatest benefit to clients and community. The nine-story building will allow us to consolidate programs and spaces and run our proven continuum-of- care model under one roof …transforming the lives of people - and our community as a whole.