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Goggs estimates that CleanStart has increased cleaning from 11 buildings to 35 in the inner-city neighbourhood. He estimates that they will be adding another 20 workers, which means almost doubling staff.

A number of people have also volunteered, including Goggs’ 16-year-old son.

It takes a CleanStart crew about four hours to disinfect and sanitize a single-room occupancy residential building of between 80 and 100 units.

It is slow, methodical work, Goggs said, and can’t be rushed.

“Most people are grateful that we’re doing it — not everyone is, but that’s the Downtown Eastside for you,” he said.

CleanStart is a social enterprise. It competes in the marketplace but hires people who might not otherwise be hired for a job because of poverty or disability.

He said CleanStart could have closed down and waited out the pandemic. Instead, managers and staff decided to stay open and “step up and go above and beyond.”

“We feel mostly that we want to do this because we’re committed to the Downtown Eastside,” he said. “They’re the most vulnerable population in Vancouver, if not Canada.”

Marcia Nozick is founder and CEO of the temp hiring agency EMBERS who says 95 per cent of her firm’s work is in construction.

At some construction worksites, companies have created new jobs called COVID-19 compliance officers to ensure workers follow social distancing, and to check that surfaces are properly sanitized.

“The construction sector is still functioning right now, albeit with a whole lot of new protocols,” she said.