Homeless Action Week in Vancouver kicked off Sunday with six arrests, one rowdy protest and a new tent city.

Six members of Vancouver's Anti-Poverty Committee are expected to face break and enter charges after attempting to occupy a vacant building in downtown Vancouver early Sunday morning.

Vancouver police say the six arrested range in age from 25 to 64 and were apprehended at the boarded-up building after using a ladder to reach a fire escape.

Around 2 a.m. a passerby saw the group and called police, who arrested three of the protesters outside the building on the fire escape, and three inside.

Anti-Poverty Committee members have occupied other vacant Vancouver buildings in the past, to protest a lack of action on homelessness.

Their arrests sparked a march and rally outside the police holding cells Sunday afternoon as supporters called for their release.

Downtown Eastside tent village erected

On Sunday night another group of protesters set up a tent camp near the corner of Main and Prior streets in the Downtown Eastside. 

Members of the group called Streams of Justice said the camp is intended to draw attention to unfulfilled commitments by governments to build social and affordable housing in Vancouver.

The group of about a dozen protesters said the lot occupied was one of 12 lots in downtown Vancouver that the city has designated for social housing.

The protests coincide with the start of Homeless Action Week on Monday, organized by the Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness, a non-profit coalition of social service agencies.

On Friday Premier Gordon Campbell announced his government would provide $41 million in new funding to keep homeless shelters open 24 hours a day.

Campbell said the money would provide better access to support services and create more stable living arrangements for the province's estimated 2,200 homeless residents.